Materials and Equipment

The tools and materials we use, can be as important as the skills and talents we possess. It can be very intimidating to walk into an art store, especially if you are a beginner. In a good art store the personnel should be able to give good advice. Unfortunately it is not always the case in all art stores. It is therefore important for you as an artist to equip yourself with the necessary knowledge before you start buying materials and equipment. Else you might end up buying too much, or the wrong materials and it is not very cheap.

It is also important to buy the best you can afford. It is definitely not necessary to buy all the available colours. It is more important to learn how to mix all the colours you want from only a few. Later on you will have a better idea of what colours you use a lot and you can then buy those in tubes. So let us then start with the paint you need to buy.

Paints

Oil paints are made of pigments, binders, solvents, stabilizers and fillers. Different manufacturers use different combinations of these ingredients to make their paints. The cheaper paints have much more fillers and less pigments. Therefore although it is cheaper, you will use more of it. It weakens it's tinting strength when mixed with white or other colours resulting in a grayish colour. It is a good idea to buy a few cheaper tubes to practice with when you start out.

Two things to consider when buying paints:

1. Transparency: Some colours are more transparent than others. The uses of transparent paints will later on be discussed in great detail. For now it is good to know it can be used as a first ground coat and for glazes.
2. Light fastness: Avoid paints that do not have a high rating in light fastness and permanency because it tends to fade with time.
   
   The shop assistant should be able to help, but you can also just read and compare the labels.

What colours to buy

I will spend a lot of time later teaching you about colour, but for now I will just mention a few things before suggesting which tube colours to buy. It is important to know that there are 3 primary colours: blue, red and yellow. With those 3 colours you should be able to mix all other colours. You add white for tints and black for shades. The problem is you get so many different blues, reds and yellows. My suggestion is that you buy a warm and a cool of each colour. Remember colour temperature is relative. So although blue is a cool colour, you get cool blues and warm blues.

Cool  - Pthalo blue, Cadmium yellow Light, Alizarin crimson (red)
Warm - Ultramarine blue, Cadmium yellow, Cadmium red.

The colour names in the different makes also differ, so ask for help if you are not sure.

The other colours that I would suggest you buy at this stage are the earthly colours:
Burnt sienna and Yellow ochre

And then of course you would need Titanium White to mix with all your colours to get tints.

With these basic colours you will be able to mix almost all the others that you would need. Brand names that you can buy that are not too expensive but still good enough for the beginner:
Lukas, Zelcol, Rowny, Winton and Newton

Palet

What type of palet should you buy?

There  are a few points to consider when buying a palet. The first thing is it should be flat. It is quite obvious, but you get palets that are not flat and which is actually for water paints, so just keep that in mind. I like to use perspex board which is a grey colour. That gives you a better understanding of the true values of colours of your paint. If your palet is white your paint colours look brighter than what they really are and that will affect your painting. Many artists prefer a glass palet, but that is basically the same as perspex. It is very easy to clean
Shape: The shape of the palet does notmatter and it is a personal preference.
Size: I would not use a palet smaller than an A4 size, larger is better and gives you more room for mixing.