Saraleyxart
My all time favourite art supplies
If you know me personally, you would know that the most things I spend money on are: fashion, makeup, and art supplies!
My family knows how obsessed I am with Michaels, I go there every few weeks and spend hours looking at new art supplies and comparing them to each other.
It's truly my favourite place and getting new supplies is the best way to get my heart and my love language at this point.
I love getting questions about what I use for my creative process, so today I’m sharing with you my all-time favourite art supplies.
By no means does this mean you have to buy the same things to become a great artist. I know a lot of amazing artists who uses dollar store pencils and make the most beautiful illustrations! - & I use them myself sometimes too-
but these are items that are nice to have and can increase the quality of your work.
The links included in this blog post are affiliate links — if you click the link and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission, which I put toward more art supplies. Thank you for the support!
Sketchbooks:
Starting strong with this sketchbook. My favourite sketchbook and I keep on repurchasing it because of the amazing quality of paper. It’s not too heavy or light, the perfect paper if you do lots of mixed media art like I do.
I used the bigger one when I was in high school, but I don’t like the yellowish paper look anymore. I still love the quality of paper and it doesn’t bleed easily so I only get the smaller size for small sketches. It’s perfect for making aesthetic sketches & planning illustrations as well, it fits right in your pocket just like its name.
Second favourite sketchbook. I find it to be the ideal sketchbook because it’s a hard cover like Moleskine and it has white heavyweight paper like Strathmore.
It's only con is that it’s a bit expensive like Moleskine but when you can afford it I definitely think it’s worth the money.
Pencils, Pens and Markers:
This mechanical pencil is well known for being used by a lot of professional illustrators, artists and architects. Because of its small tip, it makes it ideal to use for rulers and you’re able to get precise and sharp sketches.
I normally use it to make pencil illustrations with a sharp look and it’s easier to add details with it. It’s not necessary but it’s nice to have if you want to draw that Instagram aesthetic drawing for your feed.
I’ve been using these since I was in middle school, they’re known as one of the best brands for markers and fine liners. I usually use 0.005, 0.3, 0.5, & 0.8 sometimes for bigger pieces.
It’s perfect for manga and comic artists because they have a variety of lines and sizes.
I used these for Inktober 2024 illustrations and I’m in love with them! I would recommend it for beginners like me since It gives off that watercolour look that makes it interesting & detailed.
These colours speak for themselves. I believe these are essentials for every traditional artist because of how amazing the quality is. Their tip is soft and pigmented, I bought these years ago and I still use them to this day!
The best affordable and high-quality alcohol markers on the market! You get so much use out of these colours and they last for a long time. Compared to a lot of other markers, I find these fast-drying and don't smudge as much.
Canvases:
I mostly use canvases either from Michaels or HomeSense. These are the ones I use from Michaels. They come in bulk and a lot of them are already primed so I don't worry about priming them myself!
This is the canvas pad I use to practice acrylic painting and to plan my paintings as well.
It’s great to practice techniques without having the pressure of using a big canvas & feeling scared of ruining it.
Another bonus is that it’s easy to carry around if you’re looking to paint outside.
Acrylic paint:
Same thing here either from Michaels or Homesense. Homesense is really great because you can find new supplies and brands constantly for such good prices.
I use the brand Artist Loft from Michaels.
It's good quality, thick and pigmented. They last for such a long time without getting dry like the ones from the dollar store.
Paint Brushes
Honestly I don’t have a specific brand. I usually have ones from over the years mostly from Homesense, & some from the dollar store because they still work great for me.
I don’t do much digital art but when I do I use this app mostly.
Sometimes I have no idea what to do for backgrounds or I don’t know how exactly I want a drawing to look like so I use this one to colour digitally & to get an idea of how I want illustrations to look like.
Lots of great brushes & I love colouring my sketches in this app, it’s super easy to use.
So these are my favourite supplies that I can’t live without. I’m always trying new supplies and items and if I like anything I always include it in my benable list here.
Thanks for reading! Hopefully, this list was helpful and maybe you found your next art-related buy!
Until next time,
Sara ♡
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