A new painter recently asked for a set of the things he would need to start painting in acrylics for the first time. I realised there must be others just starting out who could use a bit of guidance in choosing materials.

One of the first things to be aware of when looking at the enormous variety of art materials available is that paints, brushes and surfaces come in two qualities: student grade and artist grade. (The very top end of artist grade is sometimes called professional grade.) This applies equally to all painting mediums, not just acrylics.

The difference in quality is reflected in the price. Some people recommend starting out with student grade materials because you will be doing lots of practice and not making finished proper paintings. But other people disagree. They say that better quality materials will help you improve more quickly and that learning with the proper materials is better in the long run as that is what you will be using eventually anyway. The consensus is that you should buy the best quality materials you can afford, cheap supplies are usually a false economy.

Paints- The biggest difference in quality of paint is the amount of pigment in the binder. If the paint is all binder and not much pigment (the expensive part) then it is weak. Artists’ paints are more concentrated and go further than student quality paints. Also, not all student quality paints use lightfast pigments and the colours may fade or alter over time, sometimes quite quickly, whereas all artists’ quality paints are lightfast. One clue that a range of paints is the student quality range by a particular manufacturer rather than their artists range is that the colours are all the same price. Artists’ grade paints are usually priced according to groups or series based on the costliness of the pigments used. So, an earth colour made of powdered dirt will be a series 1 and cheaper than an expensive man-made chemical like a quinacridone magenta for example which might be a series 7 price.

Brushes- With brushes it is the quality of the hairs and the structure of the brush that determines its grade. A more expensive brush will not lose its hairs as much because the hairs are longer inside the ferrule (the metal bit) and they are tied and glued, not just glued. The type and quality of the hairs in the brush will determine the cost a great deal. The best quality sable brushes are made from a particular hair that is expensive, for example. But most acrylic painters use brushes made with synthetic hairs or bristles. The amount of water and paint the brush will hold in the hairs, the amount of spring, the softness or stiffness and the length of the handle are all things to consider when choosing a brush so that it suits the style in which you will be painting.

Surfaces- The surfaces you choose to paint on will depend on the style you will be painting in as well as price and quality. Acrylic paint is very versatile and if used with a lot of water can look like watercolour so if you will be painting this way you would want to use watercolour paper for your surface. Or will you be painting with it more thickly so it will be more like oils on canvas? Perhaps you would prefer a pad of canvas-textured paper for practice because you can do many paintings and learn a lot without feeling the pressure of many canvases to buy and store afterward, though some people find the surface of the canvas-textured paper a bit slippery so you would need to try it for yourself to see if you like it.
Artists grade watercolour paper is archival, 100% cotton rag and is much more durable, it can take scrubbing of the surface without falling apart.
An artists grade canvas will have a thicker layer of primer, stronger canvas and harder wood for less warping and less denting of the edges.

Suggestions for good quality, and good value, starter materials for an acrylic painter:

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Paint:

We have some very good values in the acrylic colours. The AV Artists Acrylic colour is less expensive than other artists’ acrylics because we buy it directly from the manufacturer in Spain. We stock 3 different intro sets of AV Artists Acrylic each with 10 small tubes, for £16.95.

AV artists' acrylics from Spain

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Brushes:

For brushes our own Jackson’s Procryl Brushes are a good value. A selection of shapes and sizes of those would not be very expensive.

Jackson's Procryl oil and acrylic brush

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Surfaces:

The surfaces you choose to paint on will depend on the style you will be painting in as well as price and quality.
We have a large selection of surfaces from which to choose.

Hahnemuhle oil and acrylic pad, canvas-textured painting paper

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I hope this has proven helpful if you need to kit yourself out for painting. The next installment will focus on the colours that might serve you best for your acrylic painting starter set.