OIL PAINT:

There are lots of different brands of paint. Quality and pigment will vary from brand to brand.

The Blick Studio paints are a great versatile starter paint that will give you a paint you wont be fighting with and won’t break the bank either. You can find a starter kit with these colors plus a few or buy tubes individually. (When looking at affordable paint options Kendyl recommends the Blick or Utrecht brand over Gamblin, Gamblin paints can be stiff and difficult to work with)

Minimum Recommended Colors:

• Titanium White (Avoid Lead and Flake whites)

• Cadmium Red Medium Hue

• Cobalt or Ultramarine Blue

• Cadmium Yellow Medium

• Burnt Umber

Additional Recommended Colors, These are great to have in addition to the basics and will make your life easier:

• Phthalo Blue

• Alizarin Crimson

• Cadmium Orange

• Lemon Yellow

BRUSHES & KNIVES:

• Blick Flat Brush Set: An affordable, versatile and durable brush set that works great.

• Jack Richardson Grey Matter Brushes: A great higher quality brush.

• Palette knives can be a great tool for color mixing and stylistic mark making. (A medium Trowel shape is a great knife to start with)

  (Kendyl recommends a square brush as they are the most versatile, you can make just about any mark with just one brush shape, keeps things simple!)

PALETTE:

There are a variety of options here and what you like will again come down to personal preference. For a long term and affordable solution Kendyl recommends a glass or acrylic palette in a stay wet box.

A Masterson Stay Wet Box is a fabulous base for transporting and storing any palette of choice, will help your paints dry slower and offers easy, mess free transportation.

Glass Palette: This is a great option to put in the base of a stay wet box and will give you a surface that is great for mixing and easy to clean. You can buy specialty ones from Blick that will have finished edges and can be used on its own or Home Depot has precut glass panels the same size as the Masterson Box (for much cheaper) that you can drop in and use for years to come for much cheaper that works great!

Acrylic Palette: If you like something you can hold in your hand, an acrylic palette is the way to go, It also can easily be dropped into a stay wet box for easy transport.

Disposable Palette Paper: While less eco-friendly, palette paper has become increasingly popular and does work well for a singular paint session with the downside of being flimsy, not easily transportable and produces waste.

Please avoid palettes with grooves, wells or anything that is unsealed wood. This will prevent oil seeping out of your paint and make color mixing easier.

For a long term and affordable solution Kendyl recommends a glass or acrylic palette in a stay wet box.

PAINTING SURFACES

Picking the right surface for you to paint on is something you will discover with time as you determine what is important to you, a solid surface, something with a little bounce? How much work are you willing to put into prepping your surface and where do you see your finished painting living? Do you want to have to frame or do you like the idea of being abe to forgo a frame? Do you like a tooth (texture) for your paint to hold on to or a slick surface ready to show off slick paintings. Here is a little bit about some options:

• Canvas Boards: These are an inexpensive, stiff painting surface with a canvas tooth. They vary in quality quite a lot and cheap ones may warp overtime, They are a great surface to learn on and are easy to frame.

• Un-stretched Canvas: Un-stretched canvas is sold by the roll (or by the yard at the Blick store) and comes in primed and unprimed options. If you are looking for an economical way to get a lot of paintings while you are learning. (You can paint directly onto primed canvas without stretching it. If you are going to stretch your own canvas it is preferable to stretch unprimed canvas, priming it yourself afterwards.)

• Stretched Canvas: You can find a variety of sizes and qualities of stretched canvases at most art supply stores. A downside to factory stretched canvases is that the material can become loose and they can become expensive as they get larger.

• Hardboard and wood panels: Wood boards are durable, come in a variety of sizes and depths. You can find pre-primed wood boards as well as unprimed surfaces at most art stores. A great economical option for hardboard, perfect for anyone willing to do a bit of DIY is cutting down a 4x8 Hardboard from a hardware store and sealing the surface themselves.

• Canvas Pads/Paper: There are a variety of primed paper and canvas pads on the market that are becoming increasingly popular. They are less sturdy than the above options but can be an affordable and space saving solution to other options especially while learning.

***No matter what surface you choose to paint on, it is important that it is primed correctly before using oil paints. Unprimed paper or raw wood will not be suitable. If you buy surfaces that need primed this needs to be done well before you are wanting to paint and will take several layers and light sanding. Please have your surfaces prepared before class. If you are unsure what you will like to paint on we recommend starting on canvas and can answer any surface preparation questions you may have during class.

SOLVENTS:

Mineral Spirits are used to thin your paints and wash your brushes. These are the vapors and chemicals that give oil painting a bad rap. Please do not use in inclosed space and be careful when using heavy solvents.

Gamsol is one of the less toxic versions on the market of traditional solvents and is what we recommend. (There are some natural alternatives to solvents and it is possible to paint without chemical solvents.)

There are higher end versions of everything on this list but when starting out a new skill sometimes it can be nice to start with a middle of the road product that will provide a good experience. We hope this list helps. If you have any additional questions about supplies for our oil questions please send us an email.

If you are signing up for a 1-2 week class or dropping in to an open studio class, you have the option to add on supplies with your registration. We will provide you with paints, brushes, palette paper and solvent to use while in the studio for that class but not to keep as well as a canvas (limited sizes).

Many links provided are to Blick Art Supplies which has a brick and mortar store in Sugarhouse. (1025 East 2100 South) other art suppliers and stores will have similar/same products.

We do not receive commissions based on products purchased from these links.