Basic materials:

Acrylic paints

• Titanium white
• Burnt umber
• Ultramarine blue
• Yellow ochre
• Cadmium yellow light
• Permanent Alizarin crimson

These are all artist quality paints. If you have don’t want to buy the artist quality initially just invest in the artist quality white. This will insure better coverage of the underlying paints.

Suggested brands of paint: Winsor & Newton, Golden paints

• Filbert – size 10 (23mm) – Isabey Isacryl 6572
• Bright  – size 8 (14mm) – Isabey Isacryl series 6562
• Filbert – size 6 (11mm) – Black hog Jacksons art supplies own brand series 335
• Round –  size 8 – Isabey Series 6115 – Memory Round

• For coloured ground: 2 inch decorators brush – I use a ‘Purdy brush’ but this is not essential, any decorators brush will be fine, just watch out for malting hairs!

• For applying isolation coat: Winsor & newton – Galeria size 28 short flat/bright. Again, not essential, any flat varnishing brush.

Filbert hog hair – The one I use in the video is a Jackson’s own brand filbert brush. It looks more pointed in the video than it is when you buy it new, this is due to wear and tear and I tend to have quite a ‘scratchy’ approach when I’m painting.

Your choice of brush will effect both the style and finish of your painting, some artists only work with sable brushes, creating seamless blends and subtle shading. others use hard, bristly brushes, scraps of card, palette knifes. Your own expression should not be defined by choosing or using the ‘right brush’.

Acrylic mediums

• Acrylic glazing liquid gloss
• Soft gel gloss

These are both from Golden Acrylics.

Extras

• A4 or A3 tear off palette.
• A3 stay wet palette.
• Double metal dipper – or any small container
• Metal palette knife
• Kitchen roll
• Water mister

Easel

I work on a studio easel, but a table easel would also work as would working on the flat. If you are working on the flat make sure you take regular breaks and move back from your work.

For the image:

• A4 colour printer
• Print out on glossy photo paper.
• A4 Laminator

Dippers
Dippers or ‘pans’ are available in plastic or metal and are mostly used in oil painting to hold solvents and mediums. They are attached to the edge of a a palette. I use a double dipper, that has 2 pans. For acrylic painting I half fill one of the pans with water, sometimes I would pour some acrylic glazing liquid into the other pan. I use these for adding small amounts of water to the paint mixtures. This gives you more control.

Brush cleaning
For cleaning brushes I wipe  most of the paint into kitchen roll them wash out in a larger glass jar.
It is a good practice to work with two containers as it will help to prevent the dirty water muddying your paint colours.

Palette knifes/ painting knifes
A palette knife is usually long and thin with a rounded edge and used for mixing applying and removing paint, however, It doesn’t have as much flexibility as a smaller painting knife, that can be also used for mixing small.
I prefer an end with a diagonal shape, it makes it easier to scrape off the colour from you palette.
Pro tip: be careful on the edge of these knifes they can be very sharp and can damage your canvas if you are too enthusiastic with them!

Brush types:
Filbert – A filbert brush has a Curved edge to it. Handy for blending edges as there are no sharp corners.
Bright – These have a flatter finish and can be used for more ’tiling techniques’ and getting sharp edges, good for sharpening the edge of the cup.
Round – For detail work.

A paint brush consists of 3 parts:
Handle- this can be short or long, usually short for watercolour brushes and longer for oil brushes as oil paintings are usually larger scale and the extra length in the brush handle enables you to view the subject from a distance.
Ferrule- this is usually metal and attaches the bristles to the handle
Fibres- come in a wide range both natural animal hair and synthetic.