12 Art Supplies and Materials for Painting with Acrylic Paint

Wondering how many colors of acrylic paint supplies you’d have to buy to start painting with acrylic paints? With just blue, red, yellow and white acrylic paints you can make all hues. Still, buying acrylic supplies in a set of 12 tubes is good. An acrylic paint set of 24 acrylic paints may be better. 36 or more isn’t necessary. Do keep a big tube of white acrylic paint on hand; you’re going to need it along with the next art supplies and materials for painting with acrylic paint.

Don’t limit yourself to paint brushes though. Who knows, your style of painting might lie in the dishwashing sponge, your toothbrush or other unconventional painting materials. The horizon of possibilities is wide open when it comes to choices of acrylic painting supplies. Even your bare hands can do magic with acrylic paint. Be creative!

An almost free yet immensely important item among your acrylic painting supplies is water. Although the art medium becomes water-resistant after drying, acrylic paint is water-based when wet. Hence, as opposed to oil, you can mix acrylic paint with water, instead of turpentine. This makes painting with acrylic paint less costly. If you have more money to spend, however, buy yourself some acrylic flow improver. Flow-improver medium works like water in increasing the fluidity of your acrylic paint, but without diminishing the strength of the color as much. You still need to have some water around though, for three reasons: (1) to wash your brushes before making fresh strokes; (2) to soak the brushes in when not in use, and (3) for cleaning your brushes after completing your acrylic painting.

While you can paint on your lap using a canvas frame, that’s not something you want to do all the time. Your art supplies and materials for painting with acrylic paint are incomplete without a surface over which you can work. The ideal device to use is the easel, a stand upon which can place your canvas or paper. It’s comfortable to paint on an easel because the easel keeps the paper or canvas in a relatively vertical position, facing you straight in the eyes, without you having to hunch over it. Of course may use the tabletop, which you probably already have at home. You can’t take the table to go painting outdoors though, so it’s still viable to get an easel, especially if you are that passionate about painting.

Keep a good eraser on hand, too. Don’t leave mistaken or unnecessary pencil marks on your canvas before you paint it over with acrylic, if that’s not too tedious to do.

Whether old clothing or a new towel, have a piece of absorbent cloth in your arsenal of acrylic painting materials and art supplies. When painting with acrylic paint, put the cloth next to your water bucket. After washing your brush in the water, wipe it on the cloth. This keeps water from dripping from your paint brush and making unwanted blotches on your acrylic painting.

Of the different art materials and supplies for painting with acrylic paint, I wouldn’t say this is a must-have. Acrylic paintings can generally stand on their own, without need of varnish or framing behind glass. Dust can stick and accumulate over the acrylic painting though. If this bothers you, place your acrylic painting behind glass. Some artists resort to glossing the acrylic painting over with varnish, which enhances the colors of the acrylic painting at the same time, adding a professional touch to the acrylic painting. I personally wouldn’t recommend this though: You might in the future need to remove the varnish, and that would be an extremely tricky business, which could potentially damage your painting.

Beside all the art materials and supplies for painting with acrylic paint, we cannot leave out the subjects of your acrylic paintings. I wouldn’t know what it is; that would be for you to determine. My advice would be to begin with basic subjects to paint. Maybe start with ceramic jar, then teapot, then organic artifacts. When you’ve had enough of inanimate objects, get some still life: Paint fruits, vegetables and flowers. You can then proceed to painting landscapes, using broader art canvases/papers to work on. Painting people is even more difficult, so you might want to save it for last.

The most important thing to find in painting is your own, preferably unique style of painting. The value of your acrylic painting is higher when people find it different from others; so having your own native painting technique is invaluable. But that would be something you’d have to discover on your own. Definitely what you need to do is paint, paint, and paint! With practice your art will evolve, you perfect your art, and perhaps inevitably you’d find your very own style of painting. Before you get there, however, you need your own stock of fine art supplies and materials for painting with acrylic paint.