Starting to create art should not require a $500 trip to the art supply store. The best beginner art supplies balance quality, affordability, and versatility. You need materials that respond well enough to learn proper technique without costing so much that experimenting feels risky. Student-grade supplies from established brands deliver this balance, giving you 80% of professional performance at 30% of the price.
This guide covers every supply category a beginner needs, from acrylic and watercolor paints to brushes, canvases, drawing pencils, sketchbooks, and essential accessories. For each category, we recommend specific products with prices, explain why they work for beginners, and identify what to avoid. Total cost for a complete beginner setup ranges from $50 to $100 depending on your chosen medium.
Acrylic paint is the ideal starting medium for beginners. It dries quickly, cleans up with water, works on almost any surface, and is forgiving of mistakes because you can paint over dried layers immediately. Three brands dominate the student-grade acrylic market, each offering excellent quality at accessible prices.
Liquitex Basics is the most popular student-grade acrylic line and for good reason. The pigment load is strong enough to produce vibrant, opaque coverage in one to two coats. The paint has a smooth, buttery consistency that blends well and holds brushstrokes. A 12-tube set of 22ml tubes costs approximately $20 to $25. Individual 4oz tubes cost $4 to $6. Liquitex Basics is compatible with all Liquitex professional mediums and gels, so as you advance you can mix student and professional paints together.
Galeria is Winsor & Newton's student-grade acrylic line and offers slightly better pigment strength than Liquitex Basics in some colors. The consistency is thicker, making it better suited for impasto techniques and palette knife work. A 10-tube set costs approximately $22 to $28. Galeria also has excellent lightfastness ratings, meaning your paintings will not fade significantly over time.
Golden Heavy Body is a professional-grade paint, but buying individual tubes of the six essential colors is surprisingly affordable and gives beginners a dramatically better painting experience. The pigment concentration is nearly double that of student-grade paints, meaning colors are more vibrant, mixes are cleaner, and less paint is needed per coat. Six 2oz tubes of titanium white, mars black, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium red medium, ultramarine blue, and burnt umber costs approximately $40 to $50.
You can mix virtually any color from six paints: titanium white, mars black, cadmium yellow (or hansa yellow), cadmium red (or naphthol red), ultramarine blue, and burnt umber. Start with these six and add colors only as you discover specific needs. Learning to mix colors from a limited palette is one of the most valuable skills a beginner can develop.
Watercolor is an unforgiving medium that rewards patience and technique, but the results are uniquely beautiful. Student-grade watercolor sets have improved dramatically and now offer genuinely good performance for beginners.
The Cotman line is the gold standard for student watercolors. The Sketchers Pocket Box contains 12 half pans in a portable metal case for approximately $20 to $28. Colors are vibrant, dissolve smoothly, and mix cleanly. The pocket box format is perfect for beginners who want to sketch and paint outdoors or in small spaces. The pans last a surprisingly long time since watercolor is used in thin washes.
The Sakura Koi 24-color field sketch set costs approximately $25 to $30 and includes a water brush pen, making it a complete portable painting kit. The colors are bright and transparent with good flow characteristics. The included water brush eliminates the need for separate water containers and brushes, which makes this set ideal for absolute beginners who want the simplest possible setup.
For beginners willing to invest slightly more, Daniel Smith tubes offer professional-grade quality. Buying six individual 5ml tubes of essential colors costs approximately $35 to $45. Daniel Smith watercolors are renowned for their granulation, luminosity, and unique pigments. Starting with professional-grade watercolors teaches you proper technique from day one because the paint responds predictably to water ratio and paper texture.
You do not need 30 brushes. You need 4 to 6 good ones in different sizes and shapes. A beginner brush set should include flat brushes for broad strokes and washes, round brushes for detail and line work, and a filbert for blending and soft edges.
Synthetic brushes are the best choice for beginners using acrylic paint. They are affordable ($2 to $5 per brush), durable, easy to clean, and hold their shape well. Natural hair brushes (sable, hog bristle) are better for watercolor and oil painting but cost significantly more and require more careful maintenance. Princeton Velvetouch and Royal & Langnickel Zen are two excellent synthetic brush lines for beginners.
Stretched canvases are the traditional painting surface but also the most expensive option for beginners. Canvas pads and canvas boards offer the same painting experience at a fraction of the cost.
Canvas pads are sheets of primed canvas bound in a pad, like a sketchbook. They cost $8 to $15 for a pad of 10 sheets, making each painting surface under $1.50. Canvas pads are ideal for practice, experimentation, and building skills without worrying about wasting expensive stretched canvases. Fredrix and Strathmore both make quality canvas pads.
Canvas boards (also called canvas panels) are canvas glued to a rigid cardboard backing. They are thin, lightweight, easy to store, and cost $1 to $4 each. Canvas boards are excellent for small paintings and studies. They cannot be gallery-wrapped or displayed without a frame, but for practice and learning they are the most cost-effective option.
When you are ready to create work you want to display or sell, invest in stretched canvases. Budget options from Arteza and Conda cost $3 to $8 each for medium sizes (11x14 to 16x20 inches). For better quality, look for canvases with a triple-primed surface and solid wood stretcher bars. Avoid ultra-cheap canvases with thin, flimsy stretcher bars that warp over time.
Drawing is the foundation of all visual art and requires the simplest, most affordable supply list of any medium.
A set of graded graphite pencils is the core drawing tool. The Staedtler Mars Lumograph set (HB through 8B, 6 pencils) costs approximately $8 to $12 and is used by professional illustrators worldwide. The pencils sharpen cleanly, lay down smooth, even graphite, and erase well. Alternatives include Faber-Castell 9000 and Prismacolor Turquoise, both excellent.
Charcoal creates dramatic, expressive marks and is essential for figure drawing and tonal studies. A set of vine charcoal sticks (soft, medium, hard) costs $5 to $8. Compressed charcoal pencils from General's Charcoal or Derwent cost $3 to $6 for a set of 4. Pair charcoal with a kneaded eraser for lifting and a blending stump for smooth tonal transitions.
For colored pencil work, Prismacolor Scholar pencils offer the best budget option at approximately $15 to $20 for a 24-color set. They have a smooth, wax-based core that blends and layers well. For more advanced work, Prismacolor Premier pencils are the industry standard and cost $25 to $35 for 24 colors. Faber-Castell Polychromos are an oil-based alternative preferred by botanical illustrators.
A sketchbook is the single most important tool for artistic development. Drawing daily in a sketchbook, even for 10 to 15 minutes, builds observation skills, hand-eye coordination, and creative confidence faster than any other practice.
All-in-one kits save money and eliminate the decision fatigue of selecting individual supplies.
Includes 12 acrylic paint tubes, 6 brushes, a palette, a canvas, and accessories. Everything you need to start painting immediately. The paints and brushes are genuine Liquitex quality, not the generic components found in cheaper kits.
Includes graphite pencils, colored pencils, charcoal, blending stumps, erasers, and a sharpener. Covers every dry drawing medium in a single purchase. The pencils are smooth, blend well, and last a long time.
Includes 24 watercolor pans, a mixing palette built into the lid, a water brush pen, and a sponge. The water brush means you do not need separate brushes or water containers. Completely portable and self-contained.
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View Collection Follow @SpunkArt13A beginner needs a basic set of acrylic paints (6 to 12 colors including titanium white, mars black, cadmium yellow, cadmium red, ultramarine blue, and burnt umber), 4 to 6 brushes in different sizes and shapes (flat, round, and filbert), a palette, a few canvases or canvas pads, pencils (HB, 2B, 6B), a sketchbook, an eraser, and paper towels. Total cost for a quality beginner setup is $50 to $100.
Student-grade supplies from reputable brands like Liquitex Basics, Winsor & Newton Galeria, and Canson XL are excellent for beginners. They cost 50 to 70 percent less than professional-grade supplies while delivering good pigment load and coverage. Avoid the cheapest no-name sets since the pigments are too weak to mix and layer effectively. The sweet spot is student-grade from a known brand.
Beginners should start with acrylic paint. Acrylics dry quickly, clean up with water, work on almost any surface, and are forgiving of mistakes since you can paint over dried layers immediately. Oil paints produce richer colors but require solvents, longer drying times, and more technique knowledge. Start with acrylics, then explore oils after you are comfortable with color mixing and composition.
A beginner can start with $50 to $100 for a complete acrylic painting setup or $20 to $40 for a drawing setup. Resist the urge to buy everything at once. Start with the essentials, learn what you actually use, and then invest in higher quality supplies as your skills develop.
The Liquitex Basics 48-piece set is the best overall beginner acrylic kit, including paints, brushes, a palette, and canvases for around $45. For drawing, the Prismacolor Scholar set provides excellent graphite and charcoal pencils. For watercolor, the Winsor & Newton Cotman Sketchers Pocket Box is compact, affordable, and uses real artist-grade pigments.