Need help choosing your art materials? Our GreatArt staff are always happy to help you find the right tool for your practice. Amylee also has some helpful words of wisdom!

How To Choose Good Art Supplies For Artists?
Do you have questions about your next Fine Art purchase?
You don’t know what to choose, or where to go?
I understand the worry, because quality art supplies can be expensive, so don’t take your next shopping session lightly. Throughout our path as artists, we have to make choices and decisions. Not surprisingly, these can have impacts and consequences on our artistic development.

Art Materials: The Need
On social networks, it is common to see artists with little equipment creating sublime works. It’s a misconception that investing in equipment is not necessary, because with cardboard, beetroot juice and sufficient dexterity, you can create amazing work. But what about tomorrow? What will the work look like? I can almost guarantee you that it will not look the same in 10 years…
As an art professional, my choice of material is essential to reassure a gallery owner or a collector. The longevity of the artwork and your reputation as an artist are at stake, so it is better to choose quality, especially if you want to invest in your artistic training or your career.
The first step is to identify your needs in quality and quantity. Our choices differ whether we are an amateur artist or a professional.
TOP TIP: Need to apply a background or glaze effect? Go for a study paint. Highly pigmented extra-fine paint is a better choice for quickly covering a small area or adding intense colour to a fine detail.
For an artist to create a remarkable work, 3 points are essential:
- The Artistic idea/approach
- Knowledge/skill
- Tools
TOP TIP: A capricious tool or surface inevitably hinders the artist’s gesture, makes the creative process less comfortable, prevents productive concentration, and over it requires more energy and time to complete the work.

“The brush follows the hand that follows idea. “
Art Materials: The Kingdom Of Mark Making
When one thinks of painting or drawing materials, a few major brands naturally come to mind. Sennelier, Golden, Liquitex, Lefranc & Bourgeois, Arches, Winsor & Newton are the ones that come to my mind first. However, there are other brands that are highly rated, such as Pébéo, Amsterdam, Royal Talens, Daler Rowney, Clairefontaine, etc.
Each of these brands has its own specificities. Choice, quality, innovation, pigmentation (for the colour), weight (for the paper), all the fine art brands have strong points to make, which can complicate the selection.
Whatever you create, you need to use the right materials to work in the best conditions.
Often the apprentice artist thinks the best way to success is by choosing expensive tools. This is a beginner’s mistake.
In the beginning you train your art practice. You test, you throw away, you start again. I recommend that you invest in good study materials so you are not discouraged by low quality or ruined by expert material.

Art Materials: Possible downsides
- Poor quality wooden stretcher frames are light and can warp with time and changes in humidity. The wood of the bars is soft and fragile. The bars are glued and have no wedges. To be avoided!
- A low-quality canvas has bulges in the fabric. The tension can be relaxed in some areas. The primer could be patchy, so you can see the light through the weave of the fabric. Warning!
- In painting, it is all a question of pigment, covering power and intensity. Low quality paint will yellow, lose its shine, be very transparent, crack or peel over time.
- A brush with a ruffled tip has hard and brittle hairs, is prone to untimely hair loss, and maybe has a loose ferrule? I can’t imagine the result after use and the discomfort during painting. It won’t be pretty!
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Art Materials: The Smart Way
- Analyse the finish and the outward appearance of the material you want (brushes, canvas paper, easel, etc.)
- Check the information on the packaging to avoid any unpleasant surprises (opacity of the paint, paper weight, so on)
- Choose materials that can be cleaned without toxic products
- Select solid materials with high durability
It’s always best to ask a salesperson at the GreatArt Store for help or consult an artist’s blog before your diving into your final shopping session!
Content provided by Amylee Paris

The passion of Amylee Paris, painter, consultant and author is to share her paintings between galleries, art collectors and her community. Beyond her pictorial skills and her several ebooks available online, Amylee is also recognized as one of the most influential francophone artist-entrepreneurs. She helps beginners or professional artists to optimize their artistic activity.
You can visit her colourful portfolio or follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
GREAT TO KNOW – Find all Amylee’s posts published in GreatArt online Magazine by clicking here!
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