(Part 2) Best products from r/painting

I also just started out in acrylics. I'm not sure of a good set that has everything in one, but I can share what I got to get started. For Christmas I got the basics, i.e. Red, Yellow, Blue, White, and Blank paint (Premiere acrylics), some canvases (8x10 and 12x16), a set of 12 different Royal and Langnickel brushes, and a wooden table-top easel.

Additional items I went back to AC Moore and bought:

--Silver, Gold, Brown, Green, Orange, and Purple paints

--A sta-wet palette which keeps your paints from drying up while you are working.

--Palette knife

--Canvas panels

-- Liquitex Gloss medium & Varnish

-- Brush Cleaner (same as this one on Amazon)

Basically I was having trouble finding an All-in one kit, so I got everything separately. One thing I would have done differently is buy a multipack of the paints with more colors to save time mixing. If you want to go pick stuff out in person then AC Moore or Michaels, as JT suggested, are great. Otherwise, everything seems to be on Amazon and the reviews tend to be pretty helpful! I actually made my shopping list by looking up things on Amazon and then went to the store because I was too impatient to want to wait for shipping.

This video might give you a better representation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSvWMUZCjRc
Its not me.

So the way i did it was finding the little wood sake baxes
http://www.amazon.com/Square-Wood-Sake-Box-masu/dp/B0006LRSX0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422547366&sr=8-1&keywords=square+wood+saki&pebp=1422547368189&peasin=B0006LRSX0

Resin:
http://www.amazon.com/Environmental-Technology-8-Ounce-Casting-Craft/dp/B000XAR0DM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422547416&sr=8-1&keywords=resin&pebp=1422547413091&peasin=B000XAR0DM

I started with epoxy, but did polyester for the next one which worked just as well

First I applied a layer of resin on the bottom, thickness here doesn't matter. Then painted the first layer of the fish, fins primarily, and belly and head, second layer was if you took another cross section slice, this incorporates more lighter colors, this middle layer you can do more than just one. Final layer are just extra light paints to make the shine. Each layer is painted, let dry, and the a small layer of resin is poured over the top. Critical thing here is to keep everything dust free, you get a cat hair in there, its in there for good.

It takes your brain a few tries to wrap your head around the shading and the layers, I was really excited to try it, and it gave me even more respect for the artists that are good at it.

Not sure if this is quite small enough for what you're doing but I've been using these for detail work and I love them! Great value. They don't shed at all.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IGQGQ9S/

Inclined to agree with those below, I think brushes that are a step or two up from the giant cheap "value packs" for students but aren't ridiculous are the way to go. I hate spending more than $5 a brush and have found brushes in that price range to be perfectly suitable.

Oil and acrylic are different. They do different things and one is in no way better than the other. Golden makes an open acrylic with a longer open time that I really enjoy working with, and there are many retarding mediums that you can mix into your paints. Keeping your palette wet is very important as well. When blending it works best to either use many layers of color or work in smaller more manageable areas.

The best thing you can do is experiment and find what products and techniques work best for you.

For a first painting this is good, to get a better likeness pay attention to proportion. Check and recheck the eyes, nose and lips, if you get the relationship(measurements) between them right the rest of the picture falls into place. If you really want to improve check out these books, they'll give you some great pointers:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lessons-Classical-Drawing-Juliette-Aristides/dp/082300659X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346328001&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Classical-Painting-Atelier-Contemporary-Traditional/dp/0823006581/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1346328001&sr=8-3

Good luck and keep at it :-)

>What kind of paint is this, acrylic probably? and if yes, did you mix the pink and purple yourself or did you buy it like this?
>
>And if you did not mix the colors what is the brand and color number? :)

yes, this is acrylic mix with gesso. It's russian and ukrainian brands of art materials. about color. I use clear pink and purple colors, and mixed some tones too
I can just show what it is a color


pink Rosa studio (ukraine)
blue Rosa studio


if you mix together such colors you will get very nice light violet


also use lilac Rosa studio

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And for dark violet you can mix your pink color and greenish blue like it offersAmsterdam brand

This is the one I use

It’s super awesome! I received it as a gift from a family member and absolutely love it.

I recommend Royal Soft Grip brushes, you can get them at Michael's for about $2 a pop, they work great in any medium and are super cheap to replace, great for a beginner.

http://www.arc-store.com/bovica.html literally anything from here will teach you sort of the classical approach, but is pricey.

https://streamlineartvideo.com/ same thing for this, I have the Cesar Santos DVDs (about $200 each), and they're about 20 plus hours, start to finish, every step on how to create something.

Human Figure Book\ literally probably the best book you can get for drawing the figure

Alla Prima Book everything you need to know about oil painting

https://guidetooilpainting.com/ great website to learn the basics

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It's a lot of practice, now I do watercolor paintings myself, but for oil paintings this is a great list of resources. It all kinda goes the same, you lay down and image and put the correct colors in the correct spots. I would say take more time with your drawing phase and the painting phase will be easier, but some like to go in w/ just a brush and attack it. Try things, suck for awhile and learn from it. I"m going to make a post about this to try and get some proper resources out there.

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I love small canvases that are ~80% blank but have the top of a cute animal's head "peeking in" - example cat / example dog but woodland/autumnal beasties would work beautifully too!

It's a very wonderful painting! And I like that it has a healthy portion of drama too. The raindrop-effect is really interesting :)

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But you have difficulties with perspective. May I suggest this book by José M. Parramon, you might be able to find it at your local library.

One book that was surprisingly helpful for me was Art School: How to Paint and Draw. I actually got it in the bargain bin at a book store.

A couple other helpful books are Problem Solving for Oil Painters and Color and Light.

Also, if you have an art studio around, sometimes they have cheap beginners classes. I've found those to be quite helpful starting out.

I have this book, although I havent personally read through it since I'm preoccupied with school, I saw the book has still life practices, with step by step progress and direction, different paint mediums and materials, and the things you should know specific to each individually, brushes, techniques, how the paint acts/drys, etc.. As well it teaches how to mix paint colours, which is really important. Its definitely a great resource to introduce her to painting.

I have a brief amount of time so here's the short and skinny. You can use any colors you want, but traditionally you'd use primarily earth tones for the underpainting. Try this approach: stain the canvas with yellow ochre thinned with turpenoid/gamsol. Use a rag or cotton swabs to pull back out the light areas. Let that dry a bit, then continue with a value study using burnt/raw sienna and burnt umber. No need for white yet, just use the raw canvas. At this point you'll only want to be using thinner as your medium. When finished let it sit for a day or two to dry.

Now you may proceed with oil as your medium. You'll want to use more transparent pigments mixed with linseed/walnut oil to create glazes. Work in layers allowing time to dry in between. Don not varnish between layers. And more oil to your paints as you build up layers. Thick over thin process is to prevent cracking.

Good luck. Experiment. See what works for you. Look up artist handbooks on techniques. This one is generally considered the painter's bible.

I got This as it looked identical to the studio easels I saw other artist's using at my model painting sessions.

Works fantastic. Super light weight. Cheap. Durable. Can hold my large board. Is good for people my height (5'5"). It gives me a range that middles out at my eye level. If you're taller I would recommend the taller version of this easel.

My thought:

ARTEZA Colored Pencils, Professional Set of 72 Colors, Soft Wax-Based Cores, Ideal for Drawing Art, Sketching, Shading & Coloring, Vibrant Artist Pencils for Beginners & Pro Artists in Tin Box $32

24 Drawing Pencils Set, Art Sketching Pencils 14B, 12B, 10B, 9B, 8B, 7B, 6B, 5B, 4B, 3B, 2B, B, HB, F, H - 9H, Shading Graphite Pencils for Adults & Kid Artists $10

Charcoal Drawing Pencils Set Sketch Pencils Medium 12pcs Charcoal Pencils Non-Toxic Drawing Pencils Tools Set for Fine Art Supplies (Black Medium) $11

Clearprint 1000H Design Vellum Sheets, 16 Lb., 100% Cotton, 11 x 17 Inches, 100 Sheets Per Pack, 1 Each (10201516) $51

Would make a nice set of gifts she could open, lots to play with and experiment with.