The all-time fine art supplies in 2022, from sketchbooks to pastels

Hand dipping paintbrush into a watercolor palette

These are the best sketchbooks, pencils, erasers, pastels, watercolors, acrylics, oils, brushes, and canvas to buy in 2022.
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  • The best art supplies can be expensive, merely y'all don't have to spend a lot to become great materials.
  • We've rounded up the best essential and beginner art supplies you lot can buy online.
  • Our list includes pencils, pastels, watercolors, paint sets, sketchbooks, canvases, and more.

As someone who's been cartoon since I could hold a crayon, I've been through my off-white share of graphite pencils, sketchbooks, and pigment sets. I've tried dozens of unlike brands over the years, and some are still my favorites.

Whether you've been painting for years, are going off to art schoolhouse soon, or simply want to become into drawing for the kickoff time, you need quality art supplies. And while professional artists may utilise pricey supplies to create their masterpieces, you don't necessarily have to shell out on the fanciest pastels or sail.

In fact, at that place are plenty of. more than affordable options that can serve you lot just likewise, if you lot know how to utilise them to your advantage. To help, we rounded upwards many of the basic art supplies yous demand in your studio in 1 handy guide.

Learn more about how Insider Reviews reviews and researches hobby-related products.

Here are the best fine art supplies you tin can buy:

The best sketchbook:Strathmore Sketchbooks, $12.76 from Amazon
Strathmore makes excellent sketchbooks with all kinds of paper, including drawing, watercolor, pastel, charcoal, and more.

All-time graphite pencils: Staedtler Pencil Mars Lumograph 12-Slice Fix, $12.82 from Amazon
Staedtler comes with all the graphite pencils you demand to describe like a pro.

Best charcoal: Cretacolor Charcoal Cartoon Set, $29.41 from Blick
The Cretacolor Charcoal Drawing Set has every kind of charcoal you lot need to create beautiful work.

Best colored pencils: Prismacolor Quality Art Set up, $46.99 from Amazon
Prismacolor Quality Fine art Set includes 48 colored pencils that are rich in color.

All-time erasers:Prismacolor Premier Kneaded, ArtGum, and Plastic Erasers, $ii.48 from Blick
Premier volition erase whatsoever error you make.

All-time pastels: Sennelier, $45.17 from Amazon
Sennelier makes the absolute best oil and soft pastels, but Van Gogh, Koh-i-noor, and Prismacolor are fine alternatives.

All-time watercolors:Winsor & Newton, $36.88 from Amazon
Winsor & Newton makes wonderful watercolor paints and sets, while Derwent makes first-class watercolor pencils.

Best acrylic paints:Liquitex BASICS Acrylic Paint Tube 12-Piece Set, $23.79 from Amazon
The Winsor & Newton 2190517 Galeria Acrylic Paint x Tube Set are great starter kits for painting.

All-time oil paints:Winsor & Newton, $19.99 from Blick, Gamblin, $88.50 from Blick, and Williamsburg Handmade, $10.28 from Blick
Oil paints represent very dissimilar price points to satisfy any budget.

Best paintbrushes:Da Vinci, $12.95 from Blick
Da Vinci makes great brushes for watercolor, acrylic, and oil painting.

Best canvas:Fredrix, $120.57 from Blick
Fredrix makes good canvass, and it's most always cheaper to stretch your own canvass than to buy pre-made ones.

Best sketchbook

Amazon

Strathmore makes fantabulous sketchbooks with all kinds of paper, including cartoon, watercolor, pastel, charcoal, and more.

Pros: Sturdy sketchbooks, nifty paper quality, paper types for different media, affordable

Cons: Larger sizes price more, specialty papers have fewer pages

I've used Strathmore sketchbooks for years. I typically buy the ones with recycled paper, but I've as well used the pastel, charcoal, and watercolor pads for when I need a different texture. No affair which media yous choose, these sketchbooks can handle information technology.

The standard paper will warp if y'all use watercolors on it, but for any kind of pen, pencil, marker, or another drawing implement, information technology will practice the task — it's a proficient thickness and weight.

When it comes to Strathmore'due south watercolor paper, information technology's sturdy and potent enough to stand up to lots of h2o. The charcoal and pastel paper notebooks both accept a wonderful texture to them that actually works for the softer media and good blending. Strathmore's prices are adequately reasonable, too, and so you can sketch away.

Hither are other Strathmore products we recommend:

This versatile felt-finished paper is ideal for mastering watercolor techniques or finished pieces.

The Strathmore charcoal pad is the ideal foundation for charcoal and pastel, and information technology's gratis of acid.

For graphite pencil, colored pencil, charcoal, sketching stick, marking, soft pastel, mixed media, oil pastel.

Best graphite pencils

Amazon

The Staedtler Pencil Mars Lumograph 12-Piece Prepare comes with all the graphite pencils you need to draw like a pro.

Pros: Bold graphite pencils, 8B to 6H range, affordable, long-lasting

Cons: None

If you draw with graphite pencils, you know that not all graphite is the same. This Staedtler set up comes with 12 pencils in dissimilar hardnesses from 8B to 6H. For the uninitiated, the higher the number in front end of the B, the softer the lead. Conversely, the college the number in forepart of the H, the harder the atomic number 82.

Nearly people volition use 2B, HB, and B the nearly, simply if yous need deep night blacks that blend well, yous'll demand 4B and upwardly. For difficult, light lines, H pencils are perfect.

The pencils come in a tin for safekeeping, and they're easy to acuminate and comfy to hold — fifty-fifty when you lot draw for hours on terminate. I've used dozens of graphite pencils, just Staedtler's are the all-time for the cost.

Best charcoal drawing ready

Amazon

The Cretacolor Charcoal Drawing Set has every kind of charcoal you lot need to create cute work.

Pros: Big set with many pieces, includes charcoal pencils and compressed charcoal; comes with an eraser, charcoal sticks, and a charcoal block; affordable

Cons: None

If you're but getting started with charcoal or you want to try a new medium, this charcoal gear up has everything you need, including pencils and compressed charcoal.

Each pencil is labeled with its hardness level, and the kneaded eraser is a keen blending tool, but information technology tin as well erase any mistakes fairly well.

Best colored pencils

Amazon

The Prismacolor Quality Art Set includes 48 colored pencils that are rich in color.

Pros: Assuming colors, lots of variety, long-lasting, eraser and sharpener included, affordable

Cons: None

The Prismacolor Quality Art Set comes with 48 colored pencils in beautiful, bright shades. You lot'll too become a sharpener and a Latex-Costless Scholar Eraser in the gear up.

These colored pencils aren't like the bones Crayola ones you used in elementary schoolhouse. — they're high-quality, soft lead pencils with rich colors. You tin create extraordinary drawings with these Prismacolor pencils or color in an adult coloring volume to make a black and white design come to life.

Best erasers

Amazon

The Prismacolor Premier Kneaded, ArtGum, and Plastic Erasers will erase whatever mistake you make.

Pros: Iii types of erasers, affordable

Cons: None

To err is homo, and here to set your mistakes are Prismacolor'southward erasers. This three-pack gives you a kneaded rubber eraser, an creative person gum eraser, and a latex-free plastic eraser.

I personally only utilise kneaded erasers, because they work with all media and don't shed eraser $.25 everywhere, but the ArtGum eraser is great for stubborn graphite and the plastic eraser doesn't shed, either.

Since this fix gives you all 3, you can pick and cull which one y'all need based on the medium yous're working with.

Best pastels

Amazon

Sennelier makes the absolute best oil and soft pastels, just Van Gogh, Koh-i-noor, and Prismacolor are fine alternatives.

Pros: Beautiful oil and soft pastels, good diversity of colors, strong pigments

Cons: Sennelier's pastels are expensive

One of my favorite mediums is pastel. The rich, assuming colors and easy blending make for the perfect cartoon experience. Of all the pastels I've used, Sennelier's are the best. Its oil pastels, in particular, are stunning. The richness of the colors is unparalleled and yous can feel the oiliness of the pastel. I lust over them every time I got to the art store.

All the same, Sennelier pastels are very expensive, because they are among the highest quality ones you can buy. Since not everyone tin spend hundreds on them — myself included, alas — Van Gogh makes dandy oil pastels for much less, Koh-i-noor sells wonderful soft pastel pencils, and Prismacolor makes great soft pastels for an affordable cost.

I generally employ soft pastel pencils, because the fine tip gives you more control over your drawing and fine detail. However, when yous're working large and you need to blend, Prismacolor's pastels are perfect. Van Gogh's oil pastels are most as pigmented and rich as Sennelier'southward and they blend very well. Yous can fifty-fifty thin them with linseed oil, simply like y'all would for oil paint if y'all want a painterly look.

Hither are the all-time pastels we recommend:

Apply on a diversity of surfaces including sail, newspaper, metal, wood, rock, even glass.

Sennelier Soft Pastels are extra soft pastels fabricated with pigments chosen for colorfastness and brilliance mixed only with natural binders.

Made with pure pigments, mineral oils, and wax binders for a remarkably soft and smooth laydown with no grit.

Fabricated from loftier-quality, pure, micro-pulverized pastel pigments, encased in California cedar, thus creating less mess and dust particles than traditional soft pastels.

Composed of rich, creamy pigment that's the creative person's option for blending and shading.

All-time watercolors

Amazon

Winsor & Newton makes wonderful watercolor paints and sets, while Derwent makes excellent watercolor pencils.

Pros: Bright colors, expert diversity in the sets, sturdy pencils

Cons: High-end tubes are pricey

While you may think about those plastic sets from elementary school, the all-time watercolors come in tubes like acrylic and oil pigment. You can get good sets in plastic, of course, and there are wonderful watercolor pencils, also. We've got picks for all iii.

The Winsor & Newton Cotman Water Colour 12-Tube Ready is best for the serious watercolor artist who wants a nice set of colors, while the Sketcher's Pocket Box is great for anyone on the get who want a travel-friendly plastic gear up. Both provide rich, lovely color.

My favorite watercolor pencils are Derwent'southward because you tin can go a nice diverseness of colors without paying too much. The watercolor pencils give yous more control over fine details in your paintings, so they may be a fun add-on to your supplies.

Here are the best watercolor fine art supplies we recommend:

Winsor & Newton Cotman Water Colours are a range of water colours that are fabricated to our high quality standards but costs are kept to an economic level by replacing some of the more than costly pigments with less expensive alternatives.

Cotman Water Colours possess good transparency, excellent tinting force, and good working properties.

Derwent Watercolour Pencils can be mixed with water to create unique colour flows and stunning watercolour effects.

Best acrylic paints

Amazon

Liquitex Nuts Acrylic Pigment Tube 12-Piece Prepare and the Winsor & Newton 2190517 Galeria Acrylic Paint 10 Tube Set are cracking starter kits for painting.

Pros: Potent colors, affordable options, high-quality options, sets offer good value

Cons: Small-scale tubes, can get expensive

My first fix of acrylic paints was the Basics ready by Liquitex. The set comes with 12 colors that you lot can mix to your heart'southward content to create more than shades. You really only demand these bones colors to create every shade of the rainbow.

Of course, this budget set isn't that loftier-stop, then if you lot're looking for something a bit better, the Winsor & Newton 10-tube ready is a neat option. You lot'll pay more for higher-quality paint and stiff pigments. Y'all can't go incorrect with either i, really.

Hither are the all-time acrylic paint sets nosotros recommend:

Each color is uniquely formulated to bring out the maximum brilliance and clarity of the individual paint.

Galleria acrylic colour is a loftier quality acrylic which delivers professional person results and is ideal for artists who desire good quality color at an affordable price.

All-time oil paints

Amazon

Winsor & Newton, Gamblin, and Williamsburg Handmade oil paints represent very different price points to satisfy any budget.

Pros: Potent colors, affordable options, high-quality options, sets offer proficient value

Cons: Modest tubes, can get expensive if yous become with the high-terminate paint

The nigh expensive art form y'all tin become into is oil painting, merely it'south as well one of the most flexible. Oil paint is richer than acrylic and it stays moisture longer for better mixing, blending, and use over the grade of long-term projects.

Winsor & Newton brand a good oil pigment that'southward suitable for beginners or artists on a budget. Gamblin falls in the middle, while Williamsburg'south handmade oils are considered among the all-time. They're sold by tubes and not past sets, so you can selection the colors you need.

The differences are in the richness of the pigments, the oils used to make the paints, and the process by which the paint is made. You tin can spend hundreds on small tubes of the best oils, merely these three options volition serve you well until you lot become as famous equally Picasso.

Hither are the best oil paints we recommend:

The Winton range has a uniform consistency offering first-class retention of brush and palette knife strokes.

The Gamblin oil color set creates colors that are luscious, intense, and pigment-rich.

These concentrated oils are handmade in pocket-size batches with each color treated differently to bring out its unique property.

Best brushes

Amazon

Da Vinci makes great brushes for watercolor, acrylic, and oil painting.

Pros: Brushes for all media, relatively affordable, no shedding, sets offer practiced value

Cons: Existent hair and bristle toll more

The main advice we take on brushes is don't become inexpensive terrible ones that shed all over your canvas.

No matter what medium you paint in, da Vinci Brushes has the brush y'all need. In that location are more brushes out there than can exist put in a elementary guide like this, but da Vinci'southward wares are relatively affordable and long-lasting, so nosotros've included them here.

Some of the brushes are constructed, but others are fabricated from real brute pilus and bristle. At that place's a lot of argument over what materials are best, just we've included a mix at different price points.

Here are the best da Vinci brushes we recommend:

Universal brushes are a great starter set for beginners, young artists or teachers.

Splendid for watercolor, gouache, analogy, animation, restoration and rendering.

Maestro two interlocked squealer bristle shapes are deeply ready in their ferrules and hold their shape after vigorous use.

Best sail

Blick

Fredrix makes good canvass, and it's most ever cheaper to stretch your ain canvas than to purchase pre-made ones.

Pros: Sail is cheaper when you brand your own; skilful quality sheet material, available in primed or unprimed

Cons: Canvas is expensive and time-consuming to make

If you're working in oil or acrylic, it'south tempting to buy pre-stretched canvases and have it done. However, yous can salvage loads of coin — especially if you paint on huge canvases — if you make your ain canvases.

To do it yourself, y'all'll need wood for the frame, canvass, a staple gun, and canvas pliers to stretch information technology properly. I've made canvases earlier, and it may be hard work, but it's worth it.

Fredrix sells canvas in many forms and sizes. You lot tin can go it primed or unprimed if yous prefer to do information technology yourself with a giant bucket of gesso or if y'all but want a raw canvass.

Here are the canvases and accessories we recommend:

A medium weight all Polyflax with substantially greater strength than cotton fiber fibers. Medium texture with near perfect uniformity.

Unprimed cotton fiber sail great for all artists. Includes 6-yards unprimed cotton canvas.

The Fredrix Sail Pliers made from heavy-duty chromium plated metal with a spring return handle.

This framing kit allows you lot to create your own solid wood frame for your canvas from scratch, fifty-fifty if y'all have zero experience!

Art supplies FAQ:

What are the most essential art supplies?

While our list covers a range of art supplies, one of the almost versatile is the Strathmore sketchbook, which works with a wide range of mediums — from pencils to pastels.

Every bit for what you lot actually draw with, pencils are groovy because you can utilize them to create stand-lone art or outline a piece before you apply paint or pastels.

What art supplies should I get as a beginner?

According to our guide on drawing for beginners, all you need to really get started is a sketchbook, eraser, and some pencils — you don't even necessarily demand a whole gear up or even colored pencils.