I absolutely love trying out new art supplies, and from this, I have found my favourites that I use often. So with that, this is my favourite art supplies from 2023

Of course we have the staple’s to anyone’s life, pens, pencils and sketchbooks and then those more tailored to art medium specific supplies like your brushes and paper and paints.

Personally, watercolour is my favourite medium so that’s where my money goes

My staple paints that have been with me through and through and those are Winsor and Newton, I have had the Cotman 45 half pan set for a good few years now and it’s still going strong. Recently I have been dipping in to the professional line since I liked the look of some of the colours that are only available in that range such as olive green and colbate green deep, which has become a new favourite. I’ve also just started dipping my toes in to other brands such as Daniel Smith and Schminke Hordam however it will be a slow collection to grow due to the cost. I also added Etchr pearlescent watercolour set to my collection as well and add really nice shiny accents to pieces.

For paper, I use a few varieties, firstly my go to sketchbook is Seawhite A5 Hardcover and not suitable for lots of wet media but I use it anyway since it’s just for sketches and is a 140gsm cartridge paper sketchbook. For more finished pieces I LOVE Fabriano Artistico 100% cotton 300gsm blocks, 2023 was my first year trying out true 100% cotton watercolour paper, and although the Fabriano paper was expensive, I bit the bullet and tried it out and the difference is immense, I don’t think I can go back to pulp paper anymore. Another favourite brand is Khadi Papers (320gsm), more affordable compared to Fabriano for 100% cotton rag paper and just as nice with lovely deckled edges, I’ve used it quite a bit so far and really love it. Those are the main two I used for finished pieces. I’ve learnt that good paper makes all the difference.

Next is brushes, I don’t use anything too special and I’ve used the same ones for years now. Pro Arte, da Vinci, Daler Rowney, Winsor and Newton Cotman and other miscellaneous brushes advertised for watercolour use. For me, I find supplies like paint and paper more important than brushes although a good mop brush for wet on wet is nice and of course everyone has their go-to favourite round brush.

That’s that for most watercolour supplies, next is other supplies I use often

I frequently like to use Black Indian Ink, for this I use Winsor and Newton again with a Manuscript dip pen. I like this technique since the ink is waterproof, I use it under or over watercolours without muddying it up, it thrives where most fineliners fail.

But I still use fineliners for convenience, Uni Pin are the go-to, since they come in various widths, as well as dark grey, light grey and sepia which is fun to experiment with.

Tombow markers in greyscale shades are also nice to use for landscape and values studies and a simple biro makes for nice quick expressive studies in a sketchbook.

Art supplies are subjective to one’s particular medium and taste, through experimentation you find your favourite medium and as you experiment further you find your favourite brands and supplies to use. It’s a costly hobby but I love it, my life would be so boring if I didn’t draw and paint everyday.

That’s it for now, I don’t really have anything else to add.

Have a nice day and I hope this was interesting to read.

Later gators!