Like most creative people, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about, and trying out, the tools of my trade. The actual substances that I use to create something, whether analog or digital, are a forever partner in my creative process. As the artist Anni Albers said, "we must come down to earth from the clouds where we live in vagueness, and experience the most real thing there is: material."
Let's not pretend this a chore — when I have free time, I can’t imagine anything better than going supply shopping. When I emerged from lockdown, the very first store I went to was McNally Jackson Goods for the Study, and I literally cried. It's possible I became a writer because I love stationery, and an artist simply because I needed a reason to buy art supplies.
With that said, my resources are limited and I so I have some basic principles that govern what I buy for my studio. Additionally, I've noticed that there's a lot of...let's say "mishegos and magical thinking" around supplies for both art and writing that are well worth discussing. (And note, when I say art supply, I mean supplies for both visual art and writing.)
So let's dive in:
1- The best art supplies are the ones you already have.
There have been many times that I've waited to start a project until I got a certain supply — a certain type of adhesive, a color of fiber, a particular kind of folder to store my reference materials, whatever — and when I finally got going on the project, I didn't use it.
Or, I got fed up with waiting and created a solution that worked just as well with what I already had.
So, I try to remind myself that new art supplies are really entertainment. Excellent and necessary creative entertainment that feeds my soul, but not a reason for delay or procrastination.
In practical terms, this means when I go on an art supply mission, I browse extravagantly — but my purchases are mostly limited to replenishing what I’ve used up.
Exceptions are:
A) I am going to collapse with desire if I don’t get that thing — and that thing costs less than $20. ($20.01 and I have a 24 hour waiting period.)
B) I’m going to buy mixed media materials, such as materials for collage — a whole different category, which I'll discuss a different time.
Another exception was during the pandemic, when there was no real browsing. Then, I signed up for a surprise art supply box service — I did Art Snacks and then Sketch Box — that fulfilled my desire for novelty very nicely.
This is also important for me to remember when I see an artist I respect (or a teacher whose class I'm taking) use a particular tool and think, my life will be perfect if I have that too. This is magical thinking. It's never the tool, it's always the person who's using it.
2-The best art supplies are the ones you have and use.
At an earlier time in my life, I bought a lot of art supplies and didn't use them. Partially this was a lack of time for art projects, and partially I was waiting for...I don't know what, to get better at art, for a worthy project, something like that.
In writing this would play out with doing research and then not wanting to "use it up" on this a particular project. Maybe I'd wait for a book, or an essay for the New Yorker that was definitely going to be assigned to me at any moment.
This is folly. Life doesn't last forever. It's amazing, but what seems magical and precious now will not seem that way in a few years, all different things will! I try to remind myself to use the best of what I've got and use it now.
I like how the actor Mads Mikkelsen frames this: "Everything I do is the most important thing I do. Whether it’s a play or the next film. It is the most important thing. I know it’s not going to be the most important thing, and it might not be close to being the best, but I have to make it the most important thing. That means I will be ambitious with my job and not with my career. That’s a very big difference, because if I’m ambitious with my career, everything I do now is just stepping-stones leading to something — a goal I might never reach, and so everything will be disappointing. But if I make everything important, then eventually it will become a career. Big or small, we don’t know. But at least everything was important."
3 - The best art supplies are whatever is in your budget.
Most art teachers will tell you to avoid "student grade" paints, low end paper, cheap brushes, and so on.
This advice is well-intentioned.
Professional-grade art materials are often just easier to work with — they're more consistent, you can often use less of them to achieve a good result, the paper doesn't buckle as much, the brushes don't leave bristles all over your page.
You're not fighting with your materials, in other words, which is nice when you're a beginner because you have enough to deal with.
However! There's also a lot of snobbery that goes along with this, along with some idea that the difference between "real artists" and rank amateurs are the art supplies they use.
This may be true in some very traditional corners of the art world, but in the larger sense this is total bullshit. Pay attention the next time you watch an art documentary about a Big Whoop Artist — you will not see fancy wooden paint palettes and porcelain brush holders, you will see paper plates and recycled coffee tins. Jackson Pollock and Pablo Picasso both used house paint in their art practice, Jean Michel Basquiat made precious, multi-million dollar art work son demolition debris, like doors. (When they become fancy artwork, these substrates are called "vernacular objects.”)
Of course I'm not saying there's no difference between fine oil paint and house paint, but since good art supplies cost a pretty penny, it can be hard to get over that and actually use the materials without stressing out about "waste." A good teacher I once had would tell us to imagine that paint is free, which was a helpful idea as long as I could hold the fantasy— but of course, paint is not free.
I should say that I was already inherently suspicious of the exhortations to spend more money on art supplies because of my experience as a writer. I already knew, from myself and from my students, that the most beautiful blank journal in the world could remain that way forever, while a bunch of crumpled napkins from a diner would be scribbled over with ideas. (And yes, with writing the materials are literally meaningless to the final product, which is not the case with visual art, But that doesn't mean that writers don't obsess over pens, paper and various software just as much as artist stress over their supplies.)
So here's the truth: I was able to make the most progress in my art when I bought a set of craft paints from Michael's and used them on old magazine pages, rather than attempting to use my lovely but pricey Acryla gouache paints on a $27 sheet of Arches paper.
Also —SHOCKING NEWS— not everything is worth what it costs! Sure, some fancy brands have a discernible difference in quality, but honestly, I have both extremely expensive Kolinsky Sable paint brushes, and one-third less expensive synthetic brushes, and I prefer the less expensive brand. (This isn't a financial anxiety about "using it up," which really isn't a factor with well-cared for brushes, it's really just that I like the cheaper ones better.)
Now, for some artists, this is not an issue — for whatever reasons, they aren't wired to worry about money in this way.
But because the way you make progress in art is by making a lot of art, this can be a formidable obstacle.
In which case, the best art supplies are the ones that cost what you feel comfortable spending.
I have a fairly exhaustive guide to the art supplies I most use right here.