Getting Started With Acrylics
Galeria & System 3D are very good paints to start with.
For a basic set of acrylic paints you will need the following colours.
With these you should be able to mix most colours. There are, of course, some colours that you can't mix, these include violet and magenta.
The colours can be split into three sections, warm, mid and cold
Warm Mid Cold
Blues Ultramarine Cobalt Prussian
Ceruleum
Reds Vermillion Cadmium Red Alizarin
Yellows Cadmium yellow deep Cadmium Yellow Chrome Lemon
Earth Colours Yellow ochre, raw sienna, burnt sienna, raw umber, burnt umber
Whites :I use only Titanium white
Payne's Grey Useful - this helps to mix colours, it is slightly blue and makes lovely greens and lilacs.
Artist quality paints tend to vary in texture and thickness. They are expensive compared to student quality but they are expensive for a very good reason - they are usually more colourfast and truer to the colour it says on the tube.
However, Galeria & system 3D range are perfectly satisfactory for what you want when you begin to paint and are reliable in that they are usually consistent in texture and thickness and the colours are lightfast in the main, i.e. they retain their colour for a long time despite being exposed to light. They thin down well with water and are easy to use. I would recommend these to begin with and advance on to artist's quality colours later,.or maybe not as i think they are just as good
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Brushes
There are many types and quality of brush on the market. The brushes you need depend on the type of work you are going to do. As a general rule to begin with buy the best you can afford as they do last a long time if looked after, The cheaper brushes look great in the shop but use them once or twice and they loose the shape and that is that.
So buy cheap get cheap
My favorite brushes,from left to right:
Tree brush, Round brush, Flat brush, & Fan brush.
The tree brush i made from a no 4 pro art round oil brush, i just cut it at 45 degrees and it`s great for doing trees. The flat is a Cryla c15flat glaze, this one is quite afew years old now and looks like new, i use this for glaze`s . The fan brush is 15 years old now , i use this for the sky`s
Cleaning Brushes
Cleaning brushes - you must do this each time you have used them.. For cleaning brushes after using acrylics just wash them out in water & a bit of fairy. Never let your brushes dry with acrylic paint on them and when painting in acrylics it is always advisable to keep them in water between use (i.e. between colours) and dry them off a bit before you load them with colour again.
Easels
I find a good table top Easel is great for studio work, you can buy these from any good artist supply`s or try Ebay
Paint Boxes
You will need some thing to keep your paints and equipment, & cheap plastic tool box from any DIY store is as good as anything as it keeps everything in place for you.
I use a paint box , it`s not an expensive one it was only around £14.00 and came with naff paints. As the box was OK i added bits of wood to make little compartments for my brushes and other bits i use.