Advanced/Professional Oil Painting Materials List

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PHOTO REFERENCE

Bringing your photo reference, and a canvas to match it's ratio, are perhaps the most important things to bring so please try not to forget.

See tips for your photo reference

BRUSHES:

A selection of hog hair bristle brushes, preferably from Rosemary and Co's Ultimate Bristle range (sold exclusively online) or brushes by Windsor and Newton, Daler & Rowney, Da Vinci or Escoda.

Filbert shape in Sizes: 0, 2, 4 (two of each)

Filbert shape in Sizes: 1, 3, 6, 8 (one of each)

Round shape: Sizes: 1, 2, 3 (two of each)

Flat: 2,4 (one of each)

Synthetic brushes for detail. I like Rosemary & Co's Eclipse range, or Windsor and Newton's Galeria range.

Filbert 1,2 (one of each)

Round, 0,1 (one of each)

Rosemary and Co also have another synthetic brush range called the Ivory range. These have stiffer bristles than the eclipse range but in the long filbert I find them a very good addition.

Round 0,1 (one of each)

Ivory Longer Filberts - 0, 2 (one of each)

LIST OF RECOMMENDED OIL PAINTS

PROFESSIONAL LIST OF OIL PAINTS

I myself, am still experimenting with new colours and brands, and thus, don’t want to present the list below as some kind of definitive palette. In fact, my own palette is in transition at the moment. I began using Windsor & Newton’s Artist range of colours when 25 odd years ago. But have, in recent years been lured away from Windsor and Newton, by two other premium brands, namely Old Holland and Michael Harding oil paints. Thus, my own paint box at the moment is a strange mix of colours from all of these brands. However, my general inclination currently is to choose the colour in the Michael Harding range first, if available, then Old Holland who have a larger range, and finally Windsor and Newton if I just can’t part with a particular tube that I’ve grown fond of.

Another thing to note for those of you new to this world of oil paints, when you are purchasing tubes of oil paint the cost is not just based on the size of the tube, but also on the rarity of the pigment, or the expense of production for the companies. To make sense of this every company has developed a tiered “Series” system. Series 1 and 2 are relatively affordable, while 3 and 4 are expensive, and 5 and 6 extremely expensive. With Old Holland it goes up in letters rather than numbers, but the same principal with A and B being the cheapest. With this in mind, I’ll try and keep my recommended list toward a more affordable range. The one exception being a good Cadmium Yellow, which is worth the stretch in cost for what it can do and it’s special mixing qualities.

LIST OF RECOMMENDED OIL PAINTS

WHITE

Titanium White (A1) – Old Holland – 125ml or 225 ml

Or Titanium White (No2) – Michael Harding – 60 or 225ml

YELLOWS

Scheveningen Yellow Lemon B10 by Old Holland, (Series B), 40ml

Or Windsor Yellow (722) by Windsor & Newton Artist’s range, (Series 2), 37ml

Cadmium Yellow (402), by Michael Harding, (Series 4), 40ml or 60ml

Or Cadmium Yellow Light (D11), by Old Holland, (Series D), 40ml

Cadmium Yellow Deep (D16), by Old Holland, (Series D), 40ml

Or Cadmium Yellow Deep (403), by Michael Harding, (Series 4), 40 or 60ml

Yellow Ochre (119), by Michael Harding, (Series 1), 40ml or 60ml

Or Yellow Ochre Light (A53), by Old Holland, (Series A), 40ml or 60ml

ORANGE

Cadmium Orange (089), by Windsor & Newton Artist’s range, (Series 4), 37ml

This is the one I’m using now which I really like, but there is another more affordable Orange by Michael Harding as listed below, which looks good.

Or Permanent Orange (No. 222), by Michael Harding, (Series 2), 40ml or 60ml

REDS

Windsor Red (726), by Windsor & Newton Artists Range, (Series 2), 37ml

Or Scheveningen Red Light (B22), by Old Holland, (Series B), 40ml

Alizarin Claret (No.310), by Michael Harding, (Series 3), 40ml or 60ml

Or Burgandy Wine Red (D166), by Old Holland, (Series D), 40ml

Or Permanent Alizarin Crimson (468), by Windsor & Newton Artists Range, (Series 4), 37ml

Quinacridone Magenta (545), by Windsor & Newton Artists Range, (Series 2), 37ml

Or Magenta (303), by Michael Harding, (Series 3), 40ml or 60ml

BROWNS

Burnt Umber (126), by Michael Harding, (Series 1), 40ml or 60ml

Or Red Umber (A349), by Old Holland, (Series A), 40ml

Raw Umber (121), by Michael Harding, (Series 1), 40ml or 60ml

Or Raw Umber (A69), by Old Holland, (Series A), 40ml

Raw Sienna (120), by Michael Harding, (Series 1), 40ml or 60ml

Transparent Oxide Red (220), by Michael Harding, (Series 2), 40ml or 60ml

Or Transparent Oxide Red Lake (B334), by Old Holland, (Series B), 40ml

Venetian Red (No.122), by Michael Harding, (Series 1), 40 or 60ml

BLUES

Ultramarine Blue (113), by Michael Harding, (Series 1), 40ml or 60ml

Or Ultramarine Blue (A36), by Old Holland, (Series A), 40ml

Phthalocyanine Blue Lake (209), by Michael Harding, (Series 2), 40 or 60ml

Or Scheveningen Blue Deep (B226), by Old Holland, (Series B), 40ml or 60ml

Cobalt blue and Cerulean also very nice colours but in truth I haven't used too much of them over the years, although that might change soon. They are on the expensive side though.

GREENS

Phthalocyanine Green Lake (213), by Michael Harding, (Series 2), 40ml or 60ml

Or Windsor Green (Phthalo) (720), by Windsor & Newton Artists Range, (Series 2), 37ml

Or Scheveningen Green Deep (C49), by Old Holland, (Series C), 40ml

Sap Green (599), by Windsor & Newton Artist’s range, (Series 2), 37ml

BLACKS

Ivory Black (129), by Michael Harding, (Series 1), 40ml or 60ml

Or Ivory Black (A74), by Old Holland, (Series A), 40ml

A bottle of Refined Linseed Oil by Windsor and Newton

or other reputable brand.

75ml or 250ml

500ml or 1 Litre of Sansodor or Gamsol

Low odourless spirits for cleaning your brushes and mixing with your paint

Palette cups, which are small metal containers to hold a small amount of Sansodor and linseed oil for mixing your paint. Also sometimes known as dippers. Try get the smaller ones with a 3cm diameter. A couple of old egg cups would work instead in a pinch.

CANVASES

As for which brand to buy, I personally like the Belle Arti – 60 Gallery Excellent Linen ones which are available from KM Evans Art supplies in Dublin. For the bigger work I get custom canvases made by Milliken Bros in Northern Ireland. I usually use the 166 linen, with 22mm stretcher bars made from poplar wood.

Palette

You’ll also need a palette to mix your paint on, preferably around the A3 size or there are a few 30x40cm ones available, which is very close. Now this can be a traditional wood palette or a pad of tear off sheets which would be very handy for the class room setting where it will save time on the clean up and mess, and allow you more time to paint.

Brush Soap

The Masters Brush Cleaner and Preserver

Escoda Brush and Hand Soap (with olive oil)

Jars

Two or three fairly deep jars are handy to have to stand your brushes in when painting.

Kitchen Paper

For clean up and also for rubbing off paint from your canvas when mistakes are made.

Lint free microfiber clothes – Optional but handy

One or two Pencils

HB, B, or 2B

Eraser

Pencil parer

Gridding up materials:

A ruler longer than the longest side of your canvas.

A coloured pencil preferably a lightly coloured one, as lines drawn with this will be easier to cover up than grid line made with a regular dark pencil.

Card or cardboard sheet a little bigger than your photo reference

Some tape

If you are working from a printed photo, rather than a digital one on your tablet, you'll also need.

One or two A4 Acetate plastic sheets (If you are gridding up)

Fine permanent marker suitable for writing on cds or dvds

This pen is for drawing a grid on the acetate sheets, and will help with the drawing process.

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