The Best Art Materials for Painting in 2025

Looking for the best art materials for painting? As an artist myself, I often look to such lists. Here’s my take.

As we know, playing around with unfamiliar brands can be costly, so you’re going to want to make sure that the watercolors, brushes, and easels you buy are all premium picks that are well-reviewed and live up to their cost.

On that note, I’ve taken the liberty to jot down my favorite painting supplies and art materials!

There are plenty of art materials we enjoy using, but the immediate list below are my favorite picks of the year — if not of all time.

Right off the bat, my top 3 picks of the best materials for painting are the ones below:

02/19/2024 05:51 pm GMT

Without further ado, let’s jump right into the rest of the list!

 

 

My Top Picks: Painting Accessories and Supplies

1.) Michael Harding’s Artist Oil Colours

The Best Oil Paints

If you’re looking for vibrant oil paints that carry little to no fillers, then Michael Harding’s is what you should buy. It’s my top pick for a lot of reasons, but mainly because I find that its quality is top notch.

Overall, each tube carries thick and consistent oil paint that burst in vibrant colors. Burnt umber and yellow lake, for instance, are just perfect for blending. If you’re big on painting portraits like us, then you’re definitely going to love using this set. Its ability to articulate the shade of a person’s skin is impeccable, and we’re huge fans of how smooth the paints land on the canvas.

Since we’re picky with brushes, too, we like that Michael Harding‘s offerings adjust fairly well to different kinds. I, personally, used a round brush the most when testing this set out, but I like how it works with angular washes and fans too.

While it may be one of the pricier options in the market, it comes in a wide, premium variety that lets artists mix, blend, and whip up paintings where colors truly shine. Perfect for professional and intermediate painters, this contender gives you the confidence to price your paintings what they’re truly worth.

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2.) Caliart Acrylic Paint Set

Best Value Paint Set 

What we like most about the Caliart Acrylic Paint Set is that it already comes with a diverse pack of brushes and 24 decent sized oil paints. Perfect for beginners and intermediate learners, this kit also comes with a canvas and an easel to help you get started on the whole painting experience.

This contender deserves the second spot, mostly because we like how this is an actual set where you no longer have to purchase different items separately—although, we’re going to be extra honest here: that’s really what we do!

In the context of things, the Caliart Acrylic Paint Set is a steal because it comes with decent to good enough paints that blend well. Its colors may not be as bright and vibrant compared to my number one choice, but it certainly delivers excellent acrylics. Stand out colors for us here are its reds and yellows.

More than anything, I think what makes this a promising buy is its color variety. Any artist who simply needs a ton of diverse shades will find this to be appealing. In my case, we enjoyed painting nature-themed paintings because of its rich blues and various greens.

For instance, I used a 7 by 5 canvas, reimagining a photo of the seas and skies, and by the end of my little project, I still had more than enough to paint to create similar paintings. One tube definitely goes far, and I’m very impressed!

Furthermore, its brushes are decent as well. They’re not as thick as I personally prefer them to be, but that’s just me being nit-picky. You can create a lot of landscapes like we did with this one, but this set is more marketed to hobbyists and beginners, versus commissioned artists.

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3.) Winsor & Newton Foundation Water Colour Brush Set

Best Brush Set 

Those who naturally gravitate around the painting scene know how durable and well-reviewed Winsor & Newton brushes are. At less than 20 bucks, you get 3 premium brushes that are ideal for acrylics, watercolors, and gouaches. Compared to its contemporaries, Winsor & Newton picks also have sturdier bristles and keep their forms for much longer.

This bundle contains two rounds and one flat, and I thoroughly enjoyed using all of them. My personal favorite here is, though, is Round No. 3. I like painting buildings and streets a lot, and I find that Round No. 3 in particular helps me seamlessly draw clean lines. Of course, this really all depends on what you like painting the most. If you paint a lot of portraits and landscapes, you’ll definitely benefit from how sharp and durable the bristles are.

Still, abstract painters will enjoy this set nonetheless. All three brushes are thick enough to be held, making an artist’s grip firm enough to breeze through different canvas sizes.

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4.) The Masters Brush Cleaner & Preserver

Best Paint Brush Cleaner 

There is no better brush cleaner in the market than General Pencil’s The Masters Brush Cleaner. Not only is this item used to get rid of paint stains, it also works great for makeup brushes. It’s ideally made for brushes that are used for acrylics and watercolors, but brushes used for other mediums are welcome here too!

I’ve been buying The Masters Brush Cleaner for years, and to this day, I still haven’t found another brush cleaner that’s as effective as this one.

Thanks to this General Pencil offering, it takes me less than a minute to clean my brushes. Depending on how much paint my brushes have after a session, sometimes it only takes less than 30 seconds, even!

It’s easy to use, delivers as promises, and is reasonably priced! On that note, this pick is truly one of the best art materials around today.

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5.) WOWOSS Paint Brush Washer

Best Paint Brush Washer 

There are plenty of things to like about WOWOSS Paint Brush Washer. For one, it provides a quick and convenient way to clean and dry your brushes. We also like that it comes with a removable strainer that provides a surface to clean bristles, allowing pigment to settle orderly in the bottom. If that isn’t enough a reason to buy it just yet, it comes with an airtight lid, too, making it a perfect painting companion for when you’re on the go or just in your studio.

It may look too small at first glance, but it can carry about 5 large brushes without it tipping over! I specifically like that it comes with a perforated separator, too, so I can be confident that some pigment won’t dilute the water quickly. More than anything, this little tin can-looking brush washer helps me be efficient.

My tip, though, to artists who use size 10 brushes and above, is to get a brush washer larger than this.

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6.) Junreox Watercolor Palette

Best Paint Palette 

At first glance, Junreox Watercolor Palette may look flimsy and unwarrantedly flexible, but that isn’t the case at all. I tested this palette at a time when I worked on three 4 by 8 canvases in one day, so I’d get a better feel of mixing multiple paint colors at once. I initially thought that I’d have to clean the palette after finishing a small painting, but its size allowed me to work on all three without having to wash the palette right away.

In other words, I was able to blend and add colors as efficiently as possible without having to disrupt my momentum. This piece of plastic quite literally kept me going!

It’s durable and holds paints fairly well. We also like that it has compartments for smaller brushes, helping artists like you paint more seamlessly and move around as necessary!

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7.) Winsor & Newton Refined Linseed Oil

Best Linseed Oil for Paint 

I started using linseed oil for painting not too long ago, and I’ve never looked back since!

Linseed oil can be utilized to change how paint acts. Dependent on the sort of linseed oil utilized, it will either accelerate or dial back drying time, changing the color and diminishing the obviousness of brush strokes. For this very reason, it’s important that you select the best in its category to ensure quality output.

On that note, we can’t recommend Winsor & Newton Refined Linseed Oil enough. Because I like to take my time when I paint, I like that this product specifically slows drying. This allows me to take a step back and decide if a brush stroke is clean enough to let dry or if I should re-do a section. I find that I use refined linseed oil the most when I’m paining intricate details like hands, eyes, or small text.

Additionally, I also like how Winsor & Newton Refined Linseed Oil improves my painting flow, allowing my hands to breeze through different parts of the canvas with ease and confidence. This item does have a pretty strong odor, though, so you’ll want to bear that in mind.

That aside, it’s perfect for oil paintings and so much more!

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8.) Artvorks Palette Knife

Best Palette Knives 

Depending on whatever I’m painting, I don’t use palette knives as often as others. Even then, I think it’s a necessity for any serious artist.

Palette knives help apply clean patches of paint on canvases or over existing dry paint layers. The blades let you swipe a layer of color onto the canvas in a motion that resembles smoothening a cake with icing on the side. Personally, I use palette knives the most when I’m painting trees, mountains, and essentially other forms of greenery and abstract art.

That said, we recommend Artvorks Palette Knife for that very purpose. Its 5-piece set packs just enough variety for all sizes, allowing you to be as precise and sharp with how you want your painting projects to turn out.

I especially like that these picks encourage firm grips, too, making it easier to blend and smoothen sections as necessary. Quite honestly, there are a ton of other more expensive sets like this online. But why buy expensive ones when palette knives like this set does the job just as excellently?

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Best Art Materials for Painting Summary

Overall, the best art materials for painting are those that allow you to be your best, inventive self as seamlessly and efficiently as possible. Whether they’re affordable oil paints or the most premium palette knives and paint sets, you get to call what the best is for you in this department. Still, I hope my roundup of the most well-reviewed picks for painting helps you streamline your search.

Did we miss anything? Let us know which art materials from this list you’re buying and which ones you’ve already used before!

Stay creative artists!