Choose to either work in oil or acrylics, or both. 

COLORS:  Alizarin Crimson, Cad Red Medium, Cadmium Yellow (or lemon), Ultramarine Blue, Cerulean blue, Burnt umber, Raw Umber, Titanium White, Lamp Black, Yellow Ochre, Naples Yellow, Burnt Sienna, Sap Green. Get at least these colors plus any and as many colors you like.    Avoid all colors that say “hue”, for example:  “Cadium Red Medium Hue”.  They are cheaper and don’t have good saturation.  Splurge for the good stuff, especially in your primaries.  Often times acrylics don’t have the same names for colors, so just get any color that is close.  If you can’t find Lamp Black, get Mars Black or any other that is available.  Don’t substitute Iridescent White for Titanium White.  And avoid Ivory white if you can. 

OTHER SUGGESTED COLORS: Cadmium Red light, Madder lake, Dioxazine Purple, Hookers Green, Viridian Green, Indian Red,  Naples Red, Phtalo Blue, Prussian Blue, Cobalt blue.

PALLET:  I don’t recommend disposable pallet pads.  I do recommend anything larger than say 10 inches x 12 inches like masonite panels, plywood panels, glass or plexiglass sheets, etc.  I find that a plastic tray of some kind is best for acrylics.  Check at target, wal-mart or dollar general for plastic outdoor serving trays.  They make them with tops as well.  These keep paint from dripping off the sides and once the acrylic is dry, you can just peel it right off and start fresh.  At AC moore, you can get the pallet trays with BLUE LIDS.  They keep the paint from drying out as fast.  For Oil, a sheet of glass is really the best pallet.  You can tape up the edges to avoid getting cut and you can also tape up the back in a criss-cross pattern so that if it does get dropped, it won’t shatter all over the place.  Glass is really the ONLY good pallet for oil because you can scrape the oil off with a razor blade scraper  when it is time to clean.  Only glass works well with razors blade scrapers.  You can get them from wal-mart, target, home depot, lowes, and any place that has a hardware section.  I even saw them at harris teeter the other day.  Here is what they look like:                           

************NO LITTLE TINY PLASTIC PALLETS PLEASE**************

RAGS:   Two because one will be the extremely dirty rag, and the other will be the slightly dirty rag.

CANVAS:  Either canvas board, or pre stretched canvases.  You may use heavy paper, bring masking tape, or tacks to secure it.  Try to get canvases AT LEAST 18”x24”.   The bigger the better.  Jerry’s in Raleigh has cheap canvases, especially when buying more than a few.  On the first day of class, we may elect to all pitch in and buy canvases as a group.  Avoid pre-primed masonite panels.  They are terrible.  Also, if you get pre-primed canvas, still coat the canvas in one more layer of gesso.  So get GESSO!  Sometimes pre-primed canvases don’t take paint very well.  The extra coat will solve that problem.  You can substitute gesso for flat white interior or exterior Acrylic house paint.  Cheap stuff is at Home Depot or Lowes.  You won’t need more than a quart.  Please coat them before class and have them dry!!

PALLET KNIVES:  At least one.  I recommend a few.  One small, one medium, one large. 

VINE and COMPRESSED CHARCOAL:  Be sure to get vine or willow charcoal and compressed charcoal.  This is for preparatory sketches.

SCRATCH PAPER AND PENCILS:  sketchbook size is okay but I recommend getting a larger sketch pad (18”x24”)and 2-3 woodless graphites of various densities.  Again, if you can’t find woodless graphites, just getting sketching pencils. 

BRUSHES: Stiff bristle brushes, get one flat that is one inch to one and a half inches wide.  Two different medium sizes, approximately one quarter inch wide, choose brushes you feel you can work with.  The medium sizes are the ones you will be using the most.  You may want to get one flat and one round.  Get one small brush for detail.  Don’t spend too much money on brushes.  Somewhere between 4.50 and 10.00 can get you a good brush.  At least 2-3 large – very large brushes are good for experimentation as well.

 VARNISHES, MEDIUMS and TURPENTINE:  There are a variety of acrylic and oil mediums and varnishes.  They add bulk and texture to the paint and they also either help the paint to dry faster or slower, depending on your needs.  My favorite for acrylic is a mixture of Retarder, Gloss medium, and water.  This helps to slow down the lightning-fast drying time for acrylic, and improves flow.  For oil:  Damar Varnish, Linseed Oil, Stand Oil, and Odorless Turpentine.  This is a 1:1:1:1 ratio.  This does the opposite, i.e. SPEEDS the snail’s pace drying time of oil paints and also improves flow.  ***2 jars for medium mixture with lids***  Also, One bottle of Vegetable oil for cleaning instead of Turpentine.  Turp will be used as medium, NOT as a cleaner.  A SPRAY BOTTLE WITH WATER is recommended for acrylic painting.

MAIL ORDER CATALOGS:
OTTS               1-800-356-3289
UTRECHT       1-800-257-1102; www.Utrecht.com
JERRY’S         1-800-U-ARTIST; www.jerryssale.com
CHEAP JOES  1-800-227-2788; www.cheapjoes.com

--Soft body Acrylic paints in plastic jars.  These paints will be used to lay a foundation and will be used very liberally so they should be as cheap as possible.  I have found interior house paint to be effective.  Also, at A.C. Moore, you can get plastic containers of Windsor and Newton Galeria Acrylics in 250ml plastic tubs.  These are cheap and fine for our purposes. 

Titanium or other White                                                                    
Lamp or other Black                                                                      
Lemon yellow (or cad yellow or other) and yellow ochre  
Cad Red                                                                                 
Ultramarine Blue                                                                              
Burnt Umber                                                           
Raw Umber                                                           

--For the following paints, the student should choose an artist's quality tube paint in either Acrylic or Oil.  Some of these colors cannot be found in Acrylic so try to get a close approximation.  I highly recommend Oil.  All paints with an * are recommended but not required:

Titanium White
Lamp Black
Ultramarine Blue
Cerulean Blue
*Cobalt Blue
*Prussian Blue
Yellow Ochre
Cadmium Yellow or Lemon
*Naples Yellow
Alizarin Crimson
Cadmium Red Medium or light
*Indian Red
Burn Umber
Raw Umber
*Burnt Sienna
*Raw Sienna

--Students will mix all tertiary colors but may choose from these if preferred:

Sap Green
Permanent Green Deep
Emerald Green
Cadmium Orange Deep
Dioxazine Purple

Now, for the hardware:
-Brushes of many varying sizes.  Please be as intuitive as possible when choosing brushes.  As a general rule, there is almost no brush too large, but you can definitely choose brushes that are too small:

Two large, flat house painting brushes, one about 3" and one about 2"
One flat brush about 1"
One flat brush about 1/2"
One large and one medium-sized round brush

--Canvases at least 18”x24” (or canvas panels) Drawing paper 18”x24”.  Students are also recommended to have a sketch pad for schlepping around all the time and laying down ideas.

--Charcoal- Vine (willow) AND Compressed.   The vines are generally cylinder sticks and the compressed are rectangular sticks.  At AC moore, you can get a pack of about 10 or so for pretty cheap. 

-Students will need to have at least 5 paintings completed by the end of the course and larger paintings are mandatory.  I recommend against square canvases and, as with brushes, no canvas is too big!  

--One artist's soft white eraser (not gummy)

--For students choosing to work with Oil paints, these mediums are a must:

One quart Linseed oil or Walnut Oil
One bottle Damar Varnish
One quart odorless turpentine
One quart of cooking oil (Peanut, Safflower, Soybean, etc.)
**2 jars with lids for the medium mixture***  Also, One bottle of Vegetable oil for cleaning instead of Turpentine.  Turp will be used as medium, NOT as a cleaner.

--Miscellaneous:
Rags
Cheap plastic containers like those for yogurt or sour cream, with tops
One glass jar with lid for turpentine.  Again, larger is better
Work clothes including shoes that the student is not afraid to get dirty
A pallete preferably made of glass for easy cleanup.  You can cover the edges of the glass with masking tape to keep from getting cut. 
Razor blade for cleaning pallete