Favorite Art Supplies of 2024: 14 Tried-and-True Picks for Painters and Illustrators

Introduction

Every year, it is worth stepping back and taking stock of the supplies that genuinely earned their place on the desk. This list is not about novelty or hype. It favors the tried-and-true: paints, brushes, pencils, and papers that see regular use, project after project, across acrylics, oils, gouache, colored pencil, and marker work.

The list below skips heavy technical detail like lightfastness testing. Instead, it focuses on how each item performs in real, everyday studio practice, so you can decide what fits your own style of making art.

Paints: Gouache, Acrylic, and Oil

Holbein Acryla Gouache is the standout splurge in the gouache category. It behaves like traditional gouache, creamy and matte, but the acrylic component means it does not reactivate with water once dry. The color range is widely regarded as one of the nicest available, and while most colors can be mixed at home, these are worth buying individually. It is a favorite for folk art and decorative projects, and white tends to disappear the fastest.

Golden Heavy Body Acrylic is the go-to acrylic for work that needs to last. The lightfastness ratings are strong, the paint is rich and thick, and the quality justifies the price for anyone selling finished artwork. Mixing custom colors means you do not need a large collection; a small set of high-quality tubes goes a long way.

On the oil side, Winsor & Newton oil paint is the long-standing favorite: traditional, non-water-based, and exceptionally creamy. It is often found on clearance at very reasonable prices, making high-quality oil painting surprisingly affordable.

Surfaces and Priming

Blick Premier stretched canvas with a gallery profile is the hands-down favorite canvas: strong quality at a great price, and the surface most finished paintings end up on. For smoother techniques, particularly detailed or stylized pieces, ampersand gesso board is another beloved surface with a subtle texture that suits folk art and “animals in clothing” style work beautifully.

Liquitex gesso deserves a spot in any acrylic setup. It is especially useful for priming sketchbook pages, so you can practice techniques on paper instead of spending canvas money on experiments. A bottle gets used steadily and is well worth keeping stocked.

The Brushes That Get Used Every Day

Brush choice is where consistency pays off most, and three Princeton lines cover nearly every need. Princeton Select brushes are the affordable workhorses: excellent quality for the price, with a huge range of shapes and sizes including mop, flat, and round. The one drawback is that they are all short-handled.

Princeton Summit brushes fill that gap with a longer handle and a feel that is barely distinguishable from the Select line, so they get used interchangeably. Princeton Dakota brushes are the pricier option in the lineup, with a long handle and very high build quality, and they are particularly well suited to oil painting.

Colored Pencils: Two Very Different Favorites

Caran d’Ache Luminance pencils are the premium pick, and the high price is reflected in very high lightfastness ratings and exceptional packaging that keeps leads from breaking. They are super smooth with beautiful muted, earthy tones that layer well, and they are the natural choice for finished pieces where longevity matters. There is a small learning curve if you are used to softer pencils, since they are not quite as creamy.

Prismacolor pencils are the other half of a genuine love-hate relationship: they break fairly easily, but the creaminess is hard to beat, the color selection is enormous, the price point is fair, and they blend beautifully. For casual work like coloring books, Prismacolor wins; for deliberate, long-form pieces, the Luminance set takes over.

Markers: Acrylic and Alcohol

Arteza acrylic markers have been a genuine revelation this year. The large sets offer plenty of colors, including lovely pastels, and the brush nibs are a rare feature in acrylic markers. Best of all, they require no shaking or priming to activate, so there is none of the usual worry about sputtering or leaking. They work wonderfully in sketchbooks and on craft paper for hand-painted wrapping paper, and they have largely replaced other acrylic-based markers on the desk.

Copic markers need little introduction, but they have earned a renewed place in the weekly routine. These alcohol-based markers blend beautifully, come with both brush and chisel nibs, and support refills and replacement nibs, which makes them a long-term investment rather than a consumable.

Sketchbook, Sharpener, and Everyday Extras

The Artica sketchbook is a quiet favorite, similar in spirit to other popular square sketchbooks but with thick, high-quality pages that hold up well to both colored pencil and Copic marker. Some bleed-through is expected with alcohol markers, but the versatility, fair price, and square format, perfect for filming or framed spreads, make it easy to recommend for everything from stress-relief doodles to bird studies.

For keeping a sharp point on colored pencils, the Mitsubishi pencil sharpener is the answer, despite eating pencils faster than gentler models. The quality of the point it produces is simply worth it.

Buying Advice

If you are starting from scratch, prioritize the essentials: one high-quality paint line for the medium you use most, a dependable canvas or sketchbook surface, and a small set of brushes rather than a huge assortment. Princeton’s Select line is a smart affordable entry point, while Golden and Caran d’Ache justify their higher prices when longevity matters. Everything on this list has staying power precisely because it performs consistently, so buy for the work you actually do and let the rest wait.

Conclusion

The best art supplies are the ones you keep reaching for, and every item here has earned repeated use across an entire year of painting and drawing. Whether you are upgrading one brush line, trying a new marker, or finally investing in a serious colored pencil set, any of these picks is a confident place to start.