Which art supplies waste a beginner's first €50–100, which cheap buys are false economies, and the short list experienced artists actually use.
Beginners routinely spend their first €50–100 on supplies that make almost no difference to the result. The art supplies industry is very good at making things look essential. Here's what experienced makers actually use — and what stays in the drawer.
Walk through any art store and the message is consistent: you need a set of everything. Seventy-two pencils, twenty-four brushes, an easel, a wooden case with a brass latch. Meanwhile, the working drawing kit of a professional painter fits in one pouch — a few graded pencils or charcoal, a kneaded eraser, decent paper, and a board to clip it to. The gap between those two pictures is where a beginner's first €50–100 disappears.
The mistake is not spending money; it is spending it on variety instead of quality in the two or three places quality shows. A drawer full of mediocre supplies teaches less than one good pad of paper and a handful of pencils, and knowing which art supplies last and which cheap ones fall apart is most of the battle before you spend a cent.
Almost never. A €40 case with 120 pieces spreads that €40 across 120 items, which means each pencil, pan, and pastel inside is worth about thirty cents — and performs like it. The pigments are undocumented, the pastels are too hard to blend, and the paper, when included, buckles under the first wash. These sets are assembled to look complete on a shelf, not to work on a table.
Experienced painters give the opposite advice: buy small trial sets from established manufacturers, find out which colors and materials you actually reach for, and only then buy bigger sizes of those. A twelve-color set from a real paint maker lists its pigments on the packaging; a no-name kit from a supermarket or marketplace listing does not, and that difference is visible in the result. Twelve colors you can trust will also teach you more about mixing than seventy you cannot.
An easel is the most expensive item most beginners buy and the least necessary. Professional guides say it plainly: an easel is by no means essential to start. Tape paper to a wall, clip it to a board, or work flat at a table — where watercolor has to be worked anyway. Buy an easel when your practice tells you which kind you need, not before.
The same logic applies to smaller gear. A coated paper plate or a pad of disposable palette sheets mixes paint as well as a €30 wooden palette, and several working painters recommend exactly that for starting out. Acrylic remover is essentially rubbing alcohol at several times the price. Specialized brush soaps matter for expensive brushes, not for the synthetic ones a beginner should be using. Most early frustration comes from habits — the classic acrylic painting beginner mistakes are almost all technique problems, and no gadget on that shelf fixes a single one of them.
If you paint with watercolor, paper quality decides more than paint quality — working artists who learned on cheap cellulose paper describe it as the single thing that held their progress back. Thin, non-cotton sheets absorb water unevenly, buckle, and dry too fast for blending or glazing, so the failure looks like your fault when it is the surface's. Most of the watercolor mistakes beginners blame on talent start with the wrong paper. Look for at least 300 gsm (140 lb) cold-press, cotton if the budget allows.
Student-grade paint contains less pigment and more filler than artist-grade, which makes colors flatter and layering harder to learn. Sets from established makers are still workable — professionals produce real work with them — but a small selection of well-pigmented colors outperforms a large set of weak ones at the same total price. If the choice is between upgrading paint or upgrading paper, upgrade the paper first.
Cheap soft and oil pastels are hard, refuse to blend, and behave nothing like the medium they imitate, so they can convince you that you dislike pastels when you only dislike bad ones. This is one category where buying a few singles from a quality range beats any bargain box. A working budget helps make these trade-offs concrete: a complete watercolor setup under €40 covers paper, paint, and brush with room to spare when nothing is wasted on filler.
Five items cover what the big kits promise and fail to deliver — each one earns its place in the everyday kit of working artists.
A cotton watercolor pad at 140 lb (300 gsm), heavy enough to take repeated wet washes without buckling. Cotton fibers hold water longer than cellulose, so paint stays movable while you blend and glaze. Check the weight and cotton content on the label — those two specifications matter more than anything else on the cover.
A set of twelve graphite pencils in graded hardnesses, covering light construction lines through deep shadows. Graded leads let you build a full value range without pressing harder and damaging the paper surface. A soft-leaning selection suits sketching and shading, which is where beginners spend most of their time.
A moldable grey eraser that lifts graphite and charcoal by pressing and dabbing instead of rubbing, so it never tears paper fibers or leaves crumbs. It shapes to a point for pulling out fine highlights. A multi-pack is practical because a kneaded eraser slowly saturates with graphite and needs replacing.
A synthetic round brush in size 8 that carries a generous water load and returns to a fine point after each stroke. One brush this size handles broad washes and most detail work within the same painting. Spring and point retention are what separate a dependable round from a frustrating one.
A pocket-sized set of twelve watercolor half pans with a fold-out mixing lid and a small travel brush. Twelve well-chosen colors are enough to learn mixing and color judgment without the overwhelm of a large palette. Pans from an established paint maker list their pigments on the packaging, which cheap kits never do.
Around €40–60 covers a working starter kit: quality paper, a few graded pencils, a kneaded eraser, one good round brush, and a small pan set from an established maker. Spending more at the start usually buys variety, not better results, because early progress depends on practice with a few reliable materials.
Rarely. The total price is spread across so many items that each one is low quality — undocumented pigments, hard pastels, and paper that buckles. A small set from an established manufacturer teaches more, and trial sets let you find which materials you actually use before buying larger sizes.
Student-grade paint from an established maker is fine for learning basics, though it contains less pigment and more filler, so colors run flatter and layering is harder. A small selection of artist-grade colors often costs about the same as a large student set and performs better. Avoid no-name kits entirely — they are the real trap, not student grade.
Paper first, especially for watercolor, where cheap non-cotton sheets prevent basic techniques from working at all. After paper, pigmented paint and soft or oil pastels are the categories where the cheapest versions behave so differently that they teach the wrong lessons. Pencils, charcoal, and starter brushes tolerate cheap versions far better.
No. Paper can be taped to a wall, clipped to a board, or worked flat on a table, and watercolor is usually painted flat anyway. An easel becomes useful once you know your medium, your typical working size, and whether you stand or sit — buying one first means guessing at all three.
