FOVA Supplementary Supplies List for Winter:

In order to be able to start work in painting in the second week of winter quarter, please bring:

  • Supports - You will need 15 gessoed supports approximately 12” x 16” in size for in class work. Suggestions: “Real Thing” Canvas tablet, 4x8’ of masonite or ¼” birch plywood cut into small panels, gessoed heavy weight drawing paper, gessoed illustration board cut into small sheets.
  • Paints - A starter set in either oils or acrylic paints – if you’re not sure, get a small set of acrylics. You’ll use them, even if you move to painting in oils

Suggested pigments are: cadmium red hue (medium), cadmium yellow medium, cobalt blue hue or thalo blue (also known as Prussian blue), cerulean blue, alizarin crimson or dioxazine or quinacridone violet, chrome green or sap green, yellow ochre, burnt umber, burnt sienna, black (mars black or ivory black), and a LARGE tube of white.

It’s often cheapest to buy a pre-assembled kit; they usually contain most of the colors

above, and that will be good enough to start with.

  • Containers – 2 screw top peanut butter size jars and a container for brushes
  • Medium – For acrylics: acrylic gel medium (gloss or matt, your choice) and acrylic glaze medium.

For oils, linseed oil (higher gloss) or walnut oil (less gloss); and bottle of Liquin glaze medium (a specific brand, less toxic than other prepared glaze mediums); also get a large bottle of cheap vegetable oil (like canola oil, safflower oil, etc.); and a can of turpentine or odorless mineral spirits.

  • Brushes - start with inexpensive brushes. Here are suggested sizes and types: # 8 round bristle; # 4 or 5 round bristle; # 1, 2 or 3 flat or filbert shaped synthetic (such as white talkon); small detail brush; a couple of sponge brushes in various sizes; (for oils, a fan blender); one good soft sable flat brush, medium size (#6); a 2-3” house painting brush or cheap bristle brush (Pro Art)
  • Palette knife – bent kind
  • Gesso ( you can use white latex house and we’ll have some in the studio)
  • Additional tools and supplies: Rags, pieces of stiff cardboard, sponges with various textures, an old toothbrush or hair brush, pretty much any thing that might make an interesting texture. Also several jars with screw top lids, such as peanut butter jars; rags and paper towels, latex gloves
  • Palette – For acrylics a “stay wet” palette. If you can’t afford one (about $15), you can fake it with a Tupperware cake pan with a lid that will seal tight. For oils, you can use disposable palette paper, or a traditional wood palette (or a glass or plastic version), or Susan’s favorite: a large, flat sheet of glass that gives you room to mix a lot of colors. If unsure, wait to see the first demos to decide.