Exploring different art materials is like opening up new doors in your creative world. Each tool you pick up offers a different texture, mood, and way of expressing yourself. Whether you're returning to art after a break or you're just getting started, here's a deeper look into popular materials—how to use them, what they’re great for, and what to expect from each.
Coloured Pencils
Coloured pencils are a wonderfully approachable tool for artists of all levels. They're neat, portable, and come in an endless range of hues. With coloured pencils, you can create detailed drawings, soft gradients, or even layered, almost painterly effects.
Use them in light layers, building colour gradually to avoid harsh lines. You can blend with tools like blending stumps or even a bit of tissue. Some artists use solvents like rubbing alcohol for a smooth, painted finish. Try brands like Prismacolor for a creamy feel, or Faber-Castell Polychromos for sharper, crisper lines.
🖍 Great for: Realism, journaling, colour studies, portraiture.
Crayons
Crayons aren’t just for children—many artists are rediscovering their playful, expressive potential. Their waxy consistency gives them a resistance to water, making them perfect for layering under watercolours for a fun resist effect.
Crayons are also ideal for spontaneous mark-making and texture rubbings. Because they don’t blend easily, they encourage bold, intentional strokes, which can free you from perfectionism and help you get ideas down quickly.
🖍 Great for: Expressive sketching, layered mixed media, fun experimentation.
Oil Pastels
Rich, vibrant, and wonderfully tactile, oil pastels are perfect for artists who love to use their hands. They can be used to create expressive, energetic marks or gently blended with fingers or blending tools for soft transitions. The colours are vivid, and the medium stays workable—perfect for reworking and layering.
You can also use turpentine or baby oil to blend them with a brush for a painterly effect. Be sure to use a heavy paper or canvas, and spray with a fixative to preserve your work.
🎨 Great for: Expressive portraits, abstract art, textured layering.
Chalk Pastels (Soft Pastels)
Soft pastels create dreamy, chalky textures with deep pigmentation. They’re crumbly and dusty, so expect a bit of mess—but the results are worth it. Use them on textured paper (like pastel paper or sanded surfaces) to catch the pigment and layer your colours.
They blend beautifully with fingers or blending tools and are great for atmospheric work like landscapes or emotive portraits. Fixative spray is essential to keep your artwork intact.
🎨 Great for: Mood-rich art, dreamy colour blends, light and shadow.
Watercolour
Delicate, unpredictable, and utterly beautiful—watercolour is the medium of transparency and light. You work from light to dark, often in translucent washes. Techniques like wet-on-wet create soft bleeding effects, while dry brushing adds crisp details.
Try playing with salt for texture, masking fluid for preserving white, or layering glazes for depth. Don’t be afraid of its unpredictability—watercolour often teaches you to let go and flow.
🎨 Great for: Nature, travel sketching, calming creative sessions, illustration.
Acrylic Paint
Acrylics are bold, versatile, and beginner-friendly. They dry quickly, which means you can layer fast—but you’ll need to work quickly or use a stay-wet palette or retarders to extend drying time. You can thin acrylics with water for a watercolour effect or use gels and pastes for thick, impasto texture.
Acrylics are also fantastic for mixed media—they adhere to canvas, paper, wood, even fabric. They're a great tool for artists who like vibrant colour and experimentation.
🎨 Great for: Bold abstracts, murals, mixed media, expressive work.
Gouache
Think of gouache as a cross between watercolour and acrylic. It’s water-based and reactivates when wet like watercolour, but it’s opaque and matte like acrylic. That means you can paint light over dark, flat graphic shapes, or even soft gradients.
Because of its high pigment load, gouache dries to a velvety, vibrant finish that’s favoured by illustrators and designers. It’s a brilliant medium for sketchbooks, where you can layer and refine.
🎨 Great for: Illustrative work, sketchbook paintings, posters, layering.
Oil Paint
Oil paint is rich, deep, and a bit old-school—but in the best way. It has a slow drying time, which allows for hours (or days!) of blending and adjustments. You’ll need solvents like turpentine and linseed oil for thinning and cleaning, and ideally, good ventilation.
Oil gives an unmatched depth of colour and luminous glow, perfect for portraits and classic techniques. Try working with a limited palette to learn colour mixing—oils reward patience and layering.
🎨 Great for: Realism, fine art portraits, luminous still life.
Paint Markers
Paint markers are clean, controlled, and packed with punch. They often come in acrylic or oil-based forms and are excellent for layering over painted work, or for bold, graphic lettering.
Perfect for people who love street art or design, they offer a satisfying way to draw with the intensity of paint but with the precision of a pen. Try Posca pens for a bright, opaque finish.
🖍 Great for: Lettering, doodles, murals, mixed media finishing touches.
Fineliners
Fineliners are precise ink pens used for drawing, outlining, and writing. They come in various nib sizes and are often waterproof—making them ideal companions to watercolour or gouache.
They’re great for creating intricate line work like mandalas, zentangles, or stippling. Micron, Uni Pin, and Staedtler are well-known brands with archival ink that won’t fade.
🖊 Great for: Sketchbooks, journaling, inking, fine details.
Final Thought
There’s no “best” material—only what feels right in your hands. Some days, crayons will be your freedom tool. Other days, you'll crave the detail of fineliners or the glow of oil paint. Try mixing materials, too—coloured pencil over watercolour, ink with gouache, pastel and acrylic.
Art is exploration. Don’t worry about doing it “right.” Instead, let your curiosity guide you. Pick up a new material this week, and just play.
Your Art Toolbox: A Beginner’s Guide to Art Materials
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