ART SUPPLIES
Students must begin with enough supplies for the entire year.
If you’re returning and need help knowing what you need, please call or email. Students must begin each year with a full set of supplies, which must conform to our specifications or for the curriculum to work.
ORDER ONLINE
They’ll be ready for you on your first day of class when you arrive.
BIG SUPPLIES
Program
Foundations, Creations, And Cartoons
ages 8 to adult
Supplies come with a carrying case, an internal pencil case, and a tote bag. Order your full set of supplies online and they’ll be ready at the studio on your first class day!
SMALL SUPPLIES Program
KidsART
ages 6 & 7
NO ORDER NEEDED!
We have a monthly payment program for the KidsART supplies. Some supplies are shared, but each student has a box with items they get to use for entire the year, like scissors, markers, glue, etc. The classroom also has lots of paint, papers, brushes, and more. We’ll contact you about the program before you begin classes. It’s $8 per month, or $72 for the whole year.
Purchase Supplies
Everything is also 15% off the MSRP.
More About Supplies
Selected from experience.
Tested like crazy with students.
Below is a list of all the specific supplies that are used in our art lessons. We’ve been using this supply list for 15 years at Firstlight Art Academy, and Dennas has used and recommended this palette of colors for over 40 years. You’ll see a lot of basic and familiar items. However, we have streamlined this list as much as possible to keep the cost of supplies as low as possible.
You know how a bad brush is so frustrating you just want to throw it away? Well you should. A bad instrument creates an unhappy artist who will either quit, or create a frustrating work, and it will show. We have selected things that are the lowest expense, but that don’t frustrate artists.
Because the world needs happy artists!
Dennas
Firstlight students must have specific items for our BIG program lessons to work properly.
You can shop for them anywhere, but if you don’t get them from us, please make sure you get the exact supplies required by using the information below on this page AND CALL or TEXT if you have questions. If you show up without a specific item needed, or something that isn’t workable, you will be charged for what is needed.
FOUNDATIONS SUPPLIES
This list is used in all our Traditional art classes for ages 8 & up.
- Foundations (years 1 & 2)
- Creations (years 3 & 4)
- Expressions – advanced
- 14 x 17 Sketch Pad
- 11 x 15 Watercolor Pad
- 12 x 16 Fredrix Real Canvas Pad
- 12 x 16 Paper palette Pad
- Brushes – Set of 4 soft synthetic – Large Round or Filbert, Medium round or Filbert, Smaller Round, Detail liner.
- Waterproof India Ink
- Pen nib holder
- Artist Ink Drawing Nibs
- 2B Drawing Pencil (2 pencils)
- 4B Drawing Pencil (2)
- Ebony Pencil (1)
- White Soft Eraser
- Kneaded Eraser
- Soft Compressed Charcoal (2)
- Blending Stumps (3)
- Oil Pastel Set (25 colors)
- White Modeling Clay – high quality – not air dry clay and not polymer clay
- Prismacolor pencil – French Gray 90%
- Sandpaper Board
- Palette Knife set (plastic set of 3)
- Artists Tape or Blue Painters Tape
- Carrying case
- Set of 10 acrylic paint pigments (see below for names and descriptions)
TOONS SUPPLIES
This list is used in all of our Cartoon classes for ages 10 and up.
- Toons 1
- Toons 1
- Advanced Toons
- 9 x 12 Sketch Pad
- 9 x 12 Tracing Pad
- 9 x 12 Bristol Pad
- Comic Book Artboards Pad
- Pitt Ink Pen, Size: S (2 pens)
- 4B Drawing Pencil
- Non Photo Colored Pencil
- White Soft Eraser
- Reusable Modeling Clay – high quality
- Set of 48 Scholar Colored Pencils
- Pencil Sharpener
- Quality Mechanical Pencil
- 4B Mechanical Pencil Refil Lead
- Marker Set – Your choice of quality. We use the 20 set of crayola super tip for Toons 1 & 2, but there are many better options with a wide variety of prices.
Acrylic Paints
Here are our 10 required colors that work for our program. All the colors except white should be student grade, but student grade white is very frustrating to use. We recommend professional grade white. We try to use single pigment translucent colors for versatility.
These are pigments that produce the largest range of colors when mixed. You can make the most vibrant colors, yet mix them down into some beautiful neutrals using our methods of mixing. All of them are as translucent as possible (except white), which allows these to be used for glazing, and for making inexpensive student-grade watercolors.
Note that sometimes you’ll see the word HUE on a color, such as Cadmium Red Light Hue. This means there is no actual cadmium in the tube. That’s good because cadmium is a heavy metal and is toxic like lead. You should be able to see the pigments listed, or at least a number for the pigment.
Pigment codes use the letter P for “pigment” and basic color name initials next, such as Y for “yellow” and R for “red”. B by itself is “blue”, Br is “brown”, and Bk is “black”. So PR23 is a red pigment
Tap the bars below to open each into a more in-depth description with pigment information.
1. Yellow Light
Pigment: PY1.
Info: Intense yellow with no white or red pigments added at all. This needs to be a pure intense bright yellow.
2. Bright Red
Pigment: PR254, or PR170
Info: pyrrol red PR254 is usually the brighter of the two. Napthol is PR170
3. Magenta
Pigment: PR282
Info: quinacridone is by far the most vivid magenta color.
4. Violet
Pigment: PV23
Info: quinacridone violet PV19 is sometimes mixed in with dioxazine violet PV23
5. Ultramarine Blue
Pigment: PB29
6. Cyan Blue
Pigment: PB15
Info: cerulean PB35 is ok but more toxic, cyan PB15 is more versatile, although a derivative of Phthalocyanine Blue. There are many variations of PB15, a copper-based pigment, and several tubes that list this can actually be different colors. Cyan or process Cyan are the most vivid versions, usually.
7. Phthalo Green
Pigment: PG7
Info: get blue shade, if noted.
8. Raw Sienna
Info: this is actually a dark yellow, and can be made from various pigments: PBr6, PBr7, which are almost identical, and PY42, PY43, which are chemically identical. All of these are variations of iron oxides. The apparent color of raw sienna will vary significantly from brand to brand
9. Burnt Umber
Info: traditionally made with brown iron oxide PBr7, cheaper brands will use a combination of synthetic iron oxide red PR101 and a bit of mars black PBk11 to darken it. It works well though.
10. Titanium White - Professional grade
Info: larger tubes are economical and the professional grade will be used less.
FOR ONLINE STUDENTS:
What you need for our Online Art lessons and where to get it.
- A desktop printer
- Copy paper and card stock copy paper
- The supplies listed below
- Occasional extra items listed in the lessons
- A screen to view demos and resources
- A work area – with drop cloth if needed.
If you want to order from us, we can do a curbside pickup. Just email or give us a call.
Get your paper at any office supply outlet. Card stock is available in white if you look for it, and is a great worksheet print material since students can paint right on it.