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Supplies: I am providing a list of supplies that you will need. You can probably get them from your local art supply store but I will give you online links to art supply sites that I have been happy with.

• What to paint on? The patterns supplied are sized 8 x 10. You can use stretched canvas, canvas boards or even if you want to start out very inexpensively canvas paper pads.
• Brushes:
  • An absolute must for this class are rake or comb brushes and detail brushes. If you are going to a local store to buy your brushes, see if you can find two types of the rake or comb. These brushes look like this:
    
    You can see that they look uneven and a little raggedy on the ends. Some are more "toothy" than others. You need at least one as "toothy" as you can get it to get some real fur detail. You should try and get a set of rakes, at least 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8 inch.
  • You will need several detail brushes that make into a fine point. There is nothing more annoying that trying to do very fine detail, like whiskers with a brush that won't hold a nice sharp point.
  • You will also probably need a set of filberts for shading and putting in background, starting at at least 1 inch down.
  • Other than the detail and the rakes you can use whatever you are comfortable with. Many of the local stores as well as the online stores have brush sets that are very reasonable.
  • For acrylic work, you can use natural or synthetic bristles, but the natural bristle do not hold up as well with acrylic paint.
• You will also need transfer (tracing paper) to put the patterns on whatever you've chosen to paint on. You can use regular carbon but it makes a horrible mess. Art stores have artist transfer paper in many colors, but just get black for now.
• An inexpensive plastic palette is nice. You can just scrap off the dried paint but in a pinch just use some wax paper.
• If you plan on keeping your artwork or hanging it you should have a varnish fixative. I personally like Grumbacher or Blair spray varnish for acrylics. It comes in matte or gloss. Both are excellent and make the colors very vibrant.
• Now for paint. There is a big controversy that you must use the top quality, most expensive paint on the market. Well, that's nice but, just starting out you don't need to spend a lot of money. The cheapest paint I have found is not worth buying. It's hard to work with and the colors are not so bright and vivid. Personally, I like Folk Art (they also have artist's quality pigments), Americana, Ceramcoat. I will give you a list of the paint that I used to create these lessons. You do not need to use these exact colors. If you want to try to conserve and just want to buy one green and dilute it with white to make the medium and light colors, that's fine too, but here's what you'll need to complete these paintings.
  
  
  • White
  • Black
  • Dark Gray
  • Light Gray
  • Medium Gray
  • Blues:
    Ceramcoat Ocean Reef Blue
    BlueGray Blue (Ceramcoat Cape Cod Blue)
    BlueGray Blue (Ceramcoat Williamsburg Blue)
    Light blue (Americana Baby Blue)
    Medium blue
    Dark Blue
    Turquoise ( Ceramcoat Turquoise)
    Ultramarine Blue
    Lavender
    Lavender Blue (Americana Laguna Blue)
    Dark Purple
  • Greens:
    Dark green (Ceramcoat Dk Foliage Green), (Ceramcoat Forest Green)
    Medium green (Ceramcoat Foliage Green)
    Light green (Ceramcoat Light Foliage Green)
    Yellow green (Americana Citron Green)
    
  • Browns:
    Tan: (Folk Art Teddy Bear Tan, Folk Art Camel)
    Beige: ( Folk Art Parchment)
    Beige: (Folk Art Linen),( Ceramcoat, Territorial Beige)
    Dark Brown: ( Americana Dark Umber), (Ceramcoat Dark Burnt Umber)
    Golden Brown: (American Honey Brown)
    Terra Cotta
    Cinnamon Brown
    Burnt Sienna
    Ceramcoat Toffee
  • Yellow: (Ceramcoat Luscious Lemon)
  • Pink
  • Dark Pink ( Folk Art Sugar Plum)
  • Americana Melon
  • Bright Red
  • Dark Red
  • Magenta
  • Lavender
  • Bright Orange

Online art supply:
The following are places that I deal with and have had very good results. The prices are good, service is great and shipping is fast. These are by no means the ONLY online art supply stores and neither I or LVS can guarantee any transactions with these companies.

Blick Art Materials Large selection of art supplies.

Plan to devote approximately 3 - 4 hrs per week on the lesson and assignment.