Art Supplies for Beginners: What to Buy in St. Louis
Revised September 25, 2026
What are the essential art supplies for beginners?
Start with one medium and a short list. For drawing, buy a few graphite pencils, an eraser, a sharpener, and a sketchbook. For painting, add a small set of paints, three or four brushes, a surface, and a palette. Choose student-grade to start, and skip the extras until you actually miss them.
Keep reading ↓Her cart held a small mountain of supplies and she hadn’t drawn a single line yet. Dozens of paint tubes. Brushes in sizes she couldn’t name. A pad of paper so fancy she’d be scared to touch it. She came in to start painting and walked out overwhelmed, lighter in the wallet, and somehow further from the easel than when she started.
That’s the trap. Beginners think the gear is the hard part, so they buy everything, freeze up, and quit before the paint dries. The truth runs the other way. A small, cheap, honest kit gets you making work faster than a drawer full of stuff you’re afraid to ruin. Fewer choices. More marks. That’s the whole game early on.
So here’s the short list, how to buy it without wasting money, and where to find it around St. Louis. Pick a medium. Buy the basics. Start bad. Get better. You don’t need permission or a big budget, just the right handful of things and a reason to sit down.
What are the essential art supplies for beginners?
Start with one medium and a short list. For drawing, that’s a few graphite pencils, an eraser, a sharpener, and a sketchbook. For painting, add a small set of paints, three or four brushes, a surface, and a palette. Buy student-grade to start, and skip the extras until you actually miss them.
Notice what’s not on that list. No fancy easel. No forty-color set. No paper you’re scared to waste. The essentials are the things that let you make a mark today, cheaply, without a second thought. Everything else is a reward you earn once you’ve filled a sketchbook or two.
Pick the medium that actually pulls at you. Love clean lines and the scratch of a pencil? Start with drawing. Itching to push color around? Start with acrylics. The worst kit is the one you bought for a medium you don’t care about. Follow the pull. It’s what keeps you coming back to the table.
Which drawing supplies should you buy first?
Drawing is the cheapest way in, and it’s where most artists build their eye. You need three graphite pencils, a couple of erasers, a sharpener, and a sketchbook. That’s the kit. It fits in a coat pocket, costs about the same as a couple of coffees, and it’ll teach you more than any gadget you could pile on top of it.
The pencils that cover almost everything
Graphite is graded from hard to soft. An HB sits in the middle, a 2B goes darker and softer, and a 4B or 6B lays down rich shadow. Buy those three and you can shade the full range, pale gray to near-black. Skip the twenty-pencil tins for now. You’ll use four of them, and the rest just rattle in the box.
Grab two erasers, not one. A kneaded eraser lifts graphite gently and pulls highlights out of a shaded area, and a firm white eraser cuts clean edges. A cheap handheld sharpener finishes the set. Nothing here is precious, which is the whole point, because precious tools tend to make timid drawings.
Why paper matters more than the pencil
The surface changes everything, more than most beginners expect. Printer paper pills and smears under any real shading. A basic sketchbook with a bit of tooth grips graphite and survives an eraser without tearing. You don’t need archival cotton paper yet. You need pages you’ll actually fill. Buy the mid-size pad, not the pretty leather-bound one that ends up too nice to use.
One more habit beats any purchase: date the corner of each page and keep every drawing, even the ugly ones. A filled sketchbook is the real beginner supply. It shows you the progress your eye can’t feel day to day, and it costs nothing but the nerve to keep going.
How do you put together a beginner painting kit?
Painting costs a bit more, but a starter kit still stays small. Get a basic set of acrylics, three or four brushes, a few canvas panels or a pad of paint paper, a palette, a water jar, and a rag. Acrylics are the friendliest place to begin: water clean-up, fast drying, and forgiving of nearly every mistake you’ll make.
Which paint should a beginner pick?
Acrylics win for most people starting out. They dry fast, rinse off with water, and paint right over their own mistakes, which you’ll be grateful for often. Watercolor costs less and makes less mess, but it’s harder to control. Oils look gorgeous and teach patience, though the solvents and slow drying make them a rougher first date. Start acrylic. Branch out later.
On color, you don’t need the big set. A warm and a cool version of each primary, red, yellow, and blue, plus a white, will mix almost any color you reach for. Learning to mix beats owning fifty tubes. It’s cheaper, it packs lighter, and it trains your eye to see color instead of just grabbing the closest match off the shelf.
Brushes and surfaces without overspending
Three brushes cover the early going. A small round for detail, a medium flat for filling, and a bigger flat or wash brush for backgrounds. Synthetic bristles are fine and cost little. For a surface, canvas panels or a pad of acrylic paper beat stretched canvas at first, because you’ll paint more when each one feels a little disposable. Cheap surfaces make for brave paintings.
Should you buy student-grade or artist-grade supplies?
Student-grade, every time, while you’re starting out. Artist-grade paints pack more pigment, purer color, and better lightfastness, and they cost far more per tube. None of that helps a beginner much. What helps a beginner is making a lot of work, and cheap supplies let you do that without wincing at the price of every brushstroke.
Here’s the difference in plain terms. Artist-grade paint carries more pigment and less filler, so the color goes further and holds true for years. Student-grade stretches that pigment with fillers, so it reads a touch chalkier and less intense. For learning to mix, shade, and compose, that gap barely matters. For a piece you plan to sell or frame for decades, it starts to.
Upgrade one thing at a time, once you feel the limit yourself. Maybe your reds keep turning muddy and you spring for a better tube. Maybe a favorite brush frays and you replace it with a nicer one. That’s how a kit should grow, in answer to real frustration, not on day one out of a fear that you picked wrong.
How much does it cost to start?
Less than you’d guess, if you keep the list short. A beginner drawing kit, three pencils, two erasers, a sharpener, and a sketchbook, is one of the cheapest hobbies you can pick up. Painting runs higher, since paint and surfaces add up, but a small student-grade set still costs a fraction of what an overstuffed cart does.
Real cost depends on the medium and how deep you go. Drawing stays cheap almost forever. Watercolor is gentle on the wallet. Acrylics sit in the middle, and oils climb once you add mediums and solvents. The number that matters isn’t the receipt total. It’s the cost per finished piece, and cheap supplies you use will always beat expensive ones you hoard.
Buy small, then replace what you burn through. Within a month you’ll know which colors you reach for and which brush lives in your hand. Restock those. Leave the rest on the shelf. Your spending grows with your skill, which is the right order, because a bigger budget has never once made anybody a better beginner.
Adding up a day out downtown? See what a taxi costs in St. Louis.
Where can you buy art supplies around St. Louis?
You’ve got more options than the big-box craft aisle. Dedicated art-supply shops, campus and university bookstores, and independent stores across the metro carry starter kits and single items, and the staff can point a beginner toward the right pencil or paint. Search St Louis Near Me Directory for art-supply stores near you and compare what’s close.
Spread the search across the metro. Folks in Mehlville and Sunset Hills, out in Ellisville and Wildwood, or across the river in Waterloo all sit within reach of somewhere that sells the basics. A real shop beats a screen for your first kit. You can feel a brush, test the weight of a pencil, and ask a person who paints where to begin.
Don’t sleep on secondhand for the bigger stuff. A used easel, a stack of frames, or an old drafting table often turns up for next to nothing, and the hunt is half the fun. Our guide to St. Louis vintage, thrift, and antique shops worth the trip makes a solid map for that kind of treasure run.
Shopping for the artist in your life instead of yourself? A thoughtful starter kit makes a genuinely great present, better than another gift card. Our roundup of St. Louis gifts that are actually from here pairs nicely with a sketchbook and a set of pencils tied up with a ribbon.
Ready to gather your kit? Browse art-supply stores across the St. Louis metro on St Louis Near Me Directory, then start with one medium and the short list above. Buy small, make a mess, and add pieces only when you truly outgrow them.
If you run an art-supply store in St. Louis, the beginners reading this could be your next customers, so take a look at the Gold plan on St Louis Near Me Directory.
Frequently asked questions
What should a beginner artist start with?
Start with one medium and a tiny kit. For drawing, that means three graphite pencils, an eraser, a sharpener, and a sketchbook. For painting, a small acrylic set, a few brushes, and canvas panels. Pick the medium that excites you, buy student-grade, and make plenty of work before adding anything else.
What painting supplies do I need for beginners?
You need six things: a basic set of paints, three or four brushes, a surface like canvas panels or paint paper, a palette, a water jar, and a rag. Acrylics are the easiest to learn because they clean up with water and cover mistakes. Keep the color set small and mix the rest.
What are the 7 essentials of art?
Most teachers mean the seven elements of art: line, shape, form, space, value, color, and texture. They’re the building blocks every drawing and painting uses, whatever the subject. You don’t buy them, you learn to see and use them. Master these, and even cheap supplies produce work that reads as intentional.
What are the four fundamentals of art?
Definitions vary, but a common set is drawing, value, color, and composition. Some teachers swap in line, shape, form, and perspective. Either way, the fundamentals are skills, not products. They’re what turn a pile of supplies into a picture, which is why practice beats shopping every single time for a beginner.
How much do art supplies cost?
It depends on the medium, and starting is cheaper than most people fear. A basic drawing kit is one of the least expensive hobbies around. Painting costs more, since paint and surfaces add up, but a small student-grade set stays affordable. Buy little, use it up, and restock only what you actually reach for.
What art supplies should I get as a beginner?
Get the short list for one medium and nothing more. For drawing: three pencils, two erasers, a sharpener, a sketchbook. For painting: a small acrylic set, three brushes, canvas panels, a palette, and a water jar. Choose student-grade, spend your energy on practice, and add tools only when you genuinely outgrow what you own.
Is student-grade or artist-grade paint better for beginners?
Student-grade is better for beginners, hands down. Artist-grade carries more pigment and lasts longer, but it costs far more, and none of that helps while you’re learning. Cheap paint lets you work fearlessly and often, which is what actually builds skill. Upgrade to artist-grade later, one tube at a time, as you hit real limits.
Where can I buy art supplies in the St. Louis area?
Look beyond the big-box craft aisle. Dedicated art-supply shops, campus bookstores, and independent stores across the metro carry beginner kits and single items, from Mehlville to Ellisville to Waterloo. Search St Louis Near Me Directory for art-supply stores near you, and check thrift and antique shops for a used easel or frames.
Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.