Art is a super rewarding hobby if you like being creative. With some simple supplies and paper,  you can create new worlds and characters on a blank white page. As a beginner myself, I know how intimidating it is to look at YouTube tutorials and see them using art supplies that collectively cost hundreds if not thousands of pounds. Over the years, I’ve become pretty savvy at saving money while buying art supplies. Even when I do splurge on things like Copic markers, I always make sure to get the best deal. Here are 7 tips for making your money go a bit further when it comes to buying your art supplies.

1. Buy kids art supplies instead of adults.

Brands like Crayola and Berol produce AMAZINGLY pigmented markers and pencils that will be just fine for any beginner. Crayola have a huge colour selection across all of their products and the quality is fantastic for the price.

2. Buy art supplies from pound shops.

This can be hit and miss, but I have found some amazing art supplies for such low prices in pound shops. If you are out shopping and have a pound to spare pick something up and experiment with it. Cheap felt tips make great watercolour pens. Cheap watercolours can be great for adding a quick wash of colour to illustrations where the painting doesn’t matter. Keep an open mind and be open to experimentation.

3. For wet media all you need is 5 colours, Just make sure they are the right ones.

For things like ink and paint you only need to buy 5 colours and from these you can mix any colour you want. Finding mixing difficult? it’s probably because you’ve been taught to use the wrong colours. Using Red, Blue and yellow will get you okay results when mixing colours but the outcome will often me really dark and muddy looking. Even though these ARE the primary colours, they aren’t really the best colours to use when mixing pigments. You will get better results if you use the same colours as the ink in your printer. Buy a really bright magenta, a bright yellow and a Cyan blue and you will be able to mix any bright colour your heart desires. Throw in Black and White and you can create any shade of any colour your heart desires.

4. When purchasing art markers, get refillable ones. When you get more serious about art you may start to covet expensive art markers like Copics and pro markers. There are so many options for art markers out there and they are all expensive! Which one should you choose? If you are serious about using them, I recommend any marker that you can refill. I absolutely loved my Copic markers when I got them, and after 1 college project where I used them regularly my skin tones and my greys had completely run out. This was after just 3 months of use. If it were not for the fact that they were refillable, I would have had to replace those 10 markers separately and it would have cost almost as much as a paid for the 72 pack I bought originally. The refill bottles cost just a little more than 1 single marker but they refill the pen around 15 times. This means that I spent more than if I replaced the pens, but in the long run,  I have saved myself hundreds of pounds.

When you get more serious about art you may start to covet expensive art markers like Copics and pro markers. There are so many options for art markers out there and they are all expensive! Which one should you choose? If you are serious about using them, I recommend any marker that you can refill. I absolutely loved my Copic markers when I got them, and after 1 college project where I used them regularly my skin tones and my greys had completely run out. This was after just 3 months of use. If it were not for the fact that they were refillable, I would have had to replace those 10 markers separately and it would have cost almost as much as a paid for the 72 pack I bought originally. The refill bottles cost just a little more than 1 single marker but they refill the pen around 15 times. This means that I spent more than if I replaced the pens, but in the long run,  I have saved myself hundreds of pounds.

5. Don’t buy artist quality materials if you are a beginner.

Despite what I said in the last point, if you are a new to art please don’t go out and buy a 72 pack of Copic markers. I did as a beginner but I was doing a fashion course and knew that I would end up using them a lot anyway. In hindsight, I wish that I had bought a set of cheap inks instead. You don’t need the most expensive paints, pencils, pens, pastels or whatever to practice your art. The work you create over the next year is going to be so much weaker than the art you’ll produce in 5 years time. The best art materials in the world aren’t going to make much difference if you can’t draw yet. You may have to work a bit harder with cheap art supplies, but just remember that when you do finally upgrade your work will get instantly better without you even doing anything.

6. Buy products you love in bulk.

Once you are very familiar with a medium and you find yourself running out often consider buying it in bulk. Primary school supply stores often sell  heavily discounted art supplies in class packs. If you love using things like crayons and felt tip pens then it may be better to buy them in packs of 50 or 100 than in packs of 10. It all depends on how many you go through. Wet mediums can also be bought in bulk. If you love acrylic painting buy 500ml bottles of paint instead of those little tubes. I’ve also seen 1-litre bottles of drawing ink. Have a look online and see what you can find.

7. Don’t buy any more art supplies until you have used what you currently have to its full potential.

If you are a complete art novice, and you have no art supplies whatsoever, feel free to ignore this point. However, I’m willing to bet that the majority of people reading this already have a bunch of neglected art supplies lying around their house. Before buying new things, have a look online and find some new techniques to try with the art supplies you already have. You never know what you will discover. If you want to save money, I highly recommend you try to master all of the mediums you already own before you go out and buy other ones.

Do you do any of these things yourself? If you have any other tips for saving money on art supplies please share them in the comments below! Thank you for reading!