Paints:

Liquitex but you can get loads of good different brands I'm not sure one is better than the others and to start with you could use an inexpensive one. You can, of course, mix brands. (Don't mix acrylic and oil !!) I choose heavy body so it's thicker (soft body is more liquid). We also used a thickening gel/paste

Colours: You could always start with a box of mixed colours (you will always need much more white and probably very little bright red). Daler Rowney has a good introduction set with 10 small tubes (buy an extra white tube)

• Yellow: Lemon (hansa, azo or Cadmium light) + Ochre (raw sienna, yellow oxide or ochre)
• Blue: Ultramarine (a blue with red) Prussian (a blue with green)
• Red : Bright red (cadmium, crimson - one small tube will go a long way!) Brown red (burnt sienna)
• Green: Viridian (again you won't need much) and light permanent green (if you are feeling lazy, I prefer to mix a yellow + blue)
• Grey: Paynes grey (you don't need black)

The tubes last if you put the tops on tightly some of my tubes are 10 years old! It's a really good idea to do a colour mix chart (we don't do it in the course as it's a bit of a boring exercise). Just mix all the colours with one other (don't mix 3).

Brushes: Mine are synthetic brand is Jaxhair Flat #6, round #8 (for a painting 30x24 - if your canvas is larger choose larger brushes) + you will need a larger flat brush for the underpainting (any old cheap one will do even a house painting brush). I tend to avoid bristle brushes as the hairs don't seem to lie flat for me.

Supports: We used canvases but you can buy special paper for oil and acrylic or even paper taped around a board (these are obviously cheaper but difficult to frame. I use to them to practise!)

Purchase: My online store is Gerstaecker www.gerstaecker.ch