So you're getting into oil painting

A well-curated five-piece set covering the shapes most used in oil painting: a round, filbert, flat, bright, and fan. Good quality hog bristle that holds up to scrubbing and heavy paint loads. The step up from dollar-store brushes is immediately noticeable — these move paint intentionally, not randomly.

Under $15 for a full set of white bristle brushes in a reusable zip pouch. Not as well-made as W&N, but entirely adequate for learning — they move paint, they clean up, and losing one or ruining one through misuse doesn't sting. The right starter if you're not sure you'll stick with oil painting.

Synthetic filament brushes come into their own once you're doing blending and glazing work. The Princeton Aspen series is specifically designed for oil, gouache, and acrylic — softer than hog bristle, they spring back cleanly and are excellent for smooth transitions, fine detail, and applying oil mediums. Add a couple to your kit once you've been painting for a month or two.

Fredrix has been making painting surfaces since 1868 and their canvas boards are the industry standard. Primed cotton duck, consistent texture across the pack, and cheap enough that you can paint freely without anxiety. Twelve boards means twelve paintings — more than enough to learn with. Buy two packs.

Competitive price per panel, and close enough in quality to Fredrix for learning. The surface texture is slightly smoother, which some painters prefer. Good backup stock for studies and color experiments when you don't want to 'waste' a good board.

Linen is what most serious oil painters eventually migrate to. It's smoother, more durable, and has a natural tooth that makes paint feel better to apply. The archival linen surface changes the experience of painting noticeably from cotton. Try one after you've painted 10-15 cotton boards and see if you prefer it.

Gamsol is the safest, most widely recommended solvent for oil painting. Nearly odorless, low toxicity compared to traditional turpentine, and effective at both thinning paint and cleaning brushes. Gamblin specifically formulated it with painters' health in mind. This is the one — don't substitute cheap odorless turp or hardware-store mineral spirits, which are less refined and more fume-heavy.

Oil paint dries slowly — surface-dry in days, fully cured in weeks or months. Liquin Original is an alkyd medium that cuts that time dramatically: surface-dry in 12-24 hours, which lets you paint in layers without a multi-day wait. Once you're working in glazes or building textured passages, this becomes indispensable. For your first month, it's optional. After that, it's hard to paint without.

Linseed oil is the original medium — the 'fat' in fat-over-lean. Adding a small amount to later paint layers increases flexibility, transparency, and sheen. It slows drying (the opposite of Liquin), so use it in final glazing layers, not underpaintings. A small bottle lasts a long time. Cold-pressed is paler and more stable than regular linseed oil.