Manny Cantor Center
197 East Broadway
New York, NY 10002
www.mannycantor.org
Introduction to Painting and Painting In Acrylic and Oil
Instructor: Jodie Niss
JNiss@mannycantor.org
All materials can be picked up at art stores such as Blick or easily ordered online. Do not buy brushes on
Amazon. Choose whether you will paint in oil or acrylic before buying supplies. The recommended
colors of paint will be the same whether you are painting in Acrylic or Oil. For Acrylic painters, it’s good
to know that Acrylic comes in many consistencies. Some Acrylic paints come with or without retarder
(retarder slows drying, paints without it will dry faster). Heavy-body acrylic is what we would
recommend to most new students. We will go over this list during our first classes. We recommend
brands of paint like Gamblin 1980(oil only), Utrecht, Blick, Winsor and Newton, or Golden(acrylic only).
Recommended Paint colors for oil or Acrylic:
Titanium White (need larger tube of .150 ml)
Cadmium Yellow Light (37ml tube)
Cadmium Yellow Medium (37ml tube)
Yellow Ochre (37ml tube)
Cadmium Red Medium (37ml tube)
Alizarin Crimson (37ml tube)
Burnt Sienna (37ml tube)
Burnt Umber (37ml tube)
Raw Umber (37ml tube)
French Ultramarine Blue (37ml tube)
Phthalo Blue (37ml tube)
Sap Green (37ml tube)
Viridian Green (37ml tube)
Optional Paints:
Indian Yellow (highly recommend)
Quinacridone Rose (highly recommend)
Quinacridone Red
Cerulean Blue
Mediterranean Blue
Cobalt Blue
Brushes are best selected in person to see and feel what you like. Purchase brushes based on your
painting medium (oil or acrylic). Bristol brushes give more texture and push, Soft synthetic brushes are
better for smooth application and blending. Try both! Watercolor brushes are great for detail and are
cheaper because they are shorter.
Recommended Brushes:
Stiff Natural Bristle Paint Brushes:
#6, #2, #1 Round
#4, Flat
#2 Filbert
#6, Bright
Soft Synthetic or Sable Paint Brushes:
#6, #1, #2/0 Round
#2 Flat
#2,#6 Bright
Optional Brushes:
Small watercolor detail brushes like # 20/0
General Supplies:
Canvas Pad - to experiment with your paints and do extra lessons like color theory.
Canvas 24” x 18” (or smaller)
Paint Box or toolbox to keep supplies in
Paper palette
Palette knife (metal)
Paper towels
Additional Supplies for only Oil Painting:
Odorless terpenoid (1 pint or bigger)
Cold press linseed oil (small amount)
3 or 4 closable containers for your turpenoid and linseed oil. You can cleaned-out out food jars
One of these soaps to clean brushes- Brush cleaner soap from the art store; or from the grocery, Dawn
dish soap, or my favorite is Murphy's oil soap
For acrylic-Paint:
Mediums to add to paint: get at least one. I recommend Fluid Medium.
Airbrush medium - makes the paint more like water
Heavy body( Gloss or matte) Medium- thickens the paint
Retarder (slows the drying)- is also often in other mediums as well
Fluid Medium ( Gloss or matte) - good for thinning down and pouring paint without it being too liquid
and maintaining shape.
Additional Supplies for Acrylic Painting:
Spray Bottle
One of these soaps to clean brushes- Brush cleaner soap from the art store; or from the grocery, Dawn
dish soap, or Bar Soap.
2 cups for water. You can cleaned-out out food jars
Optional Supplies:
Pencil
Charcoal
White Chalk ( to draw on top of acrylic paint?
Sketch Pad to take notes
