My downfall is Amazon. It is much too easy to press that “Buy Now” button. Or to fall in love with a technique on KZfaq and follow the link to the materials the artist has used and of course I need one of each colour. Then down the road I have these gorgeous supplies and I can’t remember what bought them for.

Overbuying on my 20 dollar budget is impossible. 🤭 I am actually constantly running low on essentials. And I am just keep telling myself that I can create some kind of art with what I already have, some people only use graphite pencils for the drawings, I can too.🤷We don't need much really, if we focus on creating not accumulating.

I decided early on that I would both budget my art purchases & only bring items in I actually wanted to use. That being said I do have a small stockpile of supplies that are nonperishable so if I don't work with them for a few months they aren't wasted.

Hi, I'm a 20 year old from Philippines. I just started creating art since last year and as a beginner it's exciting to buy a lot of art supplies until I noticed I am more productive during the days I only have few materials. Yes it's okay and it's fun to try other mediums and new art supplies but sometimes it's kind of overwhelming. Now I'm trying to stop myself from buying too much and just try to enjoy and appreciate what I already have and see what I can create out of it. Thank you so much for this video! ❤️ Even if sometimes I still get tempted to buy something I don't need yet, I'm trying to stop myself and your advices were very helpful I actually write some of what you have said so I can read it again and remind myself 🤣❤️

Another good rule is "never buy full sets", when you are starting out the primary colors are sufficient and when you grow into your practice you know which pigments you like best. You might try out a different color here and there and adjust your palette with time, but full sets are painful to use and you end up with 2/3 you never use.

It depends. I have a case of cheap, dollar store sketchbooks and a case of cheap, dollar store newsprint pads because I go through a lot of both, working things out before I do a final piece. I do not plan to keep those studies, and see no point in paying for premium paper to do them on. I also keep a set of cheap, kids watercolors around (Crayola educational, usually) and some cheap wc paper around to work out color choices without using my expensive (Danial Smith and M Graham) colors or cotton papers. I also have a couple of sets of artist grade wc that were purchased as I was trying brands to see what I favored the most. I keep tehm because, somehow or other, they ended up in convenient travel cases and I can just grab one and a wc sketch book to take in the field with me. (I use pans, exclusively, you don't want to see the mess I can make with tubes, and my DS and MG are put into pans before I use them. I live in a dry climate -11% average humidity, so I have no problem with the M Graham setting up for me). I still have my charcoals and soft pastels from college, although if I don't start using them again soon, they will probably go, too.

I think artists buy so many supplies because we like experimenting. Through that experimentation, we learn, grow, become better artists, gravitate towards our favorite supplies, and stop using others. I don't think we necessarily need to never buy supplies, but just don't go too overboard all the time.

I loved this topic! I have also heard the term, 'Full Set fever', where you have to have the 120 pencils and you buy the cheap set thinking you can just layer them... I have finally learned this lesson. I have another problem: collection of 'texture' items I have found from my 'recycle' or 'won't be able to recycle': Glass jars, fruit bag netting, aluminum wads, straws, paper, styrofoam forms from shipping or bubble wrap, old 'credit card offer' cards that make great marks, little plastic cup/lids from salad dressings and sauces. Is there a 12 step program? Thank you for posting!

Good advice. Have trimmed down my space 3 times now and all of what you have spoken about are keys to owning and using only what you need to create what you want right now. Never get ahead of yourself or your art. It never works out.

Thank you for sharing these thoughts and your ideas will help me a great deal. I have another problem, I “need” to have the entire set of the medium! I’m a Pen & Ink artist and I want to add color to my black & white drawings. I got some water soluble colored pencils. Then, I found Derwent Inktense! I decided I didn’t need anything other art supplies! 😊 But! I do love art supplies, but I try not to purchase what I won’t use. I have a lot of Derwent products and love them all! I still ended up with two watercolor paint pans that aren’t Derwent. I still have them, never used and probably won’t. I will find them a good home. I have to be careful about the videos I watch so I won’t be influenced by the cool art supplies! I recently fell for Caran D’Ache Neocolor ii Aquarelle. I was only going to buy a few colors I liked. I went back through the list and found I liked them all! I bought the 84 set. While looking for instructions and artwork, I found out they had a 126 piece set, but it was discontinued along with 42 colors. I started a search for the 42 pastels and couldn’t even find their names! I did find a New box of the 126 piece Caran D’Ache neocolor ii Aquarelle! In Switzerland it should be here soon. I apologize for such a long-winded reply, but I’m 70 and live with two cats. From my mountain top in middle Tennessee, where the hilltops kiss 💋 the sky 🌤. Have a wonderful weekend! Fran

Oh yah .., familiar story … thank you for reminding us that we don’t need every new thing on the market ❤

I have too much. I am retiring in 15 months and moving out of the country. So mine have a expiration date! I will gift 90% before I leave, but I am using them like crazy now!

Toooo late!!!😂 I bought loads of stuff 5 years ago,after a traumatic life changing event, and then again during the pandemic. I bought stuff for the future. Oh look, there's another thing I can learn to do! What was I thinking??? Uh, no, I wasn't thinking! So now I have supplies for junk journalling , art journaling, gelli printing, lino cut & printing, watercolour, acrylics, paper of every kind, and more, to last me 3 lifetimes. I gave classes, offering free materials. Not a dent! And it's overwhelming. I have a no buy policy this year. The start date keeps changing, but I'm determined - nobuy for the rest of the year 😊🤞 btw I'm really a Potter, have been for 25 years! Too many lovely things out there to do...

I call ahead, and explain that I have a health issue (which is true) that doesn't allow me to stand and walk around too much. I then asked them to please get me (I asked for the products I need and ask how much is it). Then I tell them that my husband will get them for me, while I wait in the car. And that's how I help myself regarding the local art stores, that are just like 2 or 3 near me. Now ONLINE BUYING... that's a different monster!!!! But, I am learning. I started a decluttering process like 2 years ago, and it has been a loooooong process, cause I gave away some things then I regretted it and bought them again!!!! But finally, I decided to buy only items that are sold open stock, and since I do know exactly what I use, I wont buy a full set of colored pencils everytime I see a new set I like. For real, how many lemon yellows do I need?! 😆 Only one. Sooooo, I sat down, I gave away all my budget friendly colored pencils, and from all the quality brands I had, I created a personal palette, with a full range of color, but I picked my favorite color from different sets, for example, I used to go to my Prismacolor White as my go to white, but the Chinese White from Derwent Drawing is the best white for me. So I kept that white, and got rid of all the rest. When I need a white, I'll buy that one, and that's it! The same rule applied to the rest of my art supplies, I got rid of my Pentel, Cray Pas, and many other cheap brands of oil pastels, and kept the Paul Rubens. Same with my soft pastels, gave away the Mungyo, Daler Rowney, etc and kept the Rembrandt, kept going with my acrylics, and watercolors, and pastels pencils.... It has been hard.... but I feel like .... I dont know how t explain... Relief?! Relax?... I dont know, I just feel better, but I do struggle when I watch some product reviews on KZfaq, and I want it all!!!! But Im not buying anything more.... I hope I can stay on track! Thanks for this video. I enjoyed it a lot! 🥰

Oh Susan you are so right! I'm going to clean my room asap!

I researched online the best colors that are lightfast. I read a lot of reviews and I decided which colors and how much I buy from those. I chose the basic colors plus some additional colors , I bought some basic brushes, water color paper, a pencil, a waterproof ball pen and that's it.

Very eye opening and informative😎🥰

This is all good information. I am the only person on the planet who should not stretch my own canvas. If I can sell for 3-4x the cost and not have them sit around-would be good 👍🏼

Really good advice here. Thank you

Green with envy

Guilty, but my problem is art catalogues. Just order, order, order!

A message to myself: If you have to buy a bin, that is a clue that you don’t have space.

Yassssssssss!

Yes I am! And neveeeeeerrrrr!!!!

Will I use it. Is it good quality. Is it lightfast. No to any of these questions and it wont make it onto my art shelf. I dont have thousands of dollars or space for it or the patience for cheap products that under preform.

Guilty as charges - it's awful