Top Art Supplies Every Beginner Should Own (10 Essentials)
You scroll through Pinterest. Your feed is full of aesthetic, sun-drenched desks. There is a half-finished watercolor painting of a monstera leaf, a cup of black coffee, and a perfectly messy palette. You look at your own desk, which currently holds a stack of unpaid utility bills and a dried-out ballpoint pen.
You decide, right then and there, that you need a creative hobby. You need a way to decompress after fighting Nairobi traffic that doesn’t involve staring at a screen. You want to make art.
But then, you walk into an art supply store (or open a browser tab), and the enthusiasm instantly evaporates.
You are faced with a wall of 400 different pencils. There are tubes of paint with intimidating names like “Quinacridone Magenta.” There is cold-pressed paper, hot-pressed paper, rough grain, fine grain. The sheer volume of choices is enough to make you turn around, walk out, and go back to scrolling on your phone.
Starting a creative habit should bring you peace, not decision fatigue. The truth the art industry rarely tells you is that you do not need a massive, expensive wooden box of 120 colored pencils to start making beautiful things. You only need a few forgiving, high-quality tools.
If you want to reclaim your evenings and finally start that creative hobby, I have curated the absolute top art supplies every beginner should own. No fluff. No highly specialized tools you will use once and forget about. Just the beautiful, essential basics.
Top Art Supplies Every Beginner Should Own
The Foundation: Why Quality Over Quantity Matters
Before we look at the list, we have to establish a ground rule.
When figuring out what to buy for a new artist, the temptation is to buy the cheapest “100-piece mega art kit” in a plastic briefcase. Please resist this urge. Cheap supplies fight back. Cheap paper pills and tears when it gets wet. Cheap pencils scratch the page instead of gliding. When your materials fight you, you will assume you lack talent, get frustrated, and quit.
You will have a much better experience buying three high-quality items than thirty terrible ones. At Garo Gift Shop, we believe in sourcing premium, aesthetic tools that make the act of creating feel luxurious.
Let’s build your foundational kit.
For the Fear of the Blank Page (The Canvas)
The most intimidating thing in the world is a pristine, glaringly white piece of paper. Your first supply needs to be something that feels inviting, not terrifying.
1. A Premium, Heavyweight Sketchbook
2. A Pad of Cold-Pressed Watercolor Paper
If you plan on using anything wet, like watercolors or heavy ink, standard sketchbooks will buckle and warp. You need a dedicated pad of watercolor paper. “Cold-pressed” is the magic word here. It has a beautiful, bumpy texture that grabs the water and pigment, making it incredibly forgiving for beginners.
For the Sketcher Who Changes Their Mind Constantly
Before you lay down color, you need to map out your ideas. Beginner drawing kit essentials are all about finding tools that allow you to make mistakes gracefully.
3. A Curated Set of Graphite Pencils (HB, 2B, 6B)
You do not need an entire tin of 24 pencils. You only need three.
- HB: Your standard, everyday pencil. Great for light, initial outlines.
- 2B: Slightly softer and darker. Perfect for shading and adding depth.
- 6B: Incredibly soft and dark. It lays down thick, rich shadows that make your drawing pop off the page.
4. A Kneaded Eraser
Throw away the hard, pink school erasers that leave a massive pile of rubber crumbs all over your desk. A kneaded eraser is a game-changer. It looks and feels like a warm piece of grey putty. You can mold it into a fine point to erase tiny details, and it lifts graphite off the page by absorbing it, leaving absolutely zero mess behind.
5. A Quality Fine-Liner Ink Pen
Once you have your pencil sketch, you want to define the lines. You need a waterproof fine-liner (usually a 0.3 or 0.5 millimeter tip). The waterproof part is non-negotiable. If you try to paint over a standard office pen, the ink will react with the water and bleed black sludge all over your artwork.
For the Artist Craving a Pop of Color
You have your outlines. Now you want to bring them to life. When looking for the best art supplies for beginners Nairobi has to offer, bypass the messy oil paints and heavy acrylics for now. Start with mediums that require zero cleanup.
6. A Beginner Watercolor Pan Set
Watercolors are the ultimate beginner medium because they are inherently unpredictable. You don’t have to stay perfectly inside the lines; the water does half the work for you. A simple, high-quality pan set (the dry cakes of color, not the wet tubes) is affordable, lasts for years, and requires nothing more than a cup of tap water to get started.
7. Water Brushes (The Secret Weapon)
If you hate the idea of constantly cleaning brushes and spilling cups of murky water on your desk, buy a set of water brushes. These are nylon brushes with a hollow plastic barrel that you fill with water. You just gently squeeze the barrel to release water into the bristles as you paint. They are entirely mess-free and perfect for painting on the couch.
8. Alcohol-Based Markers (Just a Few)
If painting feels too chaotic and you prefer bold, flat, vibrant colors, alcohol markers are incredible. Unlike cheap water-based markers that leave harsh streaks every time you overlap a stroke, alcohol markers blend seamlessly. Start with just three or four colors in a specific palette (like three shades of green for botanical drawing) rather than buying a massive, expensive set.
For the Creative Who Hates a Messy Desk
You have the tools, but if they are shoved into the bottom of a drawer, you will never use them. Out of sight means out of mind.
9. An Aesthetic Pencil Case or Organizer
Your art supplies should be a joy to look at, even when you aren’t using them. A structured, heavy-canvas pencil case or a sleek leather roll keeps your pens and kneaded eraser safe from dust and prevents graphite from smudging all over the inside of your bag.
10. Masking Tape (Washi Tape)
This sounds like a hardware store item, but it is an art studio staple. You use a low-tack masking tape or Washi tape to tape the edges of your paper down to your desk before you paint. When you finish your painting and peel the tape away, it leaves a crisp, razor-sharp white border around your artwork that makes even the messiest doodle look professionally framed.
Frequently Asked Questions About Starting Art
Do I need to buy expensive brands to start making art?
No. There is a massive difference between “cheap” and “affordable.” You do not need professional-grade, artist-quality pigments that cost 5,000 KSH a tube. You just need “student-grade” supplies from reputable brands. Student-grade affordable painting materials Kenya crafters rely on will give you beautiful, vibrant results without the professional price tag.
What is the best way to overcome the fear of ruining a new sketchbook?
The “first page fear” is very real. When you buy a gorgeous, thick sketchbook, the first page feels too precious to mess up. The trick? Skip the first page entirely. Open the book to a random page in the middle, grab a pen, and intentionally scribble something terrible. Break the perfectionism immediately. A sketchbook is a diary of your mistakes and growth, not a museum gallery.
Can I just use normal printing paper to practice drawing?
You can, but it won’t feel good. Standard 80gsm printer paper has zero texture. Pencils slide across it too quickly, and it cannot handle heavy ink without bleeding. Upgrading to a basic 120gsm sketching paper will instantly improve how your strokes look and feel.
The Final Word on Starting Small
There is a quiet, profound magic in making a mark on a piece of paper.
When you sit down at your desk, uncap a fine-liner, and watch a line form on the page, the heavy stress of the day starts to quietly evaporate. You aren’t answering an email. You aren’t scrolling through someone else’s highlight reel. You are just existing, focusing entirely on the feeling of graphite gliding across a page.
You do not need to be the next Picasso to justify buying nice things for yourself. You are allowed to create simply for the sake of reclaiming your own peace.
If you are ready to build your creative habit, start with a beautiful foundation. At Garo Gift Shop, we curate premium stationery, high-quality journals, and aesthetic desk organizers that make the act of sitting down to create feel incredibly special. We deliver right to your door in Nairobi, so you can skip the overwhelming art store aisles entirely.
Gather your tools. Open the book to a random page in the middle. Put the pen to the paper, and just see what happens.
