I’ll second the speedball kit. I’d get a tube of their professional inks, as I am not a fan of the water based ink that comes with the kit. But it otherwise is a fantastic starter kit! I believe they also have fabric printing ink. It’s really hard to go wrong with them.

If you’re hand printing, I personally get better results with a heavier baren. You can use a jar or weight, I got one of those watercolor hand presses (I forget what they’re called) on Amazon for $20 and it made a huge difference in print quality. I’ll definitely be investing in a proper glass baren in the future. Thinner paper might also be easier for you to hand print on - I’ve had great success with Mulberry, but Speedball and Strathemore make nice papers as well.

I started with the speedball kit. I made a beetle sweatshirt recently using it, checkout my profile

i use graphgear 1000 pencils and copic pens and markers, but those are pretty expensive. id suggest just using whatever you have around for a bit and upgrading slowly.

Do you have a fine art supply store in your region? If so, I suggest going there. They almost always have individual coloured pencils available to try and buy. You can see how you like the feel of each brand they carry. Most fine art stores will have at least 1-2 high end options, 1-2 student grade options you can try. You can always ask an employee to tell you which pencil is in which category, but the price will probably give it away.

I'm a Prismacolor fan personally, but I have always liked Faber Castell and Windsor & Newton too. If you go with Prismacolor, there are some differences in the Scholar versus Premier lines:

Prismacolor Scholars have excellent coverage, feel very nice, and blend quite well. The leads are strong, not Crayola strength, but damn close. The Scholar line is widely available in the US and Canada, not only at fine arts stores but Michaels and Staples too. IMO this line is more beginner-friendly than the Premiers.

Prismacolor Premiers are exquisite but can be a real PITA lol. The coverage is incredible - the blending godlike - the pigments so rich and pure. The no-pigment blending stick is worth buying alongside a set of Scholars, IMO. But these pencils are fragile, some colours are more brittle than others. You have to be careful about how you store and carry them, and god help you if you drop them on a hard surface... the lead can shatter inside the shaft, ruining your entire $3 pencil crayon.

Ngl my best colored pencil peice (it was three peices of candy for a school project) was just made with crayola & like one other brands and baby oil

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If you can, just purchase a couple of singles (no sets) from various brands. Doodle a little bit with each brand and try blending. You may find that you just don't like the feel, texture, result, or even technique required of one brand, but maybe another brand really works for you.

You can get watercolor in tubes or a palette, I personally prefer palette. I have one with 36 colors, I still do some mixing but it’s SO NICE having most if not all the colors I need right there no mixing required. I use a Rembrandt palette but that’s kinda pricey, it has lasted me a very long time though. I have not tried other/cheaper water color but I’m sure there are some cheaper alternatives that are great . One thing I would not cheap out on is paper, I have tried some cheap water color paper and it was a nightmare to work with. My favorite water color paper is arches cold press 140 lb. Fabriano is also good. There’s cold press and hot press water color paper, and there is a difference in how the paint behaves depending on which one you choose (at least in my experience!) I personally found cold press is better for blending. If you’re going to try arches or Fabriano definitely order from some place like blicks, it’s cheaper than Michael’s or other art stores. Brush wise, I use Princeton heritage brushes and they work really well for me! Lastly as a heads up, your paper may warp as you paint. You can either tape the paper down from the beginning or you can lightly wet the back of the painting and put it under some heavy books for 8-12 hours when you’re done for the day(make sure the front of the painting is dry before you do this) Go nuts trying all the different things and have fun!!

I started 2 weeks ago. I bought two of those little watercolour sketchbooks. It keeps everything together so I don't have loose papers floating around and so far it's been nice to page back and see my progress. I do a little something every day. One book is smaller so every day I paint one small object in there. The other is a bit bigger and it's landscape which I use to follow online tutorials.

Water, paint, brush and paper

I was in the same place but I was frustrated because I couldn't draw. Whenever you can, make drawing a part of your practice.

Painting is DRAWING with a Brush.

This right here is a great set for beginners. It comes with a brush as well that is a good starting point for you. https://a.co/d/awczh8P

And this is a good budget paper: https://a.co/d/fIAQ0bj (I like my paper to be on the smaller side, I find big blank pages to be quite intimidating, but they have bigger sizes too).

It depends a little on the art style you're going for. Sennelier are the best of the best - very vibrant, oaque pigments in most colours and beautiful to use. They blend superbly because they are very soft. However, being so soft, they are not ideal for doing lots of layering. For this type of style you might want something slightly firmer. Mungyo Gallery Soft Oil Pastels (must say soft on the packaging - there are super cheap mungyo gallery which are different) are a little harder than sennelier so better for layering.

Another one I see mentioned less often: Paul Rubens Haiya. These are a Chinese copy of sennelier. I am going to go against the grain a little here and say I actually prefer them! They are as vibrant for most colours, but I find I get the black and white more opaque than sennelier. They are also ever so slightly softer. My art style is primarily focused around vibrant single layer blending, so this suits me perfectly. It also helps that they are dirt cheap - I'm in the UK and can get a set of 48 for around £10. The equivalent set of sennelier would be £68. It makes you far more likely to experiment and try new things.

Whatever you do, don't get pentel unless you basically want to use kids wax crayons.

Mungyo artist's quality are hard to beat for the money, sennellier are great but expensive and super soft. I tried Caran d'Ache aquarelle (water soluble oil pastels) for the first time tonight. They blend easily with normal oil pastels but are much harder. Easy to get a fine edge which makes them great when you need a clean edge.

I’ve just started with Rubens- quite good! Blendable and soft/ buttery

I posted a review on the Marie's oil pastels. I also really like Pentel. They have a horrible odor, but they are small and hard, so good for first layers and fine details!

Mungyo is super popular right now and really great! It’s what I use and pretty much everyone else I know. You can buy smaller sets. FYI the website Blick is the best for art supplies!!

Affordable coloured pencils: Prismacolor. If you need something more affordable than that, check out Sarah Renae Clark's channel or blog posts for her evaluation of every brand out there. Which ones are affordable will depend on your region, especially lately...

Markers: Ohuhu. They bleed like any alcohol marker, though. With markers, you're stuck choosing between bleeding (alcohol) or streaking (water-based). Again, if you need cheaper, Sarah Renae Clark has evaluated most brands.

Gel Pens: I second the Sakura recommendation. They are smooth and fun to use. They aren't that cheap, but you don't need a big variety of them.

I have sakura white gel pens for that little bit of sparkle, all the others I've tried have dried up/got glogged up after first use. I know tricks to get them going again, but it's annoying as hell.

My expensive coloured pencils are derwent studio. Nice, but I was pretty miffed that the 72 pencil set has no pure, solid red. So I got myself a set of staedler noris club and maped color peps. Surprisingly good! At least for my lazy hobby colouring, I'm very happy with them! I use them more than the expensive derwents.

I don't like water based markers, they all streak, but I got myself a cheapass set of alcohol markers off amazon, brand is called tongfushop. Some are a bit dryish, but generally speaking they are good, solid markers. Again, I'm a lazy hobbyist, I don't need splendor and eternally lastin stuff. And I had the options between grand total of two different sets that actually shipped to my country so... 😂

I have no idea where in the world you are and if my suggestions are even an option for you, but I wanted to put it out there that a lot of the "in between" stuff is good. The "not actually cheapest but not going to bankrupt me" category 😄

The pencils from Amazon, "Amazon Basics" is a 72 count set and are good for the price. Also, Temu has a 120 count set that is comparable to Kalour.

Crayola Premier are a good starter pencil but I think Kalour are the same quality or maybe even a titch better but cheaper. I am still finding out about gel pens and markers.

People sleep on twistable crayons!! They color so smooth and dont need to be sharpened!

Is there a certain style of art you want to do? There are different types of markers - alcohol-based and water-based are the most popular two. Posca are water based paint markers and they well blend differently than say Tombow water-based markers. If you aren't familiar with the differences in marker types, you may want to get just a few different ones and experiment a bit with using them. Or maybe post some references of art with the look you want to achieve.

I really like the Sharpie Creative paint markers.

tombow brush markers are really nice, fair price, easy to use.

Also don’t forget Michael’s does coupons if you get the app especially there’s always a 30%-50% off coupon!

i don’t know if they have paint markers but artist loft is usually my go to as a gateway to new mediums.

they’re not the highest quality materials, but you can usually find small kits for 5-10$ that’ll give you a bit of an idea of what you’re getting into and that way you can decide to pursue higher quality material if you want to continue to explore a new medium

Seems like most people here use alcohol markers and gel pens, or colored pencils, personally i use acrylic markers,which work great on high quality coloring books but regular paper will pucker from the acrylic (I still use regular paper with my acrylic markers though and the puckering is manageable)

I use Crayola SuperTips - great budget friendly water based markers and super useable :) I use them in colouring books and they are fine although they do bleed thru. 

I bought the cheapest ones so that way if I didn't want to colour anymore I didn't spend a lot of money. Got a set of 120 for about $30 on Amazon. I got alcohol markers. Actually started with the dollars store.

I'd save up everything you can, and get better pastels, even if its just two colors, brand makes a massive difference, huge, literally life changing.

Because no amount of practice with cheap materials will help your art or be satisfying. It just will not look right and you won't get a proper sense of what it all could be.

Get one sennelier oil pastel, just one, make it black, that will allow you to do all sorts, portraits, landscapes, sketches, shapes, value studies, it will change your life when you see what the real thing can do no joke.

I got two recently, just two small ones, thats all I could afford, and by gosh theres just no going back. I immediately wished I just got black for the versatility.

It's so important you get a sense of what oil pastel is supposed to be and look like, schoolboy level pastels just won't give you that. Thats the reason I never pursued oil pastels in the past because it just seemed so meh, but if you get the ferrari of pastels, even one, it changes the game drastically, its just so so so much more fun when you have master grade materials, and you'll progress a lot quicker when what you do looks good, guarantee it.

I'm a multimedia artist, have been for well over a decade. I can tell by your strokes that you're putting too much pressure on the sticks when you draw which leads to those chunky "kids crayon" lines--many people are drawn to oil pastels because of that beautiful texture, but if you are looking for a smooth blend, the technique is a little more different: you have to build up the color gradually in layers

Practice by taking two colors and very softly using a scumble stroke, one color overlapping the other in the middle. Press very lightly on the stick and focus on filling space rather than getting saturation. go back over a couple of times and gradually build up the color -- finally, take the white pastel and go over the two colors with medium pressure. that final white layer will really smooth out the color; it's kind of magical. It takes a little bit of practice but you'll get the hang of it.

These were made with crayola crayons, so don't worry about what you have; technique always trumps material quality. You'll be able to manipulate even these affordable sticks as long as you keep practicing and experimenting.

i have this exact set are you using a pastel paper? canson sand grain i think was the name has a bit of tooth/texture that helps with the use of “cheaper” pastels it makes it easier to blend.

i’ve also read you can use a bit of baby oil with the pastels though noting it won’t fully dry or will make it take even longer to set up a slight bit since oil pastels never really dry. or some say rubbing alcohol or mineral spirits.

that staedtler set really isn’t bad at all but the paper especially could really help you loads!

For content creators - check out wunemo or morning drizzle on youtube, they have some nice videos IMO. There doesnt seem to be many channels dedicated to oil pastels, unfortunately.

I'm just getting back in the swing with pastels but a long-time artist, and I'd suggest just trying one *professional-grade* pastel stick from a place like blick, but I think you'll find they are really affordable (compared to other pro mediums). I just bought a pro set there of 72 for about $37. (it's also on amazon). See if the pro version looks better for you.