Hobby tools can be quite expensive sometimes, and they shouldn’t be, as 99% are produced in China, and are imported with big markup anyway. The solution to pick up artisan brushes, cool templates, colorful pencils and handy tools for any kind of painting style is popular shopping portal with products from China – Aliexpress. Chinese are also largest arts & craft supplies manufacturer worldwide, so if you skip the middlemen you can get brushes, with free shipping worldwide and awesome prices, much cheaper than in any other normal crafts online store. Check our list compilation below and find great bargains on brushes and other art tools!
- „Cat tongue” brushes – I like those „cat tongue” brushes for gouashes, but they basically fit into painting with any type of paint. Painting with those is really easy and fun, and they are only $3.6 for whole set of 12.
- Angular shape brushes – They are for oil paintings and also for this „Bob Ross” type of nice landscapes, $9 for 13 brushes, always handy to have those in your arsenal.
- Sakura Water Brushes – They have small container which you fill with paint and just paint on the go, without even need to use a palette, just canvas or paper and those filled brushes. I am using this on a train or outside and they also to allow for nicely blending, because you are controlling flow of the paint by slightly pressing on brush. Obviously for watercolours. $3-4 per single brush, and you can get them even cheaper, if you buy whole set.
- Sponge Brushes – used for „weathering” painting and also for various techniques in mixed-media paintings – set of 20 is just $3.95 USD.
- Painting Knife or Scraper – Another Bob Ross type tool, it allows to add paint in lines as kind of dry brush. Set of 5 for less than 5 bucks.
- Aluminium Palette for Painters – Modern palette for 10 paints, usable for hobbyists and professionals, just $1.8.
- Pencil drawing tool kit – classy set of pencils for sketching everywhere you go, from 3H to 9B hardness. $4 for entire set.
- Charcoal set – 20 charcoal pencils in tube, for sketching on paper, $2.12.
- Professional markers for artist set – Markers are popular, especially in drawing manga, they can be a little expensive. This set however has great price, and you can choose from pre-determined colour schemes, most suitable for your work, like „Clothing design”, „Landscape”, „Architecture”, „Interior”.
As you can see, you can buy lots of painter supplies for just few bucks and they are available in many types and sizes – basically for any application, whether it is acrylic, oil or marker painting. Be creative and see what else you can find!
