Wet palettes are a MUST - it helps save paint and you can use the colors you mixed again at a later time! This is what I'm currently using as it fits my small workspace. When I truly could not afford this, I used a container, sponge, and wax paper as an alternative. This is definitely worth the extra $.

These brushes are something you're just going to have to shell out for time and time again. I love this prand to death as they seem to last me the most amount of alters. I use various different sizes of spotters (extra small bois) and round (a bit bigger, covers more area of the card).

I only use a handful of colors from this line - they're really thick and great for getting the color payoff I want but I do have to mix them with my golden fluids to get the texture I want. I only use 3 colors; Titanium white, Cadmium yellow, and Prism Violet.

These are a great starter set if you want a lot of colors to get started with! These are a cheap way to get into alters (You can absolutely just use black, white, red, yellow, and blue and get most color payoff out of that if you know how to mix). I like this set specifically because it has two shades of purple - purple is a very difficult color to mix from standard paints and it just makes it easier. It also doesn't cost an arm and a leg! I also recommend in this category; Americana as well. They're cheap 50 cent paint bottles and I still use them for in-between colors if I have a hard time mixing paints.

These are my absolute favorite paints to use! These are on the HIGHER END if you do want to invest in better materials. I have not looked back since using these, and just one drop of specific colors can last me an entire 1-2 alters!