Dennis the Menace's Paradoxical Hair

Over the years I’ve seen a constant consistency of approach amongst people who wish to improve their painting ability. A consistency that is not always conducive to improvement. I always try to send out a recommended list of materials to give people an idea of what to bring along to my workshops. I try to keep the recommendations broad so that people do not feel compelled to go out and buy that particular ‘special colour’.
After these preparations, I still sometimes turn up to see the organiser distributing lengths of decorator's  lining paper for members to paint on and some desperately trying to borrow watercolour and pastels from others because they hadn't been told by the organiser what to bring despite having my list!!.
So often I see people working on the cheapest paper available, saying “its only a tuition day…I’m not using the good stuff..”
It’s strange how paradoxical learning art can be. If I’d brought along a roll of Izal (wonderful for working coloured pencil onto by the way..American readers may wish to look this one up..) and distributed it as the painting surface, I would get some very strange looks, especially if I told them that as they improved, they could then move on to Andrex and then blotting paper!
The paradox here is that when you’re just starting your painting journey, you should work on the best papers possible(even for practise!). As you improve and become an expert, then you can work on the cheaper stuff because your skills have improved sufficiently to cope with all the problems that inferior materials give you. This is why when you go to an art show, a demonstrating artist can use their skill to make any product look easy to use.
Brushes are another issue, you only need a couple of decent brushes, yet most people bring a brush holder that rolls out two yards long and contains all the brush bargains from the last ten years of art shows, each one with bristles like Dennis the Menace’s hair!!
Finally, paint..I ask people how many colours a professional artist uses, “Umm, three? Six?, eight?”, Another paradox! How come the visiting tutor is assumed to work with only a few colours, yet each student will probably have two Walmart or Fine Fare carrier bags packed to the gunnels with tubes!
Part of the problem here, I think lays squarely at the feet of people who sell to students. The baited tubes that offer the promise of success, such as ‘Mist over the moors Grey’ and ‘Hawaiian sunset Pink’. Also the manufacturer’s who rename colours, so that you end up with several tubes of the same paint under different guises.
So my advice, use a good quality paper, get a couple of good brushes and limit your palette to just a few artist quality single pigment colours, three bright primaries and two earth colours should do for starters. It may seem expensive buying artist quality materials, but you’ll benefit in the long run and your grandchildren will be really pleased with the gift of paints brushes and paper that you eventually no longer need!