Canvas is the traditional surface for oil painting as it has a 'tooth' or texture. The Winsor range of stretched canvases and canvas boards offers a full selection of sizes to choose from. For practising, you can of course use paper for preliminary trial sketches. Brushes Always use a good-quality brush. Good brushes are a pleasure to work with and will last far longer.
Polyester fibres can replace either soft hair or hog.
Some artists like cranked painting knives, which supplement brushes. Since paint is applied in strokes or flat slabs, they add physical texture to the surface of a painting. A palette knife is also useful for mixing large amounts of paint on the palette. You can remove unwanted paint from an area of your painting by scraping carefully, using the palette knife in broad strokes. This will remove most of the paint that you have already applied yet will leave enough to retain the image.