How to Start a Visual Journal with Liquitex Paint Sets: A Checklist That Won’t Waste Your Budget

I’m the person who orders classroom art supplies for a small district. I’ve been handling supply orders for eight years, and I’ve personally made—and documented—eleven significant mistakes. The total hits roughly $3,800 in wasted budget. That’s not a brag. It’s a paper trail. This checklist is the one I wish I’d had on day one.

This is for art teachers, after-school coordinators, and small retailers who are tired of buying supplies that look great on the shelf and fall apart in practice. It’s also for the person Googling “how to start a journal” at midnight. Whether you’re buying one Liquitex Basics set or thirty, the steps are the same. Small doesn’t mean unimportant. I learned that from a vendor who took my first $80 order seriously, and I still call them first.

Step 1: Buy a Liquitex paint set based on the project, not the palette fantasy

You don’t need professional heavy-body acrylics to start a visual journal. The “you need the expensive paint” idea comes from an era when student-grade paint was chalky and uncooperative. That’s changed. Liquitex Basics is student-grade, but it behaves like a real acrylic paint. It still has pigment, it still mixes, and it dries permanently.

Start with a 12-color Liquitex paint set with 125 ml tubes. You get enough paint, enough white, and no clutter. If you already know you love the medium, the 24-color set is convenient, but I would still pick the 12 and add one or two tubes you actually need. For visual journaling, the extra colors aren’t the bottleneck. Your habit is.

Checkpoint: Does the set include a warm and cool red, a warm and cool blue, a yellow, white, black, an earth tone, and a green? If not, that set was designed for a different project.

Step 2: Find the Liquitex Basics acrylic color chart before you open the tubes

I once ordered 24 sets, opened a box, and handed out tubes while ignoring the color chart. A student wanted a cobalt-like blue and ended up with a dull navy, because the cap looked more interesting than the actual paint. The cap color is kinda a lie.

The printed Liquitex Basics acrylic color chart gives you actual painted swatches, pigment codes, and transparency notes. The color names alone won’t tell you how a color behaves when mixed with white or over another layer. Ultramarine blue and phthalocyanine blue are both blue. They don’t mix the same. The chart shows you what you’re getting.

As of January 2025, the chart is a free PDF and a printed insert in most sets. If you print the PDF yourself, print at 300 DPI on matte paper. It won’t replace the official printed chart, but it’s far closer than your screen. For brand-critical matching, industry tolerance is Delta E < 2. For an art journal, you just need a reference you can trust.

Checkpoint: Can you identify every color in your set by name, pigment code, and approximate tint strength? No? Keep the chart near your work area.

Step 3: Match the paper to the paint before you worry about technique

Regular copy paper is 20 lb bond / 75 gsm. Wet acrylic will make it wrinkle, bleed, and generally discourage you. For a visual journal, use at least 80 lb text / 120 gsm. These paper weight equivalents are approximate, but they’re the standard starting point printers use, and they’re useful for shopping.

A mixed-media journal with 120 gsm or heavier pages works well. Heavier watercolor paper is fine, but it can be expensive and bulky for everyday journaling. Make sure the journal lies flat. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to paint on page 10 while pages 1 through 9 slam shut.

If the pages are thinner than you want, prime both sides with Liquitex gesso or a gel medium before painting. Yes, it takes an extra hour. Yes, it’s worth it.

Checkpoint: Does the paper feel like cardstock, not printer paper? If in doubt, wet one page with a brush and see if it stays smooth.

Step 4: The honest answer to “how to start a journal” is a swatch page

The fastest way to start a journal—and the method that has prevented more wasted weekends for me than any other—is to make a swatch page before painting anything “real.”

Set up one page with a grid. Paint a swatch of each Liquitex Basics color, label it with the color name, pigment code, and date. Add a second swatch mixed with 30% white to see the tint. Let everything dry. Run a brush with water over the edge of one swatch to check how much it lifts. Write down what you see: transparent, opaque, dries faster, stains the paper.

It sounds boring. It is. But in the past 18 months, this habit has caught 47 color mismatches before they became mistakes. That’s the difference between “huh, this color is strange” and “I just wasted $890 of classroom budget on the wrong palette.”

Use a permanent marker for labels, not a water-soluble pen. If you don’t, the first drop of wet paint turns your reference page into nonsense.

Swatches first. Everything else is cheaper than wasted paint.

Checkpoint: Does your swatch page have at least 12 labeled swatches, each with an opacity note? If not, spend another 20 minutes there. Future you will be glad you did.

Step 5: Use the SAT score calculator and college GPA calculator for planning, not for doom

This one seems out of place in an art supply article. I know. But students I work with keep spending hours on an SAT score calculator or a college GPA calculator, trying to decide if they’re “allowed” to be creative.

An SAT score calculator can help you set a study target. A college GPA calculator can show you which grades will move the needle. Both are useful planning tools. Neither one is a verdict on your worth as a person or an artist.

Here’s a practical routine: use the calculators for five minutes, write down one action from the results, then close the tabs. The real work is the journal. That’s where you practice mixing, record ideas, and keep making things even when the numbers aren’t moving.

The question isn’t “what SAT score will get me into art school?” It’s “how do I keep making art while I’m also working for that score?” A visual journal is one of the best answers I know.

Try this: Can you name two facts from your calculator outputs? Good. Now name one thing you learned from your last swatch page. If you can’t do the second, spend time there first.

Step 6: Order small before you order big

I understand the urge to buy in bulk. The upside is a lower cost per unit. The risk is getting the whole thing wrong and losing the budget.

In 2022, I ordered 30 Liquitex paint sets before testing one. The spreadsheet said the price per set justified it. My gut said something was off because I hadn’t tried the paints with the mixed-media journals we planned to use. The gut was right. The sets weren’t defective, but the palette overlap with our curriculum map was wrong, and we couldn’t return opened tubes. That mistake cost about $1,400.

Now I order one Liquitex Basics set, one pad of mixed-media paper, one jar of gesso, and test with one class. If it works, I scale. If it doesn’t, I adjust. As of early 2025, a 12-color Liquitex Basics set retails for about $35 to $55 depending on the store. Verify current pricing before you make a budget decision—market prices move.

The vendor that takes a $60 sample order seriously is the vendor you want for the $4,000 order. Small orders are not a nuisance. They’re the trial run.

Checkpoint: Have you tested a sample order with at least one real student before placing the master order? If no, put down the purchase order.

Common mistakes I’ve documented

• Relying on screen colors instead of the printed Liquitex Basics acrylic color chart.
• Starting on page one of a journal without a swatch page. That’s a recipe for frustration.
• Assuming “non-toxic” means skin-safe. Check the label for the AP Seal. Some pigments aren’t intended for direct contact with skin.
• Using a college GPA calculator as a character test. It’s a formula, not a verdict.
• Buying professional heavy-body paint for every student when a Basics set would be more appropriate.
• Treating a small order like it doesn’t deserve good service. It does.

That’s the checklist. Follow it, skip the expensive mistakes, and make swatches. Done.