mike here from new jersey, i personallu use holbein and schmincke, its crazy cause my lafybis an atrist and when i started she said i will have obne main go to paint which for me is holbein, and i will like colors from different brands then holbein and its true, so i cant really say i use one paint, only holbein most of the time along with schmincke, i have createx, wivked, jacquard, tamiys. vallejo, etc etc etc i can keep going i found buying starter packs from almost wvery brand that sold them to be beneficial, then i toom a weekend and compared yhem, with only useing one brush, so i guess basically what im saying is, i alot of different paint, but have a go to primary paint