Can anyone recommend good quality paints? This is what I need --?

Windsor and Newton

A lot of your choice in paints is going to depend on your needs. If you are doing fine art, that's different from illustration or "poster painting" Here's a quick guide to help: Acrylic: "Golden" brand is generally considered the best. Good flexibility, not "gummy" (unless you allow it to freeze), and GREAT color consistency and richness. They also have a line of "liquid" acrylics which are more runny, but without sacrificing the color richness. Acrylics take a lot of practice to master, but dry fast, so you can paint right over your inevitable mistakes. Oil: Daniel Smith is a great company to buy oil paint from. Relatively affordable, their paint is rich, buttery, and consistent. They also have a great selection of mediums to mix in with the oil paint. Oil paint takes FOREVER to master, and you will need to study, study, study the applications to discover all the possibilities. Watercolor or Gouache: Dick Blick makes pretty good watercolor paint. I know that watercolor painting sounds like it would be easier, or that it has a kind of "grandma used to watercolor" ease about it, but don't be fooled. Watercolor painting is easy. Doing it really well, is next to impossible without TONS AND TONS of practice. It is totally unforgiving, and when you mess up, you have to start all over again. Hope this helps. Let me end with: Learning to paint is very very difficult. Everyone seems to think that it is an "easy" way to express one's self. It is VERY difficult to do well. There are MILLIONS of bad paintings in MILLIONS of closets around the world. Leave the painting to the professionals. Amateurs generally piss off the experts when they insist their work is just as valid. Trust me on this.