Purchasing paints, paper and brushes etc from scratch can be expensive. But, as the saying goes- “you get what you pay for”. Learning the various water colour techniques is difficult enough without making it more difficult by using inferior equipment. The following is what I hand out to new painters who enroll in my Introductory Watercolour class.
Paints
1. Watercolour paints are normally manufactured in two categories; student grade and artist/professional grade. The difference (apart from cost) is that the student grade has more “filler” and less colouring than the artist grade. For students I would suggest that you get the best (artists) grade that you can afford. To offset the cost I would suggest you limit the number of paints you use.
2. Most local art suppliers will have at least one or two of the following paint manufacturers for sale:
- Windsor & Newton (English)
- Schminke Horadam (German)
- Maimeri Blu (Italian)
- Rembrandt (American)
- Daniel Smith (American)
They all produce paints of a high standard and personally I have a mixture of these manufacturers in my palette. It is important to note that colours can vary slightly with each manufacturer.
3. I started painting with a traditional “double primary” “split primary” palette and apart from a few minor changes continue to do so. I have a warm and cold version of each primary colour (red, yellow and blue).
My palette consists of:
| Blues | Ultramarine finest | Schminke Horadam |
| Cobalt Blue | Maimeri Blu | |
| Cerulean | Windsor Newton |
| Reds | Alizarin or Carmine | Windsor Newton |
| Cadmium Red Light | Maimeri Blu |
| Yellows | Yellow Ochre | Maimeri Blu |
| Indian Yellow | Schminke Horadam | |
| Cadmium Yellow Pale or | Schminke Horadam | |
| Cadmium Yellow Light | ||
| Cadmium Orange | Windsor & Newton |
| Earth Colours | Burnt Sienna | Daniel Smith |
| Burnt Umber | Windsor & Newton | |
| Raw Umber | Windsor & Newton |
4. I use Burnt Sienna(together with Ultramarine) for my darks. Raw Umber has also become an important coulour in my palette – particularly to “soften” hard colours.
5. When you start your water colour journey I would suggest that you start out with four artist grade colours, namely:
- Ultramarine Blue / French Ultramarine – blue;
- Cadmium Red Light or Alizarin – red;
- Cadmium Yellow Pale or Light – yellow; and
- Burnt Sienna – earth.
In addition you may wish to acquire some student grade colours to broaden your palette. You need to be warned however that the intensity of colour wont be the same as the “artist” grade You should be able to mix most colours with the three primary colours listed above (red, blue and yellow).
6. Finally I would urge you to acquire the tubes of paint as these paints will provide a more intense chroma and are a lot easier on your brushes than the small blocks of colour.
Palette
1. A palette should be a pale neutral colour and relatively easy to keep clean. It is also desirable to have sufficient room to store paint and mix various washes.
2. Remember these palettes will be required in the studio and en plein air so it would be desirable that the palette has a lid to avoid the paints drying up or worse spilling amongst your other gear when travelling to paint en plein air. Most art supply shops have a number of basic palettes available at reasonable cost.
Paper
1. It is important that you acquire the best paper you can afford. Good papers that take watercolour well will be 100% pure cotton. There are three grades of paper common to all paper manufacturers:
- Rough – which has a distinct grain;
- Hot press/H.P. - very smooth paper with little or no grain:
- Cold Press/C.P./NOT – a moderate or medium grain.
For your first classes I would suggest a medium grain paper and then you can gradually try the other papers to see what suits your particular style.
2. Paper can vary in weight and is sold in various sizes. As a general rule the heavier the paper, the more expensive it will become. However one of the benefits of the thicker paper is that it won’t wrinkle when it becomes wet. I would suggest paper with a thickness of 140 lb / 300gsm. To offset cost you can use the back of the paper of this thickness particularly to practice on.
3. You can purchase individual sheets of paper at the standard imperial size of 22” x 30”. I would then suggest cutting the sheets into quarters. Most suppliers will do this for you if you give them sufficient time to do so.
Brushes
1. Brushes –medium to large Kolinsky sable brushes can be prohibitively expensive. However most manufacturers now produce various types of artificial sable which, in my view, are every bit as good as the old sable brushes. Personally I find most artificial sable a little bit “stiffer” than pure sable and therefore easier to draw with. I prefer a brush that is large enough to retain water / colour for long flowing washes and maintains a sharp point. Accordingly I would suggest that you invest in a round brush size 14 – 20. You should be able to complete all introductory lessons with a brush of this size.
2. In addition I would suggest purchasing a rigger brush for long thin lines and a Hake brush for large washes. Both the rigger brush and Hake brush are relatively inexpensive.
Miscellaneous
A lot of these materials can be found around the home.
1. Painting board / sketching board – suggest 3-6 mm MDF board of approx. 25” x 20”.
2. Paint & decorator tape – sufficiently wide to tape the paper to the board.
3. Pencil – HB, 2B, 6B.
4. Water container
5. Sketch book – for notes and sketches.
6. Fiber tipped ink pens – 0.3 / 0.7.
7. Kitchen sponge – to control the amount of water in the brush.
8. Box of plain paper tissues (make sure the tissues are plain paper and do not contain aloe vera or menthol).
9. Standard school ruler.
10. If possible – a pocket colour wheel.