Learn Watercolor – Must Have Watercolor Supplies

Want to learn to paint with Watercolor? It can be overwhelming when you’re just starting out to know what you need. So here are my must have watercolor supplies.

Your comments on last Friday’s post left me overwhelmed with gratitude. I shared a few seascapes I painted in watercolor. Since being home, I’ve started painting watercolor, A LOT. I always thought I was bad at landscapes and seascapes until a few weeks ago, when I tried some. So I guess it shows the importance of practice, and the importance of a willingness to continue to try. I also want to share that I’m not a professionally trained artist. I studied Theatre Arts and English during my undergraduate education at Mount Holyoke College, and a Masters in Film and Television Production at the University of Bristol. Watercolor was something I always wanted to learn, but I didn’t take a class until Conor went to Kindergarten, and he’s now in 5th grade. Over the years, I’ve taken classes at South Shore Art Center, the Senior Center, and done online classes. I’ll talk about all of these toward the end of this post. I’m telling you all of this not to highlight my background but to let you know it’s okay if you don’t have a formal art background either. It’s never too late to try new things and dream new dreams.

To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.”

Kurt Vonnegut

I will tell you, with painting, some days are better than others. Sometimes I can paint and paint and paint. Other days…. The muse just isn’t there. I’m sure you’ll find your own rhythm as you practice, but I think the most important thing is showing up.

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The Basic Set Up – What You Need for Watercolor

• A light filled space to work. I enjoy painting in our sunroom (as pictured above) but also have a space on our landing which has good light.
• Paints (detailed below)
• Watercolor Paper (detailed below)
• Brushes (detailed below)
• Paint Palette (detailed below) with a wet sponge to keep paints moist between uses
• Water Containers – one for warm colors and one for cool colors (I like using Talenti Ice Cream containers or empty glass yogurt pots)
• Scrap paper to test paint on preferably the same type of paper you’re using
• Spray bottle: to wet paint in palette
• Paper towels – to wipe brushes, but also great to lift paint off paper to create clouds and other effects.
• Hair dryer to speed up drying time
• Coffee or Tea (just because it’s nice to sip while painting)
• Music and a candle (more relaxing)
• It also helps to be in a relaxed mood. I find if I’m rushing around or have too much in my head my painting reflects that. You need to slow down and be in the moment – much like yoga.

Learn Watercolor – Must Have Supplies

Watercolor Paper

Cold Pressed Paper vs Hot Pressed Paper – There are many kinds of watercolor paper at all price points. I’ll share ones I use. There are roughly two main kinds – cold pressed and hot pressed. Hot pressed paper is very smooth and is usually used for botanical illustration. The paper is very delicate. Erasing on this paper, or using lots of water, will damage the paper. For example, you wouldn’t want to do a wet on wet technique on this. Cold pressed paper has more texture and is more forgiving when using lots of water, or loose watercolor techniques.

Blocks or single paper – I recommend taping down your paper if it’s loose on a board or cardboard. I save old pads to tape onto. If you don’t want to tape down your paper you can purchase watercolor blocks where the paper is bound on all sides, which holds the paper down. To remove the paper (once your painting is all done) you need to use an exacto knife or a credit card. I prefer using my Ikea store card 😉 Below you can see some of the blocks by Arches.

Cold Pressed Papers I like and Why I like them –

Arches 140 lb Cold Pressed Block – Many teachers will tell you this is the best paper. It is wonderful to work on BUT it is pricey. Many students in class would worry about “ruining” their expensive paper. I enjoy working with this especially when doing wet on wet.

Arches Rough 140 lb Cold Pressed Block – Ultra textured and can hold lots of water. Fun for waves or heavy water. It absorbs the water quickly. You can see the heavy grain in the picture below:

Strathmore Watercolor Paper 400 series – This doesn’t have as defined a grain and can be used for both botanical or more expressionistic watercolor. It’s at reasonable price point.

Canson XL Watercolor Paper – This paper doesn’t have a very defined grain either and I like to practice on it, and also like to use it if I’m making prints of my work, since you can’t see the grain in photos or scans. It’s very affordable, so great for beginners.

Fabriano Postcards – Lately I’ve been painting little seascapes and landscapes on these and LOVE them. They have a lovely texture and are able to take a lot of water for wet on wet, if I tape them down with washi tape.

Arches Hot Pressed 140 lb Block – expensive but wonderful if you’re doing botanical illustration.

Palettes

I have two kinds of palettes. I have a plastic palette that has a lid with various mixing areas. I keep a wet sponge inside to keep my paints from drying out. The paint I buy comes in tubes and I squeeze them out into the pans. This is the palette I have.

My palette is very messy and I’m sure artists are cringing looking at this 😉 One teacher recommended the John Pike palette but I just found it too big to work with.

I also have a ceramic palette that I use for seascapes.

Watercolor Paints

Watercolor paints can be very expensive and come in tubes or pans. I’m partial to tubes. Teachers will tell you that Windsor & Newton are the best, but they can be very expensive and the prices vary based on the colors due to their chemical make up. The brands I usually buy are:

• Winsor & Newton
• Daniel Smith
• DaVinci

The more you paint, the more colors you’ll collect. I have lots of blues because I love blue.

Colors recommended for one of my art classes were:

• Yellows – New Gamboge and one of Aureolin Yellow or Lemon Yellow,
• Warm Reds – Cadmium Red Light or Vermillion
• Cool Reds – Permanent Rose or Alizarin
• Blues – Any of Ultramarine Blue, Prussian Blue, or Antwerp Blue

Optional Colors

Cerulean Blue, Viridian, Thalo Blue, Thalo Green, Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, Opaque White. I also like Payne’s Gray.

I also have these pan sets by Jane Davenport and I love the purples for flowers. These are great to take with you if you’re going away or traveling. They are more opaque than other watercolor paints though.

Brushes

Like paints you’ll end up collecting them over time and you’ll find your favorites.

These are the brushes I use most days:

To start with you really only need 1 inch flat, rounds in 10 and 12 and smaller rounds 4 and 6 if you’re doing more detailed or botanical painting. For some reason I like round brushes better and my favorite is the number 2 Mop. Here’s a list of the brushes pictured above.

• Utrecht 40 Round
• Princeton Flat Brush – Use for loading the paper with water and washes in between coats of paint
• Cotman Flat 3/4″
• Princeton velvetouch 12, 10, 8, 6
• Sable Round 4
• Cotman Flat 1/2″
• Raphael Mop 2

Other brushes I use:

The angle brushes are actually for acrylic paint but can be used to lift watercolor off the paper. The smaller brushes are great for fine detail work.

Items for Drawing

You may not realize this but many times people draw an outline or sketch under their watercolors. For seascapes I don’t draw anything in at all but paint everything. For illustrations I usually draw the container. For botanical I draw everything on on tracing paper first and transfer to watercolor paper.

• Pencil Set
• Kneaded eraser
• Mars Plastic Eraser
• mechanical pencil – great for really detailed
• Tombow Mono Eraser
• Prismacolor sharpener
• Pencil Case – is from my Society6 shop

Additional Items for Watercolor

For watercolor and ink illustrations I like to use Micron pens. I use the Micron .005 in black but also like brown.

I use Jelly Roll pens in white and also white acrylic paint to add more details to seascapes. Use acrylic brushes to apply.

I also like taping my paper down with washi tape because it’s fun and prevents the paper from warping and rolling! It also gives you a nice border.

I realize this is kind of a long post but wanted to give you a list of everything I use and find helpful if you want to start a watercolor practice at home. If you’re new to painting you might like these resources which I have found helpful:

Online Classes

• Watercolor Tutorials by Lucy from Craftberry Bush. Lucy offers YouTube videos, as well as detailed blog posts.
• Jeanne Oliver has great online classes
• I’m a big fan of Skillshare and as a special gift to you guys – get a free 2-Week trial of Skillshare Premium Membership click here.
• Searching YouTube is also a great way to learn new things

Books

• Classic Style by Kate Schelter is more a book about style but I LOVE her watercolor illustrations.
• Watercolor Fruit & Vegetable Portraits by Billy Showell – lovely book of watercolor illustration or fruits and vegetables.
• Billy Showell’s Botanical Painting in Watercolor – lovely inspiration with loads of flowers
• Anna Mason’s Watercolor World and Anna Mason’s Modern Flower Painter – Anna paints very large and has a beautiful style.
• Everyday Watercolor by Jenna Rainey – Perfect book for a beginner but also great for a more experienced painter.

I also highly recommend taking classes at senior centers, community classes, and art centers once we’re able to leave our homes. It is wonderful and supportive to be in a classroom setting with other painters. I’ve learned so much from teachers, but also other students.

I’m still learning so much and I guess that’s why I haven’t posted anything concrete about watercolor except for giving free printables.

If you enjoy my artwork I have some notecards listed in my online shop and other home decor items in my Society6 shop. I will be adding original artwork to the online shop in the coming weeks. Please let me know if you have any questions about watercolor materials or if you’d like to me to do a post on watercolor color theory.

Creativity doesn’t wait for that perfect moment. It fashions its own perfect moments out of ordinary ones.” 

Bruce Garrabrandt

So if you’ve always wanted to try watercolor, now is the time!