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Watercolor supplies
by Vincenzo
Watercolor supplies must be the first concern for those those who are going to embark into the adventurous world of watercolors.
However the material jungle contains a incredible amount of items and many boxes and sets of supplies often contain unnecessary items that might never see the light of your studio.
Even worse if you are starting out with watercolors, having a vast army of colors can make life just more complicated. |
Please, if you are starting out forget those boxes and sets and choose a few god materials and get to know them well.
Let's lay out briefly what are the basic watercolor supplies you need to start working proficiently with watercolors.
Watercolor supplies | Brushes
The main quality you should look for in a watercolor brush is a good spring in the hairs (good elasticity of the hairs), a fine tip and the capacity of holding water.
Brushes with natural hairs are certainly the best but can be quite expensive for beginners. Nowadays you can find synthetic hair brushes that will do the job as efficiently and that are much less expensive.
You need a flat, large brush for laying washes (25 mm); a couple of smaller, round brushes (n 5/6 and n10 might be a good combination to start with); finally a small n1 brush for finer details.
Watercolor supplies | Paper
Watercolor paper comes in a variety of surfaces, weights and sizes. If you are starting off with watercolor it is a good idea to start small. This because laying washes on large surfaces with watercolor is tricky and requires a bit of practice.
A good size to start with might be an A4 or a more squareish size (280 x 380 mm). You can probably buy sheets of this size or bigger and then cut into desired size.
Paper comes normally in three different surfaces types: rough, medium rough and hot/cold pressed the latter being the smoother of the three.
Rough is easier to start with because it absorbs water quickly which helps the laying of the washes. On the contrary the smooth surface might feel squishy and laying the color in a controllable manner could be trickier at first. The obvious advantage of the smoothest surface is the increased amount of details you can paint on.
Finally papers have different weights. As far as weight goes the lighter the paper the less punishment it can take. So light paper is ok for small paintings and light touch.
If you are starting out you might want to invest in heavier but more resilient paper, at least 180/200g.
watercolor supplies | Paints
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When it comes to watercolor supplies, paints are certainly needed but they are those supplies you can easily over-shop for.
Watercolor paints comes normally in two main qualities, artist grade and student grade.
Artist grade tend to be more finely ground (the pigment powder contained in the color is pulverized more finely) and for this reason tend to be more vivid and permanent than student grade.
Please make yourself a favor and avoid at all costs those super-cheap first grade school watercolors. They are not meant to be used for more than the scribbling of a 10 years old.
Paints may be bought in tubes or pans. Choosing between these two is a matter of personal preference. Tube colors are moist and squeezable while pans offer versatility and immediacy for the color mixing. However not really a crucial matter. Try both and pick the one you feel more comfortable with.
Ok, what colors should you start with? A good starting selection is Ultramarine, Raw Sienna, Crimson Alizarin, Cadmium Yellow, Cobalt blue, Burnt Sienna and Scarlet lake. It might be convenient to have also a gray to desaturate colors.
By mixing these basic colors you can pretty much produce the full spectrum and experimenting with mixing is one of the first thing you should do if you are just starting out with painting.
Here are a few ideas for nice watercolor starting sets:
Other items
Other things that you most certainly need if you are remotely willing to learn painting with watercolors are a drawing board (bigger than the mean size of paper you intend to paint on, for example and A3 board if you paint on A4 sheets); a few soft pencils and a piece of putty eraser which is easier than other erasers on the fragile watercolor paper.
You also need a palette which can come in many sizes and shapes, however nothing stops you from using a white plate to start with :)
There are other materials that can be used as sponges, masking fluids and easels but for now focus on the basics and start painting as soon as you can! We'll talk about the other materials in other articles about watercolor supplies.
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