TERCOLOUR

WA

MATE R I A LS

MAD E EASY
s
by Bob Davie

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INTRODUCTION
If you’ve ever browsed through an art store, you’ll know there’s
an absolutely overwhelming amount of materials to choose
from.

Even when you’re sticking to just one medium, like watercolours,

you’re faced with hundreds of different colours, dozens of
brushes, a plethora of paper surfaces and a smorgasbord of
“essential” extras.

It’s enough to put the newcomer off before they start and it’s
little wonder the more experienced artist is often drowning in a
sea of barely-opened paint tubes.

If you’re a newcomer, you need to start with a very limited range

of materials.

If you’ve been painting for a while, but you’re frustrated by your

results, you need to get back to a very limited range of materials.

Why?

Because the more materials you own, the more thinly spread
your skill with each of them becomes. Or put another way…

You’ll produce more accomplished-looking artwork by

mastering a few key pieces of equipment than you will by
dabbling with dozens.

You’ll get quicker ‘wins’ and that builds your confidence and that
means you’ll stick at it with more enthusiasm.

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And besides, a small number of wise choices will give you all you
need to paint virtually all the subjects and styles you’ll ever want
to.

This guide shows you what that choice should be (at least in my
experience).

It will save you time spending hours deliberating over what you
need and what you don’t need.

It will stop you from spending money on equipment you simply

won’t get value from.

It’s not a comprehensive guide to watercolour equipment. You

don’t need that to paint stunning watercolours. It’s short and to-
the-point so you can spend less time reading and more time
painting!

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PAINTS
Here are the 8 colours I recommend starting with.

There’s a cool and warm version of each

of the primaries (red, blue and yellow)
and there’s a couple of earthy browns.

You can mix hundreds (thousands!) of

variations from this limited selection.

• Ultramarine Blue
• Pthalo Blue (Green Shade) or Prussian
Blue or Monestial Blue
• Cadmium Red or Vermillion or Scarlet
Lake
• Permanent Rose or Alizarin Crimson or
Quinacridone Rose
• Cadmium Yellow or New Gamboge
• Lemon Yellow or Cadmium Yellow Light
• Burnt Umber or Burnt Sienna
• Yellow Ochre or Raw Sienna

You can buy sets of watercolour paints but

you’ll get more value for money purchasing individual tubes or
pans (see below for tubes vs pans).

Artist Quality or Student Quality?

Go with student quality. Artist quality have richer pigments but

are considerably more expensive. Modern student quality
watercolours are excellent.

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 When you feel your paintings are
more accomplished, you might want
to switch to artist quality for your best
pieces and when you’re painting for
other people.

Tubes or Pans?

This comes down to personal

preference.

Tubes contain liquid watercolour paint

that you squeeze out onto your
palette. Pans are cake-like blocks of
dry watercolour paint that typically sit in a paintbox.

Pans in a paintbox are great for plein-air (outdoor) painting and

for travelling. However, you have to work a little harder to
activate the paint, which gets a bit tedious for large washes .

The vast majority of watercolour

instructors at ArtTutor use tubes
and that’s my preference. You’ll
find it easier to create stronger
mixes but you have to be careful
not to be too wasteful when you
squeeze the paint out.

Both tubes and pans can be

bought individually, although there
tends to be greater availability for
tubes sold separately compared to
pans.

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Brands to Look Out For

While we stay brand-neutral at ArtTutor, there’s an obvious

brand of student-quality watercolour paints that I suggest you
look out for:

• Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolours

These are affordable but still very high quality. Other good
brands to look out for include:

• Daler-Rowney Aquafine
• Reeves Student
• Van Gogh

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BRUSHES
Here are the brushes I recommend.

I’ve chosen a mix of rounds and flats and a mop brush for large
washes.

Sizes for the round brushes are more consistent between

manufacturers than with acrylic and oil brushes, with the higher
numbers representing bigger brushes (i.e. a number 16 round is
bigger than a number 8 round).

Flats are measured across the width of the ferrule (the metal bit
that holds the hairs in place).

Mop and wash brushes tend to be numbered in their own world,

so a number 6 round mop could be equivalent to a number 16
conventional round brush, for example. I’ve suggested a size in
cm / inches, which you can judge by eye when
purchasing:

• Number 4 and number 8 round brush

• 1 inch and 0.5 inch flat brush
• Mop brush about 1cm (3/8 inch) diameter
• Number 1 rigger brush

Sable or synthetic?

Sable is much more expensive than synthetic nylon

but is the ultimate in quality. Synthetic brushes are
very good quality these days and pretty hard-
wearing so definitely start with these.

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PAPER
Watercolour paper choices can be confusing and there’s a bit
more to consider. Here’s an overview of the important
characteristics that will affect your buying
decisions:

Hot, Cold or Rough?

Watercolour paper typically comes in 3 surfaces:

1. Cold Pressed or Not (denoting it is not hot

pressed)
This has a medium texture, ideal for most work
and is by far the most popular.

2. Hot Pressed
This has a much smoother surface after being
run between heated rollers during manufacture
and is ideal for pen and wash.

3. Rough
This provides much more ’sparkle’ and freedom
to a painting as the brush bounces over the
heavier texture of the paper.

Go for Cold Pressed (Not) paper most of the

time, with perhaps a few sheets of Hot Pressed
and Rough to see how they work for you.

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Light Weight or Heavy Weight?

Watercolour paper comes in a variety of weights or thicknesses.

Lighter paper will buckle and distort when you add a lot of
water. You can overcome this by stretching the paper before you
start or using a gummed block (see below).

Heavier paper is much more robust and won’t usually need

stretching beforehand. As such, it’s quite a lot more expensive.

The the most common weight of

watercolour paper you’ll see is 140lb /
300gsm. It’s towards the lighter end
of the scale but will stand up to
typical watercolour washes,
especially if pre-stretched. This is the
weight I recommend you go for most
of the time.

If you ever experiment with a very

wet style of watercolour painting,
with multiple layers of watery
washes, then consider 300b - 400lb/
600 - 850gsm paper.

Artist Quality or Student

Quality?

If you’re a newcomer, student quality is more than good enough

and a lot less expensive. It’s ideal for practising and learning how
to handle watercolours.

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Student quality paper is usually machine-made and typically less
durable than artist quality (meaning you can’t throw as much
water at it and scrub away it with your brushes).

Artist quality is typically hand-made and

will handle the paint more effectively. It
also won’t deteriorate over time (which
student quality sometimes, but not
always, can). If you ever paint a picture to
hang on your wall, or to give to a friend,
definitely invest in artist quality paper.

A great compromise is Bockingford

watercolour paper. This is machine-made
but very good quality. If you can get it
where you live, it’s a good all-round
choice.

Sheets, blocks or pads?

You can buy watercolour paper as loose

sheets, either individually or as a pack of, say, 10 sheets.

If you want to work upright at an easel, you’ll need loose sheets.

And if you do use a loose sheet, you’ll need to stretch it first if it’s
less than 600lb / 300gsm. Here’s a video showing you how to
stretch watercolour paper.

Blocks are pads of watercolour paper that are gummed together

around the edges. This allows you to paint on the top sheet
without it buckling (i.e. you don’t have to stretch the paper even
if it’s less than 600lb / 300gsm).

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When you’ve finished you’re painting, there’s a small gap in the
glue which lets you tease the top sheet away using a craft knife.
Then you simply paint on the next sheet.

Watercolour pads are like drawing pads - loose sheets of paper

that are either spiral bound or gummed at one end. They’re
great for sketching and practising because they act like a mini
record or your improvement.

You’ll need to tear out loose sheets and stretch them if you don’t
want them to buckle and distort as you paint.

My Recommendation

If you’re a newcomer, get yourself a pad

of student quality watercolour paper,
140b / 300gsm. If it’s available,
Bockingford is a great choice.

Don’t bother tearing out sheets to

stretch them. Yes they will buckle a bit
but that’s fine while you’re practising. A
pad will give you a nice record of your
watercolour journey!

Then get yourself a gummed block

(either student or artist quality -
whichever you can afford) and use that
for your ‘main’ paintings. No need to
worry about paper buckling because it’s already gummed down.

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If you’re a little more experienced, get the same as above but
perhaps treat yourself to a few loose sheets of artist quality
paper as well. You’ll feel like a pro artist!

PALETTE
You don’t need anything fancy for your watercolour palette.

You’ll find perfectly acceptable plastic palettes at

any art store or Amazon for just a few dollars /
euros / pounds.

You can even use an old plate or saucer - just

make sure it’s white and doesn’t have a pattern
that will throw you off when mixing colours.

Porcelain palettes do have a nice, solid feel to

them but they can be expensive and they won’t
make you a better artists.

Other than this my only tip is to go for a

palette with fewer but larger wells, rather than
lots of small wells.

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OTHER ITEMS
Here are a few other items that you’ll need for watercolour
painting and cost very little:

• Two water jars - one for cleaning your brush and the other for
making washes.
• Kitchen paper - for blotting, lifting out and cleaning excess
paint off brushes.
• HB pencil and kneadable eraser - for marking out your initial
drawing (i like Prismacolor and Faber-Castell kneaded erasers
best).
• Masking fluid and applicator (optional) - for preserving the
white of the paper. Or you can use a piece of clear candle
wax, though you can’t paint over this once it’s on the paper.
• Hairdryer (optional) - to speed up the drying time between
washes, although many watercolorists feel it disturbs the
paint too much.

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SHOPPING LIST
Here’s a checklist of the essential supplies from above:

Paints
• Ultramarine Blue
• Pthalo Blue (Green Shade) or Prussian Blue or Monestial Blue
• Cadmium Red or Vermillion or Scarlet Lake
• Permanent Rose or Alizarin Crimson or Quinacridone Rose
• Cadmium Yellow or New Gamboge
• Lemon Yellow or Cadmium Yellow Light
• Burnt Umber or Burnt Sienna
• Yellow Ochre or Raw Sienna
Student quality to start with. Stick to tubes unless you know you want
pans.

Brushes
• Number 4 and number 8 round brush
• 1 inch and 0.5 inch flat brush
• Mop brush about 1cm (3/8 inch) diameter
• Number 1 rigger brush
Synthetics are fine but go the most expensive you can afford.

Paper
• Spiral-bound watercolour pad, 140lb / 300gsm, cold pressed (Not)
surface (A4 / American Letter size is fine)
• Gummed watercolour block, 140lb / 300gsm, cold pressed (Not) surface
(go for a larger size i.e. A3)

Palette
• Cheap plastic palette with large areas for mixing

Other Items (if you don’t have them already)

• Couple of glass / plastic jars. Jam/coffee jars are fine.
• Kitchen paper
• HB pencil and kneadable eraser
• Pot of masking fluid

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 ONLINE SUPPLIERS

The suggestions below are based on either my own experience

and/or the experiences we hear about from the artists we work
with and ArtTutor members.

We don’t have any affiliation with any art supplies company. The
links below are not affiliate links (i.e. we don’t get any
commission if you buy from these stores):

North America Europe

DickBlick
www.dickblick.com
DickBlick has a fantastic range of art
materials at very competitive prices.
You’ll find almost anything you need
here.
Ken Bromley Art Supplies
www.artsupplies.co.uk
Terrific selection and a very easy-to-
use website. My go to choice for art
materials.

Amazon
www.amazon.com
You won’t find quite the same level
of specialism and choice as you will
with DickBlick but they do sell
Bockingford watercolour paper.
Amazon
www.amazon.co.uk
You won’t find quite the same level
of specialism and choice as you will
with Ken Bromley but you can’t beat
Amazon for shipping times and
costs.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bob Davies is the co-founder of
ArtTutor.com and delivers many of ArtTutor’s
courses and lessons. Other than high school
art, he is completely self-taught. His
mediums of choice include watercolours,
acrylics and oils.

He lives in the north of the UK with his long-

suffering wife Pam.

You can see a list of Bob’s drawing courses here >>

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