Supply List - Watercolor

Brushes

A good watercolor brush can be worth the investment as they can be used for many different marks. Even large round brushes can make fine lines if they are of good quality. I recommend Da Vinci and Escoda watercolor brushes. I also recommend Chinese ink brushes which tend to be cheaper but are also very versatile. A Hake brush is recommended for large washes. For some reference of brushes I have written a post on my personal blog. Here are some suggestions for which brushes to bring:

  • No 12 or 14 Round

  • No 6 or 8 Round

  • No.1 or 2 Rigger or line brush (fine brush)

  • 1 inch Flat or Hake brush

  • Sumi-ink brushes (Chinese ink brush)

Paper

  • 1 pad of cheap watercolor paper 190 g / 90 lb for rough sketches, experimental work

  • 1 watercolor pad, block, or loose paper, cold pressed with a weight of 300 g / 140 lb or higher

  • 4-6 of sheets of larger size, good quality paper

I recommend the brands Arches, Fabriano, Saunders Waterford, Canson Montval or Hahnemuhle paper 300 g / 140 lb or higher. In case you get a watercolor “block,” please note that each page is glued to one another, so they will have to be cut out individually. The advantage of blocks is that each page is flat and won’t buckle under subsequent washes. The disadvantage is that you can only work on one image at a time (as opposed to other loose page watercolor pads where you can work on multiple images at once if you prefer).

Paints

To participants who plan to continue painting in watercolor after the workshop, I recommend that the students get tubes of paint. Watercolor paint in tubes tends to be purer and more vibrant than watercolors in pans. A watercolor cake or pan set is fine however and most have a good selection of colors for beginning watercolor painting. Here are the suggested colors to get ( a good pan set like Winsor & Newton, Cotman, Daler- Rowney or Schmincke should have most of these colors):

  • 2 different types of Yellow: a warm yellow and a cool yellow (for example, Cadmium Yellow and Azo Yellow)

  • 2 different types of Red: a warm red and a cool red (for example, Scarlet Lake and Alizarin Crimson)

  • 2 different types of Blue: a warm blue and a cool blue (for example, Cerulean Blue and Ultramarine)

  • Burnt sienna

  • Yellow ochre

  • Sap green or Olive Green

  • Viridian

  • Ivory Black

  • White Guache

OTHER MATERIALS (optional)

  • Black ink

  • Masking Fluid

  • References of interest to paint from