Watercolour Materials for Beginners
Watercolour Materials for Beginners
For the complete beginner the world of watercolour is an inviting place, but can also be very confusing. With so many materials available how on earth do you decided what you should buy to get started?
Simply put, always buy the best materials you can afford.
Watercolour is a very sensitive medium, and the quality of the materials you use really does makes a difference. Watercolour is the exception to the rule “A bad workman blames his tools”. In watercolour, you really can! Poor quality materials can deprive you of an enjoyable experience by thwarting your efforts at the outset.
When asked by beginners for a list of suitable materials we suggest they buy the following, confident that the materials suggested are not too expensive, and will give a beginner an excellent experience of what can be done with watercolour.
Paper
Bockingford NOT 300 gms (140lbs)
Paints
Always buy artist’s quality paint. Artists quality paints are labelled as such on the tube; if it does not say so, it is likely to be a student quality paint. Complete beginners will be better off with just three Artist Quality paints ( one of each primary) than a dozen of student quality. Daler Rowney and Winsor and Newton are both manufacturers that produce good quality ‘Artists Quality’ at a reasonable price.
We suggest tube paints rather than pans.
Colours
REDS: Permanent Rose, Alizarin crimson, cadmium red
BLUES: (French)Ultramarine , cobalt blue
YELLOWS: Lemon yellow, raw Sienna , New Gamboge (hue)
Also very useful areBurnt Sienna ( either make), and Daler Rowney permanent mauve, which is the same pigment as Winsor and Newton Winsor Violet.
Brushes
Strangely, the choice of brush is less important - you just need to find out what you can do with it! Make sure you buy watercolour brushes ( not brushes for acrylic).
In terms of size and shape, ‘rounds’ in sizes 4 and 8 are good a starting point. For a complete beginner two brushes is enough. A great starting point are Pro Arte Sries 007 Prolene Plus, which are good brushes at a reasonable price.