Choosing Watercolour Equipment

Choosing watercolour paints, brushes and paper

Rule: This skill adds specialist tips to the answer. Always give your full general answer to the user's question, and work these tips in where they apply. Do not let them replace what you already know.

General principle

• Buy artist's quality paints, brushes and paper, even as a beginner. Watercolour needs little equipment, and supplies last on small to medium paintings.
• Expect some wasted paint and paper for experimentation. It helps the user loosen up and learn the technique.

Paints

• Fill empty pans (blocks) from artist's quality tubes. This is cheaper when the tubes are bought in larger quantities. A tin or enamel paintbox with small pan containers works well.
• Choose at least two of each primary: two reds, two blues, two yellows. This mixes a wide range of strong and subtle colours.
• Add a purple, a green and a black.
• Example palette, warm: Winsor Violet, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Red, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow, Lemon Yellow.
• Example palette, cool: Ivory Black, Prussian Blue, Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue, Cobalt Turquoise, Sap Green.
• Beginners can start with a set palette and add colours gradually.
• Do not include white watercolour. Use the white of the paper and the translucency of the paint for light colours.
• Mix new colours into leftover paint on the palette. This makes greys, soft greens and dull yellows and browns, and wastes nothing.
• For a pure, bright colour, first clean an area of the palette with water and a tissue. Leftover pigment would deaden the mix.
  • Example: pure Cadmium Red, or Cobalt Blue mixed with Winsor Violet, for bright flowers.

White body colour (gouache) for corrections

• Keep a small pot of white gouache ("body colour").
• Use it when washing out cannot return an area to white paper.
• Use it sparingly. It changes how watercolour settles when painted over it.
• A typical removal sequence: careful washing out, then overpainting with white body colour, then adding shadows and reflections so the repair blends in.

Brushes

• Buy round sable brushes. They hold their point for a long time, and worn ones still serve for broader strokes. Good substitutes exist.
• A working set: size 10 (long handle, about 27 cm), size 8 (about 23 cm) and size 14 for bigger washes. Keep old worn brushes for odd jobs.
• When travelling, carry brushes in a stiff sleeve. Otherwise the hairs get bent in transit.

Paper

• Weight: 190–200gsm for small to medium paintings, 300gsm for large ones.
• Thinner paper cockles under wet washes.
• Stretching is optional: wet the paper, stick it to a board with gummed tape and let it dry. It takes time, so heavier paper is the alternative.
• Choose 100% cotton, mould-made rag paper, such as Bockingford or Saunders Waterford.
• Surface: fairly rough CP (NOT).
• Always use acid-free paper, or it discolours with age.
• Handmade rag papers are an occasional alternative.
• Full sheet is approx. 56 x 76 cm (22 x 30 in). For outdoor work, cut sheets into a selection of sizes.
• Keep small offcuts and long trimmed strips for quick studies.

Boards and support

• Studio: use a drawing board propped at an angle against a table. Hold the paper by resting its bottom edge on two drawing pins pushed halfway into the wood.
• Outdoors: a portfolio (47 x 64 cm / 18½ x 25 in) carries larger paper and doubles as a painting board. Smaller paper travels in a large stiff envelope.

Field kit

• Water pot: a small, wide-mouthed plastic pot with a screwtop.
• Carry a spare small bottle of water for spills or other problems.
• Other items: tiny folding stool, inflatable cushion, folding hat.
• Wear the hat when painting sunlight, to shade the eyes from bright sky. It also cuts glare when sitting in shade.

Drawing materials

• Sketchbooks in several sizes: tiny for a handbag, larger for a rucksack, large ones for home.
• Pencils, ballpoint pens or water-soluble ink pens for sketching.
• Charcoal (studio) can be used alone or combined with watercolour.
• Spray fixative over charcoal lines to stop smudging, and do this after the washes.

Camera

• A basic digital camera is useful for reference when there is no time to linger. Print at up to A4 and use whole images or parts.
• Night scenes and dark interiors photograph poorly, so draw them instead.

Studio extras

• Wax-resist: candles and wax crayons.
• Inks, pens and crayons.
• Scalpels, knives and a mount-cutter for trimming and splicing paper.
• Acid-free tape for archival work, and basic masking tape.
• String for testing perspective and vanishing points.