ESSENTIAL Materials
OPTIONAL Materials
Paints and Brushes of Professional Quality
I discuss the paints and brushes that I use for my paintings on a separate page. These materials are not cheap but of high quality. If you paint a lot they may be well worth investing in.
The paint that you need for this course is transparent watercolor (Aquarell) paint (NOT gouache and not acrylic). Most brands sell paint in tubes and in dry ‘pans.’ It is important that you get your paint in TUBES.
Most stores sell sets of tubes of student quality paint tubes. The advantage of such sets is the price and the fact that you will have many colors to start with. The disadvantage is that you will not use all of the colors in your set. I do not use the following colors: white (we use the white of the paper), black, green, orange, purple (whe mix these colors). Another advantage of student quality paint tubes is that the tubes are generally larger than the loose tubes of professional watercolors that are sold in brick and mortar stores.
Winsor and Newton Cotman paints are high quality student paints. The set of 12 x 8ml tubes contains 7 very useful colors.Â
Where to Buy: Lachenmeier Farben
Winsor and Newton Cotman paints are high quality student paints. This starter set of 20 x 5ml tubes contains 14 very useful colors.Â
The study quality Van Gogh paints by Talens are also good. The set of 12 x 10ml tubes contains 8 very useful colors.
The cheapest and largest set I could find is Art Creation, also by Talens. SInce it is much cheaper than the Van Gogh paints I assume lesser quality materials have been used. Still the set of 24 x 12 ml tubes contains 15 very useful colors.
The brushes that you need are all soft and synthetic watercolor brushes. To complete a painting from start to finish you will need different types of brushes.
a) 1 Large flat brush to wet the paper
b) A number of flat brushes of different sizes
c) A number of round (pointy) brushes of different sizes
You need at least one extra large flat brush to wet the paper before painting.Â
Gerstaecker: Flat Synthetic Brush  2 Flat Brushes 7.5 /10cm
Zumstein:Â Flat Synthetic Brush
Lachenmeier Farben: Set of Flat Synthetic Brushes
Art stores generally sell sets of different sizes of watercolor brushes.Â
Unfortunately many of those sets do not contain a larger flat brush (2 to 2.5 cm wide) which is really useful. Zumstein sells such brushes by Dahler & Rowney which are reasonably priced.
The same goes for round brushes.Â
Using a good true watercolor paper is essential for a good painting. Many papers are advertised as usable for watercolor or mixed media but are no true watercolor papers. I use 300 g/m² paper made of 100% cotton, Cold Press – (feinkorn) or rough (rauh) of either Sounders or Arches brands. Both brands sell convenient blocks of 41 x 31 cm, which is a decent size for a painting. I would NOT buy smaller paper as it is hard to paint very small with a limited set of brushes. Note that I personally paint on loose sheets of watercolor paper, I just recommend the blocks because it is convenient to carry to the course. We will take the paper off the block before painting.
Gerstaecker: Saunders (Waterford) Â Â Arches
Zumstein: Saunders (Waterford)Â Â Â Arches
A good, large palette can make a big difference when mixing colors. The purpose of the palette is two-fold:
By large I mean that I really like a large area so I can have spread-out pools of color of which I can judge the color much better.
We will use very wet techniques which require you to clamp your paper to a water-resistant board. I use a 3 mm thick plexiglas plate that is a little larger than the paper (see picture) and four metal clamps. Other water-resistant materials such as treated light-weight wood work too but I have found plexiglas to be both light-weight, water-resistant, smooth, and virtually indestructible.Â
Where to buy: Jumbo and other hardware stores sells plexiglass of different sizes that you can have them cut to size (42 x 32 cm for a 41 x 31 cm paper). Zumstein sells plexiglas of A3 size (42 x 29.7) but you would then need to cut your 41 x 31 cm paper to 41 x 29 cm size before starting your painting. Plate must be min. 3 mm thick. Gerstaecker sells the metal clasps that I use.Â
For use in the studio a strong glass container is best. However when I paint anywhere else I use a foldable container for easy transport. The containers that were designed for camping fold smaller than those for painting but are much more expensive.
Where to buy: Ochsner Sport and Transa or Zumstein and Gerstaecker
We will often be working with our painting surface at an angle, letting the water and paint drip down with gravity. An easel is therefore very useful and will save you a lot of hassle while painting. A small table easel is a good option to carry to the course.
Where to buy: Lachenmeier Farben
A squeeze drip bottle is very useful to mix your paints. It prevents the frustration of going back and forth with the brush into paint and water and back again while dirtying the water and watering the paint unnecessarily.
Where to buy: for instance at Bottle Shop (nb. they sell the covers/drippers separately)
A spray bottle allows you to keep a wet layer of paint wet for a longer time, without touching it. The spray bottle must provide a thin mist rather than a forceful spray. The one pictured here by Derwent is made for this purpose.
Where to buy: Zumstein or other brands available from Gerstaecker
Your brushes are fragile and expensive. It makes sense to protect them during transport. This also protects other materials from coming in contact with wet brushes.
Where to buy: Gerstaecker
Small transparent closable containers are very useful to store “activated” paint (paint that you have mixed with a bit of water to make it ready to paint. Depending on the paint these containers can keep your paint relatively fresh for some time (but not forever).
Where to buy: VBS Hobby Service