The materials you need

The Materials You Need

Part of the difficulty in starting can be knowing what tools are best. The good news is, you really don't need a lot of equipment to begin painting - and I'll be sharing specific recommendations to make getting started a little easier.

Watercolour Paints

I always use the Winsor & Newton Professional watercolour range in the half-pan size.

The colours I use in this course are:

• lemon yellow
• Winsor yellow
• Aureolin yellow
• Indian yellow
• cobalt blue
• Prussian blue
• cerulean blue
• raw sienna
• raw umber
• burnt sienna
• burnt umber
• walnut brown
• cadmium scarlet
• rose dore
• permanent alizarin crimson
• Winsor red
• Winsor orange
• permanent rose
• permanent magenta
• ultramarine violet
• cobalt violet
• Winsor violet

To buy all of these colours in one go can be quite a substantial outlay financially, and one you might not feel ready to commit to if you are just starting. If this is the case and you can only manage a few, I would consider these to be the essentials:

• lemon yellow
• cobalt blue
• raw sienna
• burnt umber
• permanent alizarin crimson
• Winsor red
• permanent rose

Another more affordable alternative to try is the Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolour range, which has the same colours, but the quality is not as high.

For one of the lessons, I will also be using White Gouache paint, which can be found in most art shops.

Tools

Brush

My brush of choice is an acrylic size 3, and I use the Da Vinci Nova 5570.

Pencil

I use a propelling pencil in size 0.3 or 0.5 with HB leads - something like this from Ken Bromley.

Putty rubber

The Faber-Castell one is very good.

Divider

This is brilliant for measuring specimens and getting the scale right - I use this one by Ecobra.

Ceramic palette

A plastic palette can separate your paints; a ceramic palette is much better. A saucer or plate you already have could work well too.

Kitchen roll

For blotting and wiping your brush to prevent it from being too wet.

Jar

To house your water while painting.

Something to hold your specimen

Could be an upside down jam jar or plant pot that acts as a plinth, or a vase for flowers.

Watercolour Paper

I like the Arches watercolour paper. Opt for 300gsm weight (140lbs), and the hot pressed finish - this ensures the paper is extremely smooth which is ideal for the type of painting we'll be doing.

You can buy it in gummed blocks. Either choose the smallest size, or buy bigger sheets and cut them down yourself.