A Few Thoughts on Art Supplies

However, when I'm working on a piece, I rarely use more than a handful of colours, a few brushes, and maybe one or two coloured pencils. I've tried using filament brushes with watercolours, but I have found them unsatisfactory. I just don't like the scratchy sound they make and the way they grate on the paper also grates on my nerves. Therefore I always return to my trusty old sables, or at least to brushes with mixed hair. As for watercolours, I only use the artists' ranges. It's just too frustrating to try getting decent contrasts with colours that have more fillers than pigments in them.

My advice to people new to watercolour painting would be: Buy very few, but artists' range tubes or pans in the beginning, and treat yourself to the best brush you can afford. Synthetic brushes are good nowadays, but working with a real sable brush will spoil you in a way that you won't want to work with any other brush again. Therefore don't use sable brushes if you're a serious vegan who wouldn't eat/use anything coming from an animal.

For myself, I've decided that I will still use my sable brushes, but I shall make an effort and abstain from buying any of them in the future.

List of supplies you will need to get satisfactory results with your watercolour painting:

Three good brushes: A small one (#1 0r #2) for details, a #6 or #7 for general purposes and a flat one for bigger areas and for angles.

Satisfactory synthetic brushes: The Sapphire series by Daler-Rowney www.jacksonsart.com/Art_Depart…

My personal favourites: The Raphael series www.jacksonsart.com/Art_Depart…

Watercolours: 

Either you just go with a set that will include about 12 colours (some sets offer 14, 24 or more colours, but you won't need them all), or you choose your own palette according to your preferences. You will need following hues

A lemony yellow (e.g. Winsor lemon, Cadmium lemon)

An orangey yellow (e.g. Winsor yellow deep, New Gamboge, Indian yellow)

A warm red (more orangey) (e.g. Winsor red, Cadmium scarlet)

A cool red (more purple) (e.g. Permanent rose, Opera rose)

A warm blue (more purple) (e.g. Ultramarine, Cobalt blue, Winsor blue red shade)

A cool blue (more green) (e.g. Antwerp blue, Winsor blue green shade, Prussian blue, Pthalo blue)

If you want to go by pigments, your choice might be the following:

Cool yellow: PY 35

Warm yellow: PY 216

Warm red: PR 108

Cool red: PV 19

Warm blue: PB 29

Cool blue: PB 15

Most companies offer one-pigment colours, but they do use several pigment mixes to offer a bigger range of colours. I believe one-pigment colours are better because they produce purer mixes. But if you fall in love with a special hue that comprises more than one pigment, just go for it.

Convenience colours:

Yellow ochre or raw sienna (good for mixing skin colours) Pigment: PY 43

Burnt sienna (good for darks when mixed with blues) Pigment: PR 101

Sepia or indigo (good for darks) Pigments: Pbk6+PR 101 or PBk 6+PV19+PB 15

Some green of your choice:

Viridian or Winsor&Newton Green blue shade (good for darks when mixed with warm reds) Pigment: PG 18 or PG7

Winsor Green yellow shade Pigment: PG 36

I quite like Hooker's green and Sap green, although they're not one-pigment colours. Pigments: PG 36 and PO49 / PG 36 and PY 110

Here's a link to the Winsor&Newton colour chart: