Hello everyone!
It has been a while since I made a lenghty post about watercolour. For I am such a nerd for watercolours.
Choosing what to buy for watercolour can be a pain. Especially when there's too many choices to choose from. But it's okay because I'm going to show you a list of affordable items that you can get for a decent quality for watercolour painting.
Paints
You'd be noticing that some paints are labelled "Student grade" and "Artist's grade" .Yes, they have a difference in terms of the quality. Student grade paints has more fillers than the pigment itself. While Artist grade paints has greater pigments. Paints come in tubes, pans and also in ink form.
For beginners, a good quality student grade palette is what I strongly recommend.
Student quality palettes
- Winsor & Newton Cotman palette Sketcher's Pocket Box ( 12 colours)
- Alpha Watercolours (12 colours)
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| Oh my.. what has life gotten me into |
I started my watercolour journey from an old alpha watercolour set of 24 colours given from a friend of mine(Thanks Matt!). I still think it is a good start for beginners. However, if you have more cash to spare, I'd highly recommend the Cotman palette. ( in which I am currently using the full set for most of my paintings)
However, cheaper paints doesn't mean that your painting can turn out bad. It really depends on your skills too! So don't be discouraged by the price tag. Start on whichever palette you can and work your way up if you're keen into watercolours.
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| My current paints I often use - Winsor & Newton cotman set of 42 colours. |
Brushes
I've been painting for about 3 years and I also like to collect brushes along the time to find "the one". And that surprisingly is not from the artist range lol.
- Winsor & Newton Cotman brushes size 1,3,5
- Daler Rowney Graduate series // Aquafine series
I heard quite a number of great brushes from the Daler Rowney graduate series but I have not tried them before. But to get at least three different sizes should suffice.
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| my babies lol |
Another great option is the Pentel water brush ( I do have a old post about it ). When I started painting, I've been using brush pens to experiment more on my style of painting. But personally I would opt for a regular paint brush because my painting style requires less water usage.
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| my paintbrush collection-- more to come in future :D |
And to my favourite section...
Paper
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For artists who wants to commit into watercolour, they probably would emphasize how important the paper quality should be. This is the only part I discovered that good quality paper matters the most when it comes to painting. However it comes with an exuberant price for beginners.
For beginners, you can start with these choices.
- Campap arcylic pad 300gsm (smooth surface)
- Campap watercolour pad 300gsm (textured surface)
- Daler Rowney Graduate sketchbook 160gsm (smooth surface)
To make things easier for you to find your kind of paper:
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| Campap watercolour pad (textured surface) |
NOT or CP cold press
- Slightly rough texture.
- Can handle alot of water and pigment.
- Good for general painting/ landscape painting.
HP ( hot press)
- Smooth surface.
- It doesnt suck as much water as CP
- Perfect for detail painting.
- Colours are more vivid compared to CP
Rough
- Obviously the roughest among the papers.
- I am unable to give much info but feel free to visit here for more infomation
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| Campap Acrylic pad (smooth surface) |
So, If you still can't decide which paper to try out, I'll suggest getting a cold press to experiment more. Because it allows you to apply more wet on wet techniques. I started from cold press till I realised after a much smoother surface to work for the details. Also! No harm trying out the Daler Rowney sketchbook! It is perfect for sketching at an affordable price of RM5.90
I hope my introduction to paint supplies will get you started on your journey of watercolour painting. Do not let the prices or your inexperience discourage you. Follow your passion and do what you love because it is the beginning of your colourful journey!
If you have any questions or you would like to share any new information, please do not hesitate to comment below so we can help each other! Share the love and motivation of this great medium of painting .
Much love from
Ashley
x
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