Watercolor paint
Professional grade in tubes or dry pans – student grade paint is NOT recommended. Better to invest in fewer colors but high-quality brands.
The ultimate reduced palette: 3 colors. 5 ml tubes.
- Alizarin Crimson or Quinacridone rose
- Ultramarine blue or French Ultramarine
- Aureolin yellow or Hansa Yellow
A good and inexpensive alternative is The Essentials set by Daniel Smith (D.S.). This set contains Hansa Yellow Light, New Gamboge, Quinacridone Rose, Pyrrol Scarlet, Phthalo Blue Green Shade, and French Ultramarine Blue.
Reduced palette: 6 colors. (or The Essentials set by Daniel Smith 5ml tubes)
- Alizarin Crimson or Quinacridone rose
- Cadmium red or Pyrrol Scarlet (D.S.)
- Ultramarine blue or French Ultramarine
- Pthalo blue or Cerulean blue
- Aureolin yellow or hansa yellow
- Cadmium yellow, yellow ochre or New Gamboge
Advanced palette: all the above colors plus the following
- Quinacridone gold
- Sepia
- Indigo Blue
- Burnt Sienna
- Lunar black or Neutral tint (Daniel Smith)
- Undersea green (Daniel Smith)
- Buff Titanium Daniel Smith
- Goethite (brown ochre) Daniel Smith
- Quinacridone burnt orange (Daniel Smith)
- Cobalt teal blue (Daniel Smith)
Recommended brands: Daniel Smith, Winsor & Newton, Schmincke, M.Graham, Holbein, Sennelier, Da Vinci, Grumbacher, Utrecht, Rembrandt, Maimeri are all excellent paintings. Personally, my favorites are Daniel Smith and Winsor and Newton.
Brushes
- Option 1-economy set: Snap brushes -1 round brush size 12 -1 flat brush size 3/4”
- Option 2- for mid- priced set, get the Grey Matters brand: -1 round brush size 12 -1 flat brush size 3/4”
- Option 3- If you want to invest more, buy the DaVinci brand, Cosmotop spin series: -1 round brush size 12 -1 flat brush size 16
- Option 4- the best quality: Winsor & Newton Artist Watercolor Sable -3/4” – One Stroke flat brush -size 12” – One Stroke round brush
Travel brushes are very compact and portable, Da Vinci Casaneo and Rosemary brushes (online purchase) are my favorites
Paper
- Watercolor sketchbook, pads or loose sheets, cotton paper is the best and highly suggested but hard to find in books. Suggested brands include: Cèzanne Hahnemühle blocks, Arches, Fabriano, Canson or equivalent. Etchr started selling a great quality 100% cotton sketchbook. Fluid or Pentalic are very affordable options.
Miscellaneous items
- Pencil or mechanical pencil, HB or similar. Cretacolor pencil is my brand of choice
- Waterproof ink pen (fine and medium): Sakura, Staedltler or similar – for sketching
- Eraser
- Paper pad for drawing
- Portable container to hold water
- Absorbent cloth towels or paper towel
- Watercolor palette- half pans for traveling; I prefer metal but plastic will be just fine
