Watercolor
Watercolor Tools
Affiliate Disclosure
I am an affiliate for Blick Art. Some links below have my affiliate code, and I will receive a small compensation when you buy from these links.
♥ There is no additional cost to you. ♥
Watercolors
These are products I own and use.
- Van Gogh Watercolors – 18 set – Vibrant, responsive and lightfast.
- Winsor and Newton Professional Series 1 Titanium White – A very bright and opaque lightfast white watercolor.
- M. Graham Lamp Black – A beautiful semi-transparent lightfast black.
TIP: I use porcelain palettes for my watercolors. They are easy to clean up and are inexpensive at Hobby Lobby. I purchased The Masters porcelain palettes for $2.99 each. Regular price was $5.99, so watch for sales or use a 40% off coupon!
I use Van Gogh watercolors which were more affordable for my budget. Although they are considered “student quality” they perform exactly like professional quality, have high lightfastness and beautiful vibrant pigments. I highly recommend them to anyone wanting to try watercolor painting.
My Watercolors
If you’re looking for an excellent teacher to learn to do detailed wildlife watercolor painting I highly recommend Mr. Paul Hopkinson!
Stop by his website: The Devon Artist or his YouTube Channel: Wildlife In Watercolor – by Paul Hopkinson
Top
Papers/Surfaces
These are products I own and use.
- Glassine This is what I use to place over my drawings to protect them while I draw, resting my hand on the glassine.
- Fabriano Artistico Extra White Hotpress Watercolor Blocks 140lb (300gsm)
- L’Aquarelle Canson Héritage Hot Press Watercolor Paper – Hot Press 140lb (300gsm)
- Legion Stonehenge Aqua Blocks– Hot Press 140lb (300gsm)
A Word of Caution
About buying papers.
Hover over to read.
Good quality papers are expensive and different artists like different papers for their own techniques. Never buy a huge amount of paper until you’ve tested it out on several drawings to see if it works for you.
Top
Erasers
These are products I own and use.
- Kneadable Eraser – for lifting graphite off the paper gently.
- Tombow Erasers – Ultra-fine 2.3mm round and Mono Zero 2.5mm x 5mm rectangular. These are used for “negative drawing” and fine detailing.
- Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid
- Blick Liquid Frisket
With watercolor there is no erasing, so you need to protect areas of your paper you wish to keep white. Lifting is a technique used to remove watercolor from your surface, but you may not get back to the white of the paper as some colors are very staining.
In order to preserver whites and light areas it’s best to use a masking fluid or frisket to protect those areas from coming into contact with the inks.
Masking Fluid
Rather than erasing, you’ll be lifting the colors.
Top
Rusty
Contrast is Key
No matter what you are drawing or painting you need to have contrast to make your images pop. Don’t be afraid to go dark.