Debra Birtwell Designs

Hi, welcome to the world of watercolor painting.

Let me introduce you to the basic watercolor painting materials that you will need to create beautiful paintings using watercolor paints.

I have put together a great collection of the most popular and useful watercolor and acrylic painting materials for you to review. These are some of my favorite watercolor & acrylic brands and products.

JUST SO YOU KNOW, I am an affiliate for some of these products, and I may receive a small commission from your purchase, at no further expense to you.

BEST WATERCOLOR PAINT SUPPLIES

BEST WATERCOLOR PAPER OF ALL TIME!!

Arches Watercolor Paper

There is no other.

Period.

Arches Watercolor Paper

Arches watercolor paper comes in hot press, cold press, and rough. The paper comes in several weights, 90lb, 140lb, and 300lb. I recommend the Arches140lb cold press watercolor paper for the beginner. It is the most economical and forgiving. I will be blogging at a late date regarding the different types of watercolor paper that Arches has to offer. Here are some options to get you started.

Arches watercolor paper 9 x 12 Pad of 140lb Cold Press (12 sheets)
Arches watercolor paper 10 x 14 Pad of 140lb Cold Press (12 sheets)

I would recommend the full sheets for the avid painter.You can customize the size of your paper for small to larger pieces.

Arches Full sheet 140lb Cold Press 22" x 30" (5 sheet package)

Best Watercolor Paint Set

Winsor & Newton Starter Kit - Watercolor Paint Set

This Winsor & Newton Watercolor starter kit is a great watercolor starter kit for students to begin with. The paints are made by Winsor & Newton and great quality. It's a bit more economical to start with than buying individual paints.

A starter kit will give students a chance to see which colors you like and one can easily replace favorites with larger tubes.

The starter set includes one 5 ml tube each of:

Burnt Umber, French Ultramarine, Hooker's Green, Permanent Rose, Winsor Yellow, and Yellow Ochre.

They have included a 20 sheet, 9 x 12" cold press block of Arches watercolor paper and a Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable #4 brush.

Shin Han PW Watercolor Set

This Shin Han watercolor set includes: 15 ml tube of Crimson Lake, Permanent Red, Lemon Yellow, Veridian Hue, Cerulean Blue Hue, Cobalt Blue Hue, Prussian Blue, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre, Ivory Black, Chinese White, Opera, Vermilion Hue, Peacock Blue, Ultramarine Deep, Brown Red, Burnt Umber, Vandyke Brown, Permanent Yellow Deep, Permanent Yellow Orange, Permanent Green No. 1, Sap Green, and Permanent Violet.

These are some of my favorite watercolor paints:

Best Red Watercolor Paints

Best Blue Watercolor Paints

Best Yellow Watercolor Paints

Best Green Watercolor Paints

Winsor & Newton Permanent Sap Green
Winsor & Newtonn Winsor Green (Blue shade)
Grumbacher Permanent Green Light

Best Brown Watercolor Paints

Best Gray Watercolor Paints

Winsor & Newton Payne's Gray

Best Pink Watercolor Paints

Winsor & Newton Rose Madder Genuine

Best Watercolor Brushes for Beginners

I really like these Winsor & Newton Cotman brushes, I have used them for both watercolor and Acrylic painting.

I have used these brushes made by Winsor & Newton for over 20 years! Yes, I mean I have the same brushes I bought 20 years ago.

Winsor & Newton Cotman Synthetic 1" One Stroke Flat Brush and Winsor & Newton Cotman 1/2" One Stroke Flat Brush

Fan Brush:

Dick Blick Short Handle - Fan, Short Handle, Size 4

Buy A Rigger Brush For Fine Lines

The Winsor Newton Cotman Rigger brush is used to create fine lines. It is great for painting fine lines such as grasses and flowers, etc.

Buy a Scrubber Brush Set for Lifting out Paint

The Dick Blick Scrubber Brush Set is a great brush for the Artist to add to their Brush Sets. This brush comes in handy when the artist needs to lift out paint.

Bamboo Brush Carrier

Beautiful lightweight bamboo brush holder.

Best Masking Fluid For Watercolor Painting

Grumbacher tinted Masking Fluid is great because of the orange tint. The orange tint helps the artist determine where they applied the masking fluid on the watercolor paper.

Best Watercolor Paint Palette

The White plastic palette made by Dick Blick is a great item to have. It is affordable, lightweight and a great way to organize your paints.

White Enamel Butcher Trays

White enamel Butcher Tray Palettes are another way to go for a palette. I use them because they do not stain. They are great for mixing colors and come in various sizes.

Gagne Porta-Trace Lumen Series LED Light Panel - Gold, 8-1/2" x 11"

This Porta-Trace Lumen Series Light panel is perfect for tracing when you find certain subjects difficult to draw.

Derwent Metallic Watercolor Pans - Set of 12

These metallic watercolors create great accents and special effects on your artwork.

Sally's Graphite Paper-- Box of 12, 18" × 24" sheets on a roll

Sally's Graphic Paper is a Graphite-coated paper to use like carbon paper to trace a design to another surface.

Watercolor Miscellaneous Supplies

You can pick up most of the following supplies at your local Dollar Store. Please do not bring sea salt or pink salt. The plain salt works the best. The tissues should be the plain type, not the Puffs Plus which have lotion in them.

Ruler, Pencil, & a white eraser
Box of Kleenex
Regular salt in a shaker
Masking Tape
2 plastic chopping placemats
Spray Bottle
Toothbrush
2 plastic water containers

See you in class!