December 29, 2024

Watercolor Fundamentals Welcome

Hello watercolor artists!

I am so excited to be part of your journey of exploration with this amazing medium. This is a small class, so we'll be able to have a lot of dialogue and sharing, which is so important as artists, and we're going to have a lot of fun!

In this class we'll start out doing some limited palette paintings and get comfortable with our materials and techniques. We'll try our hand at still lifes and then will move on to landscapes where we will focus on composition, light, and shadows. We won't be working too large as I feel it's important to get as many “learning cycles” as possible. Our work will be 9x12 or smaller.

There are so many watercolor supplies. I'm going to give you suggestions on what to have on hand for class. However, if you have a set of watercolors already and want to use them, great. I want to be conscientious of cost. Art supplies are expensive!

Watercolor paints

There are many excellent watercolor sets available. On the Two Bridges site, we have assembled a variety of options at different price points.
I will be using Daniel Smith paints.
If you prefer to buy tubes or individual pans, these are colors to get: Ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, cerulean blue, permanent alizarin crimson or cadmium red, hansa yellow medium or cadmium yellow medium, yellow ochre, payne’s grey, sap green

Watercolor paper

In my opinion, paper is actually more important than the paint you use. Of course if you use a student grade paints you will get a different effect than if you use a high end, but going mid or lower mid range is perfectly fine. Paper, on the other hand, can have dramatic results on the effects that are possible. If you are weighing where to spend your money, I would spend it on the paper.

Again, on the Two Bridges site, you can view a bunch of options. Any good quality cold press paper will do! I recommend buying at least one type of 100% cotton paper. You may also wish to buy a less expensive paper for practice sketches.
I will be primarily using Arches cold press paper for my demos. For exercises, I may also use Canson XL watercolor paper or Strathmore.
My favorite alternative to Arches for high quality 100% cotton paper is Blick premium.
My favorite watercolor sketchbook is Hahnemuhle Nostalgie, if you prefer to work in a sketchbook instead of loose paper. It’s very hard to find sketchbooks with 100% cotton paper, but if you are going this route, I do recommend seeking out 100% cotton as you’ll get far superior results.

Brushes

1 inch or ¾ inch flat brush
Medium (size 8 or 10) round brush
Rigger or liner brush
I mostly use Princeton Neptune or Princeton Aquarelle. Any decent watercolor brushes will do!

Miscellaneous

Masking fluid
Pencils
Kneaded eraser
Spray bottle
Water jug
Artist tape

Optional

Permanent fine liners such as pigma micron
white gel pens
white gouache

I think that covers it. If you have any questions about the supplies, the class, or anything, please do not hesitate to reach out to me via email or text (check your email for a message with my phone number!)