WATERCOLOUR MATERIALS

Learning to paint with watercolours is a beautiful and exciting adventure…

Watercolour is the most beautiful and unique art medium I have ever used. The range of paint, paper and brushes available to the watercolourist today is vast. So if you’re just starting out on a watercolour journey or simply need a change, it can be difficult to know what to buy. Here are the watercolour materials I currently prefer to use.

Paints:   The watercolour paints I use are Winsor & Newton (W/N) Professional Watercolours. They are beautiful, vibrant, pigment rich watercolours of the highest possible quality. Also, I love colour – I always have and always will. So for me, having a wide range of beautiful colours to use is very important.

But whatever colours or brands end up in my palette I know that I need to get to know them well – their properties, how they move on the paper, how they mix and react with other colours. That’s really important.

When starting out in watercolour, beginners are often advised to limit their palette to begin with. This is advice I’ve completely ignored from the start and never regretted it!

The range of colours available to the watercolourist today is just phenomenal. My advice is…

Step out of your colour comfort zone! Have the most fun ever experimenting with gorgeous colours and create beautiful art with the unique and stunningly beautiful medium of watercolour. 

Paper:  I prefer to paint on 100% cotton paper, usually at least 140 lb/300 gsm in weight. The watercolour papers I use most are Aquarelle Arches (including Aquarelle Arches Bright White) rough and NOT surface, and Daler Rowney Langton Prestige rough surface; they are both beautiful to paint on, excellent quality and they never disappoint.

I do try different watercolour papers from time to time.

Buying cheap watercolour paper is false economy in my experience and my painting results have been distinctly inferior when I have used them. Watercolours don’t move and blend very easily on cheap paper and I struggle to get good results. For me, it’s just not worth the hassle. When I buy paper I love to paint on my painting experience is much more rewarding and exciting!

Something I’ve learnt is that watercolour paint will behave slightly differently on different types/brands of watercolour paper – even on excellent quality paper; so when changing to a different watercolour paper I may need to adjust my technique a little to get the best out of that particular paper.

I never stretch paper as a rule. But rules are made to be broken… and there may be occasions when I consider it prudent to do so!

Brushes:   I love Princeton Neptune Brushes – they are synthetic squirrel brushes and are my current favourites to paint with. I use the pointed round brushes in sizes 6, 8, 10 and 12; I also use the Aquarelle (flat) brushes in sizes 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 inch. These brushes hold lots of water and pigment and have just the right combination of softness and spring.

Just a final note about brush care:  I periodically clean my brushes with Da Vinci Professional Brush Soap. I don’t do this after every use, maybe once a month give or take a bit. I’ve found just rinsing them with water doesn’t get them properly clean. When I first started using brush soap, I was amazed how much colour and paint came out of brushes that I thought were clean!

Also my watercolour brushes are DEDICATED WATERCOLOUR BRUSHES! They are not used for any other purpose. If I use watercolour ground, inks, acrylic paints and mediums etc., I have a separate supply of brushes I can use for these mediums.

Palettes:   At the moment I’m mostly working from my travel palette:

It’s an enamel tin which contains 28 beautiful colours. Each pan is filled with tube paint and are full pans because it’s easier to get a large brush in a full pan when painting. Full pans also hold a very generous amount of paint. It’s perfect for taking with me when I’m on the move or unable to be in my little home studio.

I prefer to use porcelain/ceramic palettes in my home studio. The paint doesn’t “bead” when mixing colour, they are super easy to clean (just wipe with damp kitchen roll) and they don’t stain! The beautiful large porcelain palette I would normally use in my home studio currently sits empty, simply because I don’t have enough time in my studio at the moment to warrant filling it.

The palettes I use for watercolour are DEDICATED WATERCOLOUR PALETTES! I do not use them for any other medium whatsoever. For all other mediums I have separate palettes that I can use. This prevents any possible contamination of my watercolours.

Sundry Items:   These include a spray bottle, a sea sponge, salt, kitchen roll, a putty rubber, a mechanical pencil and Scotch Magic Tape or masking tape. These are my most commonly used items. But of course I may use other things occasionally like granulation medium, a palette knife, wax, masking fluid etc. 

These are  my current watercolour materials. They may well change from time to time as I learn and grow as an artist. I hope you might find this information useful, especially if you’re just starting out on a watercolour adventure.

You can learn about my unique view of colour here: 

Happy painting!

Evelyn

Updated October 2025