Watercolor Supply List

 Paint

Paint Pigments: Temperature: - Gamboge Nova Warm Yellow - Aureolin Yellow Cool Yellow - Hookers Green Warm Green - Phthalo Green Cool Green - Ultra Marine Blue Warm Blue - Phthalo Blue Cool Blue - Permanent Violet - Alizarin Red Cool Red - Cadmium Red Warm Red - Opera - Permanent Rose - Burnt Sienna Warm Brown - Cadmium Orange Warm

Note: Use tube watercolors not cake or pan. The colors are more brilliant and it is easier to create puddles of one color. If you are purchasing watercolor paints for the first time, some good brands are Daniel Smith, Winsor Newton, and Holbein. Turner is an inexpensive brand which seems to be of medium quality.

 Paper 140Lb weight Arches cold press watercolor block paper approximately 16”x20” or 18”x24”. The Arches block paper is ideal because it remains stretched and you can lean it up against a tilted surface to work.

 Brushes - #1 flat brush - #4 or #6 round - #10 or #13 round - Large flat brush for wetting large areas

Note: Look for round brushes that come to a nice point. Choose brushes that are soft but springy. Watercolor brushes are made from Sable or a similar synthetic. Kolinsky sable are the best but more expensive.

 Palette Covered Plastic White Palette large enough to hold each of the pigments and a couple of wells for mixing paints with water.

 Other Supplies: - 2 containers for water - Sketch pad for drawing and notes - Drawing pencils - Kneaded eraser - Pencil sharpener

 Also useful but not necessary - Frisket for masking - Old detail brushes - Ruling pen if you wish to create thin masking details with frisket - Salt - Sponges

Note: If you are a beginner I will provide you with a project. If you are intermediate or advance, bring an image you wish to work with and I will help you with it. If possible come with a completed drawing so we can spend our time painting. Important Facts to remember

In watercolor it is important to work from light colors to dark. Colors can always be made darker but they cannot always be lifted away.

Once a general composition is laid out and the first wash is applied it is a good idea to work at building up your dark areas and create contrast through tonal value. A pigment is at its brightest and most intense when it is straight out of the tube so if you mix it with another pigment it will most likely be duller. Intensity is a result of several layers of the same color. Each individual hue has warm and cool variations. Complimentary colors produce a vibration of color. Mixing them creates beautiful grays or browns. Colors can appear brighter or duller, cooler or warmer, darker or lighter depending on what colors they are next to. It is always a matter of relationship. Shapes seem to recede in space with less contrast and little texture or when they are overlapped, are smaller in size, have softer edges and duller color relationships. To create important shapes that come forward in space, the opposite approach is taken. Increase contrast around object by making them appear illuminated. Their shapes retain intense color, complimentary colors surround them.

Color: The Color Wheel: Color (also called hues) are aligned in a circle in the order of the rainbow, the three primary colors are red, yellow and blue. The secondary colors are orange, green and purple. Complimentary colors are opposite each other on the color wheel. Red is complimentary to green, yellow is complimentary to purple, blue is complimentary to orange. Shades of the hues are created when black is added to a pigment. Tints of these hues are created when white is added to the pigment. With true watercolor only water is used to achieve a tint. To brighten a color the same pigment is used layer upon layer to strengthen the hue.

Color Properties: Color a 4 basic characteristics:  Hue: the general color itself  Intensity: degree of brightness  Value: quality of light or dark  Temperature: whether a color is warm or cool as they relate to each other cool hues content more blue or green Warm hues contain more red or yellow.

Pigment qualities: Pigments have very different qualities and each brand uses different symbols and charts to signify their characteristics. Each tube should be rated for lightfastness, which means how long the true color of the pigment will last against the effects of time and light exposure. Each pigment can also be characterized by its transparency, staining and sedimentary or granulating qualities. These qualities affect your painting. They will take some time to be absorbed but with practice you should be able to achieve the results you desire. Each watercolor pigment has one or more of these basic characteristics.

Transparent colors are great to begin your painting with because they are the most easily lifted. So if you make a mistake in applying a color you can probably remove the color. These colors are bright, flow easily, are good for glazing. They are weak for creating darks but they are great for creating flower petals and luminous skin tones.

Permanent Rose Aureolin Yellow New Gamboge Lemon Yellow Indanthrone Blue Quinacridones Reds

Sedimentary/Granulating colors are also usually transparent in light washes. They are good for textual work. They can usually be lifted somewhat. Their flow is less than transparent colors and they are weak for creating darks.

Cobalt Blues Ultramarines Blues Viridian Green Manganese Blue Mineral Violet Siennas (Browns) Umbers (Browns)

Staining colors are very intense colors you can mix to create strong darks. They flow easily in stages and impart a flat transparent quality. Lifting is difficult as the name implies.

Phthalo Blues and Greens Prussian Blue Alizarine Crimson

Opaque colors are intense and sometimes grainy colors that can add texture to your painting. They can also be used for transparent washes but when applied over previous wash they will block the light from shining through, so they look thicker and somewhat cloudy. They do not flow as easily as transparent colors and are good for dense, heaving subjects. Opaque colors are good mud makers.

Yellow Ochre Cadmium Yellows, Red, Greens Naples Yellow Indian Red Cerulean Blue Gouache Pigments in all colors.

Palette Arrangement of Pigments: Your palette should be arranged according to paint qualities so that you do not have to memorize or read the quality of your paint tube every time you wish to draw upon a pigment. Every pigment should be labeled to remind you what they are so that you can replace the pigment when you run out of it.

If you arrange your transparent pigments together first, followed by your sedimentary / granulating second, then your staining pigments and lastly your opaque colors. Essentially, you will be accessing your transparent paints regularly and your opaque colors with more careful consideration.