To ease your entry into this wonderful craft, I’ve put together a basic materials list that you can purchase from Amazon for around $30 dollars (at the time of filming). I don’t want you to spend any more money than is necessary. As strange as it might sound, watercolor isn’t for everyone, so I don’t want you spending a large sum of money to find out if this is something you want to pursue.
Items to Buy
- Watercolor Block 11 x 15 (or the 9 x 12). I’ll be using the larger size, but you can follow along with the smaller one. These are nicer to use than a regular pad because all four sides of the paper is bound. This creates a more stable work surface to paint on.
- Watercolor Round Brush Set. This is a nice, entry-level, set of brushes that you’ll be able to use for a long time. Watercolor brushes are softer and allow you to hold more water than an oil or acrylic brush.
- Crayola Watercolor Set. I’ll be using this 8-color set but if you already have some, feel free to use it instead. The colors you’ll need are Red, Yellow, Blue, and black. While others are nice to have, they are not necessary for this course.
- Disc-cap Travel Bottle. This is purely a convenience item, but it will make things easier! The link is to a travel set of bottles but you only need the one disc-cap bottle. If you already have one that you can wash out (thoroughly), feel free to use that.
Other Supplies
In addition to items you’ll need to purchase, there are some other items you likely already have but will prove useful.
You’ll need two containers to hold water. One for rinsing your brush and the other for adding water to your palette and paper. I prefer clear glass pickle jars but I’ve used plastic peanut butter jars and plastic coffee cans. The important thing here is don’t spend money on this. Reuse a food container jar, just make sure it’s clean!
A butter knife. This will be useful for removing the sheets of paper from the watercolor block. It does not need to be a butter knife. Nor does it need to be sharp. It just needs to be something we can get in between the pages. More on that in the first lesson.
Old cloth rag and a role of paper towels. The rag and towels should be white, so that you know you’ve got all the pigment out of your brush when cleaning them. An old t-shirt works great for this.
A #2 pencil for drawing and transferring images.