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Your watercolor setup: paints, brushes, and paper
I’m always curious about fellow watercolor artists’ setups! What are your favorite paint brands, go-to brushes, and preferred papers? Whether you’re using student-grade supplies or professional materials, let’s share our recommendations! 🎨
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6 Replies
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Currently, I’m favoring a custom palette made with Daniel Smith, Qor, & Sennelier watercolors. My current favorite brush is a gorgeous Winsor & Newton Series 250 Squirrel brush (size 2).
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I just found a great practice paper 30% cotton but REALLY great to work on. And I’ve tried many other less expensive kinds- hated them all until now. Plus.. supporting an artist not a corporation
Andrea Nelson Art on social mediahttps://www.adreamoradayart.com/product-page/a4-watercolor-paper-pad
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Oooh, I’ve never heard of this paper! I’ll have to check it out, thanks for the hot tip!
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I haven’t figured out my favorite paper or brushes yet. But following my own trends, I have a pair of ancient kid’s watercolor sets that I picked up at an estate sale. The Crayola one has the prettiest blue to ever blue and the Prang set I have has a gorgeous colorway. The yellow/orange from the Prang set and the blue from the Crayola set is my favorite combo!
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I think I know exactly what Prang set you’re talking about! I got started with the very same humble palette. You can do a lot with those paints and learn a TON.
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Summary:
My favorite paints are Daniel Smith, Holbein, and Beam Paints.
My favorite brushes are Black Velvet Silver round brushes but I use mop brushes sometimes when I paint larger pieces.
My favorite paper to play on is cheap Bee Inspired paper from Walmart but when I paint a “serious” one I like Arches.
Apparently I am long-winded and wrote a big old essay about my fave watercolor supplies and I wrote things out in detail, so I put a little summary at the top of this post to save everyone a lot of time. LOL!
I have six different types of paints I like to use. My first set was a cheap set from Amazon. I USED IT ALL UP!!!!
So then, I invested a little in myself and bought a more expensive kind from Andrea Nelson (at the time her site was called A Dream or A Day but now it is called Cozy Lark). I like how vibrant they are; however, over the course of two years my artwork has become less vibrant because I didn’t know about something called “light fast colors”. The purples and some blues on my artwork two years ago are fading and it has me a bit sad.
About a year ago, I invested a little more in myself and bought some individual tubes of Daniel Smith colors (Moonglow is my favorite). These seem to be holding more steady as far as light fastness goes. At least I don’t notice fading very much.
Recently, I invested a bit more in myself (actually, at this point I think I just have an addiction to buying watercolor paints…LOL). I bought some BEAUTIFUL individual paint stones from Beam Paints. Each of them are shiny and are made with ethical mica. Beam Paints are made to withstand fading and are STUNNING in person! No matter how I try to take pictures of my paintings the pictures do not do the real paintings justice!
Also, I learned on cheaper paper and for some reason I seem to do better on the cheaper paper than on the expensive stuff. Sometimes looking at a large blank paper is overwhelming so I cut it up into smaller pieces. I turn my paintings into postcards most times and mail them to my kids and family members.
None of these pictures are actually as pretty as they are in person. I love Beam Paints so much I could literally sit and paint abstracts all day long because of how beautiful they flow together!
Andrea Nelson Art on social media
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