The One all about Watercolor, Brush and Paper
A student asks me:
“
I had a few questions that I missed asking during the class.
1) Which brand of water colour paints did you use during the class? Can you suggest what kind I should purchase?
2) What kind of brushes should one use for watercolour? Synthetic or natural hair?
3) Which brand and gsm of water colour paper do you suggest? “
These are questions about art supplies plenty asked, and I always answer in class very briefly, otherwise we will be in class forever
In class, I tend to rotate my palette around, and never use the same one. I have student quality palette which I used when it’s the first class on watercolour beginners and I want to show the students what they are working with, but I tend to switch to my artist quality palette in subsequent classes, because the pigments in artist grade paints are more vibrant, and shows better on camera and in real life.
Now for the suggestion of what to purchase:
I will break this down for different levels of students so at whatever level you’re coming into it, there’s something for you here.
If you’re an absolute beginner, haven’t ever touched watercolour paints ever. I would go with the cheapest in the best quality you can afford.
Here’s some brands in this category that I own, use and like, in no particular order of quality:
Daler Rowney Aquafine 12 Half pan Travel Water-colour set.
Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolour Sketchers Pocket Box (12 half pan)
St Petersburg White Nights Watercolor set (12 full pan)
The White Night’s set is probably my favourite in the student quality range. It is at the higher end but it is also the most vibrant. Daler Rowney and the Winson Newton’s to me are very similar in quality and price.
There are many other brands in the same range or budget but I cannot tell you much about them because I’ve not used them. But if you’re curious, here are their brand names; Rembrandt, Raphael, Van Gogh, Sennelier, and Holbein to name a few.
You can read the basics of watercolour pigment, transparency, staining and lightfastness in this super easy to read article: https://mymodernmet.com/best-watercolor-paint-sets/
For beginners, watercolour brushes that I feel is crucial so you’re not discouraged at the first application is a student quality synthetic brush, made by Princeton (series 3750) and Winsor & Newton Cotman series. Both these brands have a good snap back (that means when you try to bend the tip with your fingers, it bounces back and doesn’t stay bend). The Winsor Newton Cotman ones have a slightly better point, and holds more water than the Princeton ones.
In watercolour painting, you want a brush with a good point when damped, and one that holds a good amount of water so your brush is ‘juicy’.
If you can only get one brush, and it will be suitable for almost all kinds of painting topics on a size A4 paper or smaller, I would recommend getting a medium size round brush, size 6 or 8. I tend to use size 8 myself. A size 8 would be good enough to paint fine point as well as give you a nice brush thick lines and a good spreadability coverage for larger areas.
Watercolour paper is a slippery slope because this is the one area beginner students tend to buy the cheapest and I would really suggest against doing that.
I repeat, do not buy the cheapest paper when you’re learning watercolour, because cheap paper is the quickest way for beginners to feel frustrated, then disappointed, and this discouraged exploration and demotivating. I understand the pragmatism of not wanting to waste money when you think the quality of your skill will not match the quality of the paper yet, but bad paper will push you farther away even before you properly try.
The very dependable quality paper pads for beginners are the Daler Rowney Aquafine watercolour pads. They’re at an affordable price range, and they’re stable and won’t give you any buckling or sizing problem. They come in different sizes and are pretty easy to get in art store or online.
If you do a little google research, you’ll find a range of different opinions on this, so it’s worth remembering that what I wrote here is based on my own direct experience of having used these art supplies. Remember that taste and affordability are in The Eye of the brush holder.
As for watercolour sketchbooks, I found that I tend to recommend the Kuelox Watercolour sketchbook from Overjoyed because it’s inexpensive, and pretty nice quality for the low price. It comes in A5 or A6 sizes great for pocketing and travel sketching with. If you are the kind of person who likes to buy your art supplies online, I can recommend the Arteza series of watercolour sketchbooks. They’re not the most consistent in sizing their paper, but for beginners this is at a very good price point for what you get, and they sell them in packs of 2 or 3. Sizing is the stage of paper making where they make sure the surface of the paper is stable when paint hits it. When you find your paper buckling, waving and paint either seeps through like a sponge or is outright repelled when applied, those are all sizing inconsistency, and can be a problem.
Top: Etchr The Perfect sketchbook A5 Landscape. Bottom Left: Stillman & Birn Gamma series A5 portrait. Bottom Right: Stillman & Birn Nova Series, Square Grey toned.
If you’re a dabbler, doodler and sketching is your hobby but you modestly always refer to yourself as a beginner, plus you want to stay on budget. I would suggest the same lists as the absolute beginners but I would upgrade the brushes and the paper.
Brushes last a lot longer than paint, and paper will change your perception and feel of your work. The double edge swords about upgrading your paper is either it boost your confidence in your skills, because the paper does quite a lot when it comes to certain kinds of watercolour styles that is more painterly, and the other extreme is, it can be too wonderful and delicious to use, that you might worry about messing it up the next time you use it.
Whichever edge you decide you’re going to go, its just paper, and there’s always another one.
For the middle ground, medium grade artists brushes, I would look at a brand called Silver Black Velvet. I got mine from an art shop called Overjoyed. (www.overjoyed.xyz) they’re based in Singapore but has an online store that ships worldwide. Otherwise, Amazon might have them but do check the market price because sometimes….Amazon’s not the most reliable on that front.
The short bristle is Black Velvet size 8, and the longer brush is Winsor & Newton Pro Sable size 8
My black velvet brush is round size 8, and it’s what I call my work horse brush. I use this brush to death. I even have a travel brush version the same size too, and they come out with me without fail when I go on location.
It might be worth writing about how you can check if your watercolor brush is good or bad? First all watercolor brushes are soft bristle, the hard bristled ones tends to be used for oil painting, so don’t get those.
And the upgrade of paper I would look at Clairfontaine watercolour paper, 200gsm and 300 gsm of the Aquarelle Etival are both very nice. Generally I don’t recommend Grams Per Square Meter or GSM less than 200 for watercolour use. You want paper that can handle the liquid.
If you want watercolor sketchbook with similar quality paper, I absolutely love Stillman & Birn, Beta series. This brand has different quality sketchbooks with different weight but the one I use are the 270gsm Mix media Premium sketchbooks, either wirebound or softcover. The softcover sketchbooks especially I love for going on location sketching and travelling because they’re light, and the pages lies flat, which is super important when you want to draw across two pages.
Stillman & Birn Beta Series - A6
Stillman & Birn Nova series, Toned Beige paper, size 7.5” x 7.5” square
These are the non-white, toned version which I love using. They’re the Nova series (while the Beta series are white paper)
Now, if you’ve been in my classes more than a few times, and you are beginning to have some opinions about art supplies that you like. First of all, you can start calling yourself an intermediate sketcher, and one thing I’ve always continued to used even after I’ve painted for a while are the paint brushes. And what I would upgrade further is my paper to 100% cotton watercolour paper.
The brands I used for commission works, works to frame or for sale are usually the highest quality 100% Cotton watercolor paper and I use Cold Press the most. I use Arches and Fabriano Artistico.
The difference between COLD Press and HOT Press.
I use mainly Cold Press paper, which has some texture on the surface (or it is often referred to as teeth), and to avoid confusion, sometimes this paper is also called ‘NOT’. I am not much of a hot press paper user because its too smooth, and the paint dries too fast for the kind of painting style I like to do.
For more geekery on watercolour paper quality, here’s a good guide
As for the high end quality of paint and brushes, I absolutely can say I love Daniel Smith’s watercolours, mainly for the beautiful collection of granulated paints they have. I love granulated paints. (Pic) and the second brand I use the most is the German brand Schmincke. Once a while, I will use Winson & Newton professional, which are all at similar price points, and excellence. If you want to dig deeper into watercolour color, the goddess of watercolour paint is Australian urban sketchers Jane Blundell.
Example of a sketch I did using granulating paint
Paint brushes at the top end of the spectrum are all the natural hair and bristle brushes, made in Kolinsky Sable, Squirrel, and such. My first ever Kolinsky Sable is by Winsor & Newton, size 8 Round, and it’s such a long brush, with remarkably smooth and longer bristle than the Silver Black Velvet ones. It is so delicious to use.
Black Velvet size 8 and W&N Sable size 8 comparison
So if you’re thinking ‘I don’t want to buy the most expensive brush’ yet, but I want to buy something that’s NICER than Black velvet. Then I recommend Escoda, a Spanish brand that has more variety of synthetic and natural hair watercolour brushes. I won’t be too specific but the ones that I use the most are their round travel brushes, which are their Optimo series. And I also love Rosemary & Co’s pocket watercolour brushes. (This one is based in the UK and they ships worldwide).
Now if you feel ready and want to splurge on handmade quality everything. Or you love art supplies as gifts. I can recommend a few things that would make the artists in you very happy. There are a variety of handmade watercolour paint brands that I’ve been lucky enough to get as gifts. One of them is a company called Greenleaf & Blueberry, all paints are handmade in Colorado, USA, and the other one is A.Gallo from Italy. Both have very good e-commerce websites and ships worldwide. Both these company’s paints tend to sell out because they’re made in such limited quantity, so signing up for their newsletter will help you get in front of their fresh drops.
Handmade watercolour paper I like are the Khadi cotton rag, but this is difficult to get from Singapore. What I also like are hand-bound sketchbooks. I’ve purchased a few from a Lisbon based company called Laloran. The books are hardbound by an artist on order, so it takes some time. But they’re made of high quality watercolour paper by Fabriano, and you can choose and customise the cover color and quality.
Finally, I don’t recommend Moleskine pocket watercolor album. The paper is truly awful! Having used a few of this to make sure it wasn’t just my unlucky purchase of a bad batch or control, I’ve decided never to buy Moleskin sketchbooks again.
If you’ve read up to this end, I hope this is helpful. I know how confusing art supplies can be when you are new to the art. I definitely have had lots of trial and errors to say I know my preferences better now and I know where to go get them again.
The one company in Singapore I try to support because they’re a family business, run by two generation of Singaporean artists, is Straits Commercial Art. They don’t really have e-commerce but the shop has been around a long time, and the staff/family knows their stock and supplies deeply and thoroughly. They are what I compare to the old school art supply shops I used to go to in Europe where everything is behind the counter and you have to ask for exactly what you need and they will serve you. But here, not only could you browse, you could also test watercolor brushes, and you can have a very intelligent conversation about art supply and learn a thing or two on your way out. So if you’re in Singapore, and only have time to visit one place. This is the one shop I would recommend going to.
The other two bigger ones are Art Friend, and Overjoyed.
Online art shop I go to when I need a top up are Jackson’s Art. They often have the same stuff but at a slight cheaper price than the above shops I mention, and you can become a member and collect points that could be redeemed for free shipping. During the pandemic, I shop at Jacksons exclusively, until I could go back to the real shops.