week of watercolor

Materials Suggestions for Watercolor Class from Instructor
Brushes, paper, pallet, and paint are the basics. Following are some suggestions for your consideration. These are what work best for me. I’d love for you to consider my suggestions – particularly as they relate to paper size and weight, and paint colors.

Here are a few online sources for materials
Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff – www.cheapjoes.com
Daniel Smith – www.danielsmith.com
Jerry’s Artarama – www.jerrysartarama.com
Dick Blick – www.dickblick.com 

Brushes
It is nice to buy the best brushes you can afford. Better brushes make painting easier, but it’s also a good idea to try some and go with what YOU like. I like sable or sable/synthetic blend brushes. The Winsor Newton Series 7 brushes (www.winsornewton.com) are good (and also most expensive), but there are other good sable brushes….I only use ROUND brushes in a range of sizes from #2 to #10-12, though I rarely use a brush that is smaller than a size #5. You really don’t need very many brushes, a #3, 5 , 6, 8, 10 maybe 12 and a 16 or bigger for wetting large areas.
Here are some choices in sable:
Cheap Joe’s Legend Kolinsky Sable
Daniel Smith Series 77 Kolinsky Watercolor Brushes

Some synthetic brushes I like are Royal Majestic’s. It is nice to have one or two of these brushes with a diagonal scorer at the end of the handle (used for scoring lines into your paintings.) I also like a Silver Black Velvet . They are less stiff and they have a “Big Boy” #3025S Jumbo Round for wetting large areas of the paper.Have a couple of cheap synthetic brushes size 0 or 1 for frisket.

Paper
It is very important to use a high-quality paper. My wish is that you bring several sheets of 300 lb. paper in a 22” x 30” size. It is sold in single sheets, and packages of 5 and 25 sheets.
Two brands I like are Arches and Saunders Waterford. I really DON’T like those watercolor pads where you rip off a sheet, or little pieces of paper. They are unacceptable, really. I want you to feel like you are worth something bigger, something better – something good! If you want to bring along some less expensive paper to use to test colors that is fine, but please treat yourself to some good paper to paint on.

Palette
If you already have a palette, that is great. If not there are lots to choose from. One I particularly like is Cheap Joe’s Piggyback Palette. It is inexpensive and has 30 wells for color. And, you can add a “piggyback” on it for 15 more colors!

Paint
The brand I prefer over any is Schmincke Horadem. Daniel Smith (only available at Daniel Smith), Rowney, and Holbein are also good paints. I use very few colors, given what’s out there, but I like the freedom to mix.  I prefer to blend my colors…

My paint staples are:

Alizarin Crimson (Schmincke Hordam)
Indigo
Ultramarine Blue or French Ultramarine
Idanthrone Blue (Daniel Smith)
Verditer (ONLY HOLBEIN)
Olive Green (Rowney)
Undersea Green
Serpentine green
Juane Brilliant Dark (yellow – a Schmincke Hordam color)
Translucent Yellow (Schmincke Hordam)
Sepia (Schmincke Hordam)
Raw Sienna (Schmincke Hordam)
Burnt Sienna
Raw Umber
Burnt Umber
Translucent Orange (Schmincke Hordam)
Thioviolet
Quinacridone Gold and Q. Deep Gold(Daniel Smith)
Quinacridone Burnt Orange (Daniel Smith)
Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet (Daniel Smith)
I try every Q. color I can find. Daniel Smith frequently has a sale on all quinacridone colors as a set.

Please don’t panic if you can’t find all of these. We will share.

Other Materials
Pencil and good eraser
“VIVA” (really VIVA ) paper towels or old cloth diapers
Fritch Scrubbers – set of three (Daniel Smith or Cheap Joe’s)
Small sea sponge
Water spray bottle
Frisket – I especially like Masquepen masking fluid because it is so easy to apply
Journal or pad to keep track of your ideas

Notes
Start to look for ideas to paint, things that grab you, things that draw your attention, old ideas you have never acted on.  If you see an advertisement, figure out what about it you like. Look at paintings by others and see what you like…(don’t be afraid to copy it.) We learn so much from looking at what someone else has done.

Collect photos, bring in fresh flowers, fruit, vegetables…. nice
things you are attracted to….vases, glass, pottery… anything…and or a painting to copy, something you love or hold dearly…weird objects… We can set up still life’s, we can focus intently on the specifics of something… it is all possible.

Please write with any questions, whatever they might be. I would love to be able to ease any fears or apprehension. I can’t wait to be together.
X X X Sarah