Art supplies for watercolor painting and tips for

beginners :

Art supplies for Watercolor painting and tips for beginners: Is watercolor painting your new discovered passion ? A complete guide on how to start painting with watercolors: Many people are afraid to try out watercolor painting as they find it difficult.Painting with watercolors might be tedious, but not necessarily.With the right art supplies for watercolor painting and tricks, you can master the art and become a proficient painter.

Hang on till the end to find out more about art supplies for watercolor painting.

• Suitable brushes :

Watercolor painting requires soft brushes with long hairs, specific for working with watery medium. Natural fibres are the best, but at the same time very expensive. One can purchase high quality soft brushes, for a lesser price. Brushes come in various shapes and sizes, and you must have at least 1-2 larger flat brushes  and several round brushes of different sizes for watercolor painting. Beginners, can start off with synthetic brushes as art supplies for watercolor painting and experiment the different shapes and sizes.

• Paints for watercolor painting :

Art supplies for watercolor paints come in three different forms.They can come in the form of tubes, liquid or as cakes/pans.Tubes are sold for lesser prices having a set of basic colors. The best suggestion would be the Camlin water colors that are available in every stationery shop. Sets of pan paints are available widely and are compact to carry around. They also offer an array of vibrant colors, that are suitable for every beginner.

• Palette :

One of the most essential art supplies for watercolor painting is palette. A palette is required in case you purchase tube paints or the liquid paints. A basic palette consisting of 12 wells are available and suitable for mixing.A palette  comes along with the well for mixing in cake paints, that are again suitable for Watercolor paintings for beginners.

• Paper :

The most important art supplies for watercolor painting that determines the quality of your painting is the paper.You will need to invest in thicker quality paper. The most commonly used paper is handmade papers. Handmade papers can be classified into hot -pressed, cold-pressed and rough papers.

• Hot pressed handmade papers are costly, having a smooth finish and least absorbent.It is the best for detailing, vibrancy but not suitable for undiluted paint.Hot pressed paper are supplied by brands like Archies, Canson, Fabriano, etc
• Cold-pressed papers are intermediate, and are moderately rough and absorbent. It is moderately good for detailing, vibrancy.
• Rough papers have an unequal rough surface and are the most absorbent of all papers.Suited for aggressive brushing techniques and retains less vibrancy. Suited for undiluted paint.

For beginners, paper in individual sheets/ pad/blocks can be preferred that provides a hard surface and keeps the paper stretched until the paint dries up.

Check out handmade block papers – Chitrapat  art supplies for watercolor painting, recommended by famous artists like Milind Mulick.

• Water :

Water taken in small containers can easily spoil the watercolors, as the water soon turns muddy and brown. The best way to keep water clear is, by using a large container of water. In that way, the watercolor paints remain consistent and do not contain any other pigments. You can also keep one container to clean your brushes and one to wet or use as a thinner before you apply on your watercolor paintings, if possible.

• Mixing the paint correctly :

It is advised to mix only 2 paints at a time, as combining more than 2 can result in a brown and muddy color. Also, you can layer colors on a glaze by wet-on-dry or wet-on-wet experimentation. Having an extra piece of paper to experiment would be handy before applying your paint on your watercolor painting.  

•  Clothes :

Clothes can help in blotting of water in watercolor paintings.Paper Tissues, or any unused clean clothes can be used for such purposes. Also, rag clothes can be used as art supplies for watercolor painting for cleaning purposes.

• Cleaning the brushes:

You can clean the brushes after watercolor paint, by keeping them under running water until the water turns clean.

Also, lay them flat on a surface and air dry.

•  Additional supplies :

The additional art supplies for watercolor paintings are knives, sponges, clothes, spray water, plastic cards for texturing purposes. 

Most importantly, start painting and have fun experimenting with watercolor painting. 

Pencil and Chai is a platform which helps you learn, understand and excel the watercolor painting skills under the guidance of the experienced masters of art.