If you are planning to start watercolour painting and you are a novice, then the first thing you need to do is purchase your watercolors and painting materials. For a beginner, it seems that everything is just the same. Sometimes, looking for painting materials could be overwhelming since there are a lot of choices.

To make shopping easier, here are the painting materials you will be needing and what you need to look for.

Watercolors

Watercolors could be in cake sets or in tubes. Watercolors would usually have the basic colors included. The white colored cake or rube is usually opaque and are often used in Gouache painting. If you are just starting or a student in watercolour painting, then you could look for brands that offer watercolour for academic or for students. There are watercolors which are artist rated, you could start using them once you have learned the basics of watercolour painting.

There are different colors, like transparent and semi-transparent watercolors let light pass through the surface. There are also opaque and somewhat opaque colors like red, oranges and violet. You could also look for neutral colors.

Brushes

It is important to pick brushes which are intend for watercolour painting, since brushes that are intended for other types of painting, may damage the watercolour paper. Make sure that you are getting brushes which are guaranteed not to lose its hairs. Also, not all brushes are the same, there are flats which are used for broad areas, they have long bristles and square ends. Rounded bristles with pointed tips are for adding details. Filbert brushes have almond shaped ends which are ideal for creating shapes.

Watercolor papers

There are different kinds of watercolour papers it could be machine-made paper, rough paper, hot-pressed paper, and cold-pressed paper. Their difference would be on the texture and the grains. Watercolour papers are not only different based on their manufacturer, but also based on the brand of the paper.

When buying watercolour papers, choose papers that are acid-free. Papers that have too much acid would change to yellow as time goes. Although, we usually think that watercolour papers are only white, that is not true. There are watercolour papers that have warm tints and colors.

Weight is also another important things to consider when looking for watercolour paper. This shows how thick the paper is, it is usually in pounds or grams per square meter. The 300gsm is the most-commonly used paper. While the 200gsm is considered lighter but may cause more problems since it is thinner.

Palette

There are three kinds of palette which you could use. The first one is the cake and pan, since it they have built-in fold out palettes. While for tube watercolors, there are flat plates which looks like the palettes being used in schools. The covered plastic palette is actually does not waste too much watercolour.

Extra materials you need for watercolour painting.

These are actually just pencils, pens, eraser, old towels, tissue papers and of course water. You would need clean tap water for cleaning the brushes and the other one for painting.