Canson XL is a surprisingly good affordable non-cotton paper, it's what I started with and did not discourage me from watercoloring. Eventually I got the cheapest cotton paper I could find, Bee 140# cold press, and that was even better for learning. Now that I'm more confident it doesn't seem as scary to use up the pricier papers, though to beginners I feel like starting with the absolute best cotton paper can make you feel bad for making mistakes. I remember being amazed by the vibrancy and big pans in the White Nights set too, great recommendations!
I have two empty watercolor xl from the canson sitting on my shelve. Not Cotton be damned. I love m becaus euh. I love to doodle in those. or make tiny thumbnail paintings. Not like you will sell those. If pple want them I can always scan them in,lol.
I love that this review was done as a "paints that don't get in the way" kind of thing. While I absolutely love granulating colors now and even intentionally seek them out the first time I ran into watercolors that granulated I was soooo frustrated and gave up on watercolors for a hot minute because I thought it was an issue on my end and I was just too dumb to figure out how watercolor worked. :'D
I feel ya. I thought I hated watercolor until, oddly enough, I found a set REALLY CHEAP with a coupon code. I purchased them just to have and eventually, like a year later, pulled them out to attempt a background on a piece. That background turned out miserably, but when I wet the paints I kinda became obsessed. I still pretty much suck with watercolor, but they're really really FUN!
I started drawing and using watercolors after my son passed...nights became long. Now, I do it because it satisfies something in me. Came from a professional background (medicine) and the frivolity of "art" was never part of my life...lol older people ramble...I just wanted to say that I love your videos and binged on them one night...look forward to each and everyone...I did purchase the Kuretake set. I will purchase another beginner set just to get my art legs ( kinda like sea-legs)...again, thank u for sharing your expertise and your talent
I'm sorry about your son. There are a couple of doctors in my family. They paint as a hobby. Other family members are professional artists. I want to start painting. However, I currently cannot afford art supplies. I have never attempted, because I want everything to look perfect from the beginning! Weird.
To be honest I saw your comment and I’m so happy because I feel the exact same. I’m in the field of education and sometimes I feel very frustrated and stressed. I began watercolor after years and years of leaving it in the dustbin and began to start doing it again as a form of “art therapy” and it was excellent!
No, older people do not ramble. You are more intelligent than most. Younger generations were not taught to be gracious and thoughtful. Also, they are not as inforned eventhough they might be "educated."
Especially for the European market I would like to add the Van Gogh student grade 12 Color set. They are only between 13 and 17 Euros (in Germany) and I started with them and used them for half a year and upgraded to senellier after that. They are great for mixing and since this is something I would say is most important for learning how to use watercolours they have great value for their price.
When I started with watercolors, I was contemplating between van Gogh and Sonnet. One of the reasons I chose Sonnet over van Gogh was the number of colors and the size of the pans. I got the 24 full pans Sonnet set on sale for €19 (also Germany). But even on their regular price they are still cheaper than van Gogh's 24 half pans set. I think the Paul Rubens MeiLiang 48 colors set for €30 is also a better pick for beginners.
Hooray for kneaded erasers! I was *that* child as well, in school, when it came to sort of compulsively kneading them when bored. :-D Thanks for the lessons and wisdom for today!
I think that even once you start using nice watercolor paper you should always keep around a stack of cheap stuff for swatching, practicing color theory, and color thumbnails/mockups. Hell, i even use mine for things like birthday cards or other disposable gifts.
:o!!! You should definitely give the Decandent Pies set a try! And gosh. I've been meaning to try that Tropicals set for so long. XD Trying something alongside you would be such a special experience!! 🥰🥰🥰
I actually love my Windsor and newton watercolor set, although I do agree that they are not as pigmented as they could be, therefore I lose a lot of saturation in my artwork. But it was that or Artist Loft at my local craft/art store. I think I made the right choice :) but in the future I’ll be on the lookout for some of your recommendations ;)
urgh artist loft. I have so much artist loft stuff because for my birthday and christmas I always get the same stuff. Thankful to get art supplies, but three separate artist's loft water colour tube sets is a lot.
What I just recently tried and really recommend as a student "learning" line of paints are the van gogh watercolours. Since they are available in different halfpan sets and tubes with all the information and performance needed for a great price, they are my top beginner recommendation. The Lukas studio fourteen halfpan set is a great value for money and near perfect colourselection to learn from as well, while they perform as great as van gogh in my experience. PS: I really enjoyed this video for beginners with a different approach than the basics that are everywhere on youtube👍🏻 PPS: I am really glad that I am not the only one who doesn't like the winsor and newton cotman paints. When I was relatively new to watercolours, the twelve colour cotman set frustrated me a whole lot. The tinting strength of the alizarin and the ultramarine were non-existend and it just couldn't get my head around the fact that it was so difficult to mix bright violets/purples or deeper darks when it's a recommended split primary set for beginners. Gladly, I had other watercolours already at that point and simply switched over. I love their professional line of paints though!
xara art I have an old, maybe 10 or 12 years old small cotman set and loved it, also bought a 24 colour set around three years ago, was hugely disappointed. My professional set got around the same time has gfrown on me, and I have added to it, some colours really stand out as lovely, but the aureolin is visibly dulling and greying badly, I will replace it sometime and only save the empty half pan, as W&N pans are different sized from most sets.
I love Van Gogh's. There are few paints (such as Turquoise Green and one of the browns) that don't work for me, but the rest are very good for what they are. I'll take them over Cotman any time of the day.
i really love van gogh watercolours! and i rarely see people reviewing/using it i used to paint with pentel and koh-i-noor watercolours and it was such an important step up for me when i bought van gogh’s because the quality its so much better! and i ended up finally painting something that i didn’t hate at the end lol
a little tip, in case you store your kneaded eraser in one of these little plastic boxes, cut a piece of paper to size and stick it inside on either the top or the bottom of the box. That way the eraser won't stick to both sides and hinder you from opening the box, it'll be way easier. Just wanted to share that with you guys!^^
I like the Cotmans. I only ever bought them to see if they are really as horrible as people say, and I ended up loving them. If I had to recommend paints to a beginner, I would have definitely included them in my recommendations, along with Lukas studio and Van Gogh. Schmincke Akademie is great, too, but it is kind of pricey in comparison to the other brands, even here in Germany. I think White Nights are really good, too, as are Sonnet, even though the latter feels a little weird to me sometimes. I found out that they use a synthetic binder, maybe that is why I find them a little different. And as for a good paper in the affordable range, I love Fabriano watercolour. The one that only says WATERCOLOUR , nothing else. I think it is a wonderful paper for the price. And for brushes, meh, I am fine with anything that holds enough water and has a good tip, as long as it is synthetic.
The first set i got was the Cotman 45 set and i think having a lot of colors actually helped me learn which ones i use a lot and those that i don't need at all and how i can just mix them myself. Like how i realized i really really liked Raw Umber or that Dioxazine Violet is essential for my style of painting. Eventually i upgraded to professional paints but still use that set for reference.
rabid heartbeats I originally bought the Artists Loft Tube watercolour set and realized I couldn’t make the purple/violet I wanted ,so I got the W&N Cotman in Dioxazine Violet. I recently made a piece where I mainly used it, and I could tell it was an upgrade from Artists Loft, from what I could tell, it was great for me!
This is such a great overview and I agree with your paint selection. I started out with Derwent Inktense pencils and felt so fancy when I upgraded to a Cotman palette. The physical palette itself is still my favourite, it's so perfect for travelling. The paints however... I swatched out all my paints this week and was shocked to see how pale the Cotmans actually are. And it takes so much work to get the pigment out! Now I'm using van Gogh tubes and White Nights pans, as both are rather affordable in Estonia. They're all gorgeous and vibrant and exactly what I need at this stage. Plus I recently splurged on three tubes of Daniel Smith (they're really expensive here!) to get some beautiful granulating extras. I did learn a lot with my Cotman set, but now that I have used better ones, it's so difficult to do anything with them. Might just clear out that palette and use it with a self-made colour selection for travel paintings.
As a first time watercolor painter, after watching many reviews, I started off using the Windsor and newton watercolor set. I paired this with an acid free cotton pad and am incredibly happy with the results! I painted a very vibrant parrot and i found the windsor set to have a vibrant but soft pigment, I've loaded the video on the page to see the colour intensity of the painting.
my first watercolors were the sonnet ones cause I watched your review and was pleasantly surprised since I live in Russia and they're really affordable. I love them. I love the 16 pan set so much. atm I'm slowly upgrading to white nights purchasing the individual pans one by one when I have some extra cash. thank you so much for your work, your tips and reviews, it makes me less scared to experiment and actually paint. from Russia, with love. (also the first white night colour I purchased was Payne's Grey and I'm in love)
I enjoyed this video ☺️ I’ve been using the Winsor and Newton Cotman colours this past few months and agree. The colour pigment varies a lot colour to colour!! I just have the pocket sketch set (so 12 colours) and am also not in love with the colour selection in the set.
Stone Henge aqua hot press paper is the best paper! Buying a dot card from daniel smith on blick is like $4.00 and a fun cheap way to test good watercolors.
Pretty excellent 36 pen is 20$ much cheaper than the last one she said and I think it's worth going for if you want to play with all the colors and you have no idea what you're doing I'm scared to even mess it up I don't know what the f*** I'm doing I'm just starting I used to use colored pencils fashion designing work prior to that my sketches was in crayons. I'm trying to get comfortable with paint and it's just so many colors it's confusing and I don't want to make a mess but I guess I just got to get down and dirty.
I wish I had discovered you sooner!!! I just LOVED this video and am now going to power-watch everything else you have produced. Also, in reading most of the comments, it sounds like you have a great following of intellingent, informed, creative and upstanding folks so...I’d like to be a part of this. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us in such a happy format 😁 really did love your goodbye ❤️
I started with the “Jerry Q Art” watercolors on Amazon...super cheap and shockingly good, now I’ve updated to a custom palette with Q.O.R., M Graham, and Daniel Smith
I have the Cotman (16 halfpans) and the professional set (24 colours) of W&N and the Cotman makes me frustrated. The colours mixed are mostly muddy and hard to blend together so... ...but I love my prof. set that was a gift to me... A big THANK YOU! for this informative video.
Love the editing and information in this video! 💖 just watched it through to the end and maybe I'm a dum dum but would it be okay to ask for you to clarify what "link" in the description you were referring to @ 16:25? I couldn't find anything that looks like it beside the affiliate links :) tysm!
Amazing video as ever... And I miss your watercolor making series they were so satisfing to watch and this video was very informative...💕💕 and you are very close to 100k yayy!!!! Love you from a small youtuber..
It's not a bad set! I think she's just trying to say that as a beginner not having a homogeneously easily activated and high tint paint isn't ideal. I personally love my set (:
Fantastic video!! One watercolor paint option I would add to your list of "paint that doesn't get in your way" (love the categories by the way!) is the Pretty Excellent Paint. It's has fantastic colours that mix and mingle they travel like watercolor paints should, pigments are rich, there seem to be lots of single pigment paints in it as they don't muddy easily when mixing. The price is sensational! Half what Paul Rhuban is and they are made from the same company. Downside is they come in a tin of 36 colors and don't list the pigments. So it can be overwhelming and doesn't encourage mixing to gain understanding of how colours mingle. However, in conjunction with a book or some video tutorials this would be excellent for learning some mixing. Oh and I agree Cottman isn't my thing either. I did get that to start out with when venturing into student grade and nearly gave up on watercolor painting because it didn't work well with me. But luckily I tried other paints and discovered I adore watercolor painting and am not half bad at it... with decent brushes, paper and paint. :) I look forward to checking out more of your videos!!
Hi Arleesha's husband! I recently bought some White Nights watercolors and I absolutely love them. It seems like everything is just easier to control with them
I’d definitely recommend the Mozart Art Supplies KOMOREBI watercolor set of 40. Half the colors are traditional and Half are neon and pearlescent so the add a little fun. They’re great for sketchbooks and scan work, they’re enjoyable to work with, half the palette isn’t so good for lightfastness rating, however I love them for fun quick work.
I know this is old but if you buy the less expensive Faber castell 12 set of colored pencils ..most of those ..like the red, pretty much erases entirely which is what I use primarily. Just a quick tip for anyone who light have these on hand already
One of the most helpful getting started videos on watercolours yet! Thank you for touching on the sketching, paper and brushes too. Subscribed after this one, thank you.
as a beginner (startet Okt20) I started with a small starter set of winsor newton, very soon I didn't liket them. I added 2 tubes also of WN because I was unhappy with some mixes. and I didn't like those either. I gave them away. I then got a set of 12 colours by white nights in a large box, and added about 15 extra. although I liked most of the single colours on its own, I wasn't happy with most of the mixes. and it did bother me, that so much colour went into the water. so much pigment. hard to clean for me. kind of disappointed. then I started with a 12 colour set of tubes (mix of schmincke and a few talens rembrant) all shads recommended by an artist, who also teaches. I knew his work and loved it. although he does landscapes and I do abstrakt and flowers as well (trying). later I added 4 of those he called nice to have. plus 2 I wanted for bright flowers. and now I am happy. most of them transparent. till now I am not so sure, if that shift in what I like went hand in hand with what I have learned about mixing. when I selected the white night colours I did't pay any attention on if they were transparent or not. cool or warm. that might be. I still have those, but somehow I don't like to play around with them, because I like the others better. I want to use them up over the years. I only know, I don't want to try winsor and newton again although there must be one or two shades that are good and wood work with my pallett. but somehow I don't want to :-D still sad, that they didn't work so well at the start of my jouney I guess.
That was fun. Thank you for this video. I've been using a MeiLiang watercolour set that I got as a birthday present about a year ago. I think unfortunately, being used to this so long means I couldn't quite cope with better known sets like Winsor & Newton Cotman, which tends to have its paint feeling blotchy when wet and chalky when dried. With this in mind, I'm trying to decide whether I've developed a bad habit from using MeiLiang. Actually, I was flirting with the idea of buying White Nights or Paul Rubens when I came across a comment elsewhere that both are quite similar to MeilIang. I still find this surprising because MeiLiang is about £30 cheaper than both. I'm too poor to buy White Nights or Rubens to see whether this commenter was right. lol
I own the Van gogh watercolor set (the travel set in a plastic box) and I believe that they're really great for beginners. Rewet easily & very pigmented. They don't move a ton but they're super fun to play with as a beginner.
i have and know most about the gansai and cotman. and i agree with your comments on both of them. gansai are beautiful and fun to work with, but definitely shouldn't be cofused with watercolours. and cotman, i have had troubles with them for 20 years since i bought them for school. i wish they asked us to buy 3 primary colours of horadams back then instead. also, i discovered about your channel this week and glad to have done so. thank you.
Thanks for this video and for your clear explanations about why you recommend certain things over others. You are a good teacher! You are also easy to listen to and watch- your sense of humor is wonderful!
Where was 13:26 when I was looking for 6 colours to choose from white nights! I did actually end up choosing a few of those ones and I've been considering expanding my collection so thank you!
I have seen a LOT of watercolour instructional videos and I must commend you for the criteria for evaluating that you have chosen and your logical presentation. Great job.
Noooooo not my precious Winsor and Newton!! 😱😱😭 This was very helpful! I’m shocked that Arteza paper made the list! I’ve learned that paper makes a HUGE difference when it comes to painting...
I totally agree on the W&S Cotmans! My first purchase of watercolours was a Cotman travel set and I found them so frustrating. The effort required to get any colour out of them was discouraging and I could easily have given up right there.
i dunno i learned on em they weren't half bad for me and i used them forever before i upgraded people need to buck up and not be so quick to give up on a medium
I really enjoyed your video. I pay the bills making adult coloring books, but I've recently become obsessed with watercolor. My first decent set was Eachgoo. I bought them thinking I'd never use them but after they sat around for a year I finally pulled them out to attempt a background on a page. The background sucked, but I fell in LOVE with watercolor after years of thinking I absolutely HATED the medium. I'll admit, I'm a bargain shopper so I've tried every affordable set out there and SO SO many different papers. My absolute favorite set is Quinshan. They're really really affordable and I'm always pleased with the results. :)
You and your husband are so cute!! About the video, I'm looking for an upgrade on my student Pentel set and I'm really torn between the Paul Rubens 24 set and the White Nights individual pans. To be honest, I'm inclined to buy the Paul Rubens one because is way cheaper and easier to get. Jackson's shipping taxes to Brazil are too expensive for me 😭 Thank you for you insights!
hey yall! just wanted to say how much i LOVE the white nights watercolor, theres a set of 12 for around 20$ that great for beginners ( i got mine for 18.50) and now that im an intermediate-ish painter i still find myself reaching for them, only downside is the packaging, bulky plastic
This is the most concise & informative video I’ve found on watercolours for beginners. I’ve searched the internet for these answers. Thank you so much this has been extremely helpful 🤗
The Paul Rubens watercolors also have another option which is the student grade version but they are very close in quality and that is the Mei Liang or Pretty Excellent watercolors and they are very nice to work with, highly recommend them especially if you you are on a budget and starting out they are around 20.00 to 25.00 dollars on Ebay and Amazon plus they come in a cute teal tin
That is exactly what happened!! I bought cotman in 2017.. and it just didn’t make me love watercolours in general.. so I didn’t explore the medium, but i recently bought white nights, and they are getting me super excited
This might be the most informative and helpful art video I have ever seen! wish I could like this video more than once! I've been wanting to check out your skillshare classes for a while now and this video just makes me want to even more! Thank you for making such quality content 💕✨
Woah. Okay, this is gonna sound weird, but I was excited to see you have hair like me. Then to hear your name is Arlesha (I apologize for bad spelling). My name's Alicia (pronounced Uh-lee-shuh) and I have 3c curls, glasses, and a skin tone like yours. You're like a doppelganger from another dimension. Or from your perspective, I suppose I'm your doppelganger. :P Okay, awkward comment over. Thank you for the tips :)
The travel set of 12 Windsor & Newton cotmen set was my first watercolors about 3 years at this point? And yeah the strength of some colors was horrible. The only color I even have any left from those is the Viridian because I thought it was the same as sap green (it's not ha) now they have been replaced with delicious Daniel Smith and M.Graham Over all ABSOLUTELY YES to the canson sketchbooks and I wish I knew about the sonnet colors years ago
I cant find the giveaway link!!! T___T Oh well, I'm sure it'' show up. Also, thank you for making this channel. I stumbled across it during a rut in my art and I hadn't picked up watercolours in ages, but you inspired me to do it again and it's even better than I remember. By chance, my Michaels had just put ALL of their Daniel Smith on clearance too, so I got the whole line at around six dollars a tube and I can never go back. Thanks Arleesha, your videos are so chill and helpful and generally just nice to have on in the background while I work, you're a huge reason why I've started painting again. (My IG is Milkshimmer if you ever see my liking everything you do ever)
It's in the description now! Sorry about the wait. ♥ And thank you so much for your kindness and support! I'm so glad you're getting back into painting. :D
My starter was a smaller Schmincke Akademie set ( I am from germany so this is seriously my favorite choice:)) and my „on top“ choice is now single horadam paints or Daniel smith specials since DS is really expensive here in germany. I even got a nearly new but used Schmincke set on ebay, so I was able to save alot of money at the beginning! I dont regret my choice at all and watercolor is just one of my favorite material to use:)
Great job Doll as someone still learning different things about watercolor this was a great video, what I would say about the amount of colors is I see having more colors in the beginning can make it hard to learn mixing but a thing to always remember is u can always challenge urself while learning by playing around with color pick different colors and try them out together don’t be afraid to “waste” the watercolor some of my favorite pieces have been ones where I had played with different colors I normally buy a few colors at a time and when I get them I would make a piece with only the colors I just got than slowly use those colors with other colors after learning how they did with other colors so anyway don’t be afraid to “waste” is what I am saying
Art supplies are sooo cheap in America, what's up with that? The cheapest I've seen silver black brushes is €30 a piece. And the paper and paint... Really appreciate this video. I only have the gansai tambi and cotman sets, and even though I don't know what other paints feel like, and I love working with them, I think you're right not recommending them for beginners. (Been painting for about one and a half years, going to buy good quality primary colours when I get back into painting more, very excited to see the difference.)
Great video! I agree, and I wish I would have listened when I first started watercolor, START WITHA LIMITED PALETTE!!! Getting a big set, no matter if it’s the best paint on the market, will confuse you and impede your ability to not only learn color mixing, but learn your paints and their properties as well. Getting to know your paints is huge, and color mixing is vital if you want to grow as an artist. Personally, I recommend a split primary (2 yellow, 2 blues, 2 reds, warm and cool,) yellow ochre, sap green, burnt sienna, burnt umber or sepia, dioxazine violet, and phthalo green. 12 colors. From these 12 colors you can mix just about any color under the sun. This is my opinion only, but I think sticking to a limited palette will be the most effective way to learn and grow.
Watercolor was something I found that I loved when we did a lesson on it in a highschool course I took (unfortunately it was just a singular lesson/week's worth and not the whole course.) I've been contemplating actually getting into watercolor lately. This video was helpful! Side note, I constantly read your username as "Aberdeen" because that's the city I currently live in now days, haha.
I’m here just looking on what I should move on to when I want to invest a smidge more. I have roughly 22 Artists Loft watercolours and 1 W&N Cotman (all are tubes).
I'm just starting out with watercolors, and every other video I've watched says to start with tubes of paint instead of pans. Do you find tubes to be better later on? Or do you believe pans of watercolors are just as good?
Im an acrylic artist trying to love some watercolors i won. It bugs me how the tutorials always have *attitude and superiority* THANK YOU FOR BEING HUMAN!!!first tutorial i ACTUALLY watched to the end ! Thank you i learned FINALLY!
I recognise that even this video is so long and you have talk a lot, the information, the reasons and the examples you give us, I find them all absolutely helpful. I'm starting "seriously" in watercolors and so on, have not much money but I think the best option is to buy few materials but looking at some quality, in order to not get bored at the first beginning. So, your recommendation of buying a pair of each one of primary colors, selecting one warmer and one cooler, I think it is the best option. Congrats for your works and thank for this video. Only a question: sb playing piano at home?? I noticed the music sheet there. 🎵💟
I took your recommendations and ordered my first set of watercolors set from sonnet :) I got the 24 color set. I appreciate your guidance on watercolors for beginners. I painted with oil and acrylic and even some cheap watercolors but I'm unsatisfied with cheap watercolors. I needed more pigment. I will definitely let you know how I like the sonnet watercolor! Yay so excited
Paper is the number 1 thing I always recommend spending extra money on. It makes such a huge difference having good paper. I have cheap and pricey paints. Paper, for finished pieces is always 100% cotton. Brushes I think are more subjective. We all like different things. Black Velvets were recommended to me when I started. And as a beginner I was not a fan. They were too soft for me.
I,ve i have to pick one watercolour set or i buy tubes of watercolour i choose Winser and Newton. But i,ll stick whit my liquitex basics acrylic paints cause i love acrylic paint,more than watercolour paints. Only paint whit 7 colours anyways. Thank you very mutch for you,re recomendings Arleebean🖐🏾👍🏾👋🏾😊😁
Hello Arleebean. I paint whit Pebeo 24 watercolours set 12 ml tubes and it cost 19,09 euro,s. I also paint whit oil paint and i bought 7 giant tubes of 200 ml of oil paints and i ordered magenta oil. It comes in june. These oil paints are priced from 8,64 to 15,00 euro,s per 200 ml tubes. Pebeo watercolours and oil paints i reccoment for a bigginer painter like myself or if you,re on a budget. They are inexpensive,they have a decent paint amount,they have great pigments, they are eazy to layer,they don,t get in you,re way they are fun to learn on and you learn how watercolours and oil paints work. These paints are my go to paints and my go to paint colours. And i,ve you don,t wanna buy the Pebeo 24 watercolour set don,t worry they have a 12 and a 18 tube watercolour set aswell. Now on to my favoriet brushes. OMG i have so many diffrent sizes of brushes. Its crazy how many brushes i have. I have flat,angular,fan,round and filber brushes. I wanna make my own watercolours set. I have my colours already. I paint whit Alizarin crimson,Cadmium primary Yellow,ultramarine blue,tittanium white,intense black Silver,Gold and magenta. I love magenta. I use these colours for my oil paints and my watercolour paints. You can use these colours in oils,watercolours and acrylic paints. I bought my brushes on alliexpress in sets of 12 and i ordered 5 packs of diffrent sizes and shapes of brushes. I love these brushes. They hold allot of water and walnut oil. They are my favoriet brushes ever. This is my second time i buy these brushes of alliexpress. Then i have detail brushes also of alliexpress and i love them too. Then i have some brushes i bought from my budget art store and i bought the round,the flat and line brushes just because they were so so so low in price that I just had to buy them😂😂😂😂😂😂 yeah i am a brush addict😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 I love you,re watercolour art suplies Arleebean.
I'm a beginner and ended up buying Escoda Signature Brushes from famous Watercolor Artists, not that they will make me paint any better but hey better safe than sorry. For a cheaper brush alternative I have a few Raphael Brushes aswell such as the botanical ones from Billie Showell. Paper I wen't for Arches and Daler Rowney Heritage Paper. Colors I chose a Schminke set, (J. H. Watercolor Wheel set 12 Colors Red Dot Design Award Winner) cause I loved the idea and built of it but the price is rediculous heads up, Sennelier (the Complete Range Set Wood Box which was on a huge Sale), Holbein (PN695 Set cause it's beautifull), White Nights (Elena Bazanova set a amazing Painter from St.Petersburg) as high end paints, and Van Gogh (24 Museum Edition Wood Box), Lukas Studio (12 Color Tubes) and WN Cotman (Field Plus Kit) student grade for Practice and learning. For a ceramic Palette there is a nice copy of the Stephen Quiller Palette out finally for those that can't afford the original Jack Richeson one. Meeden sells it for a fraction of the original Price for 50 bucks but without the lid on Amazon. As a beginner this palette is great cause it is round like the color Wheel as displayed in Digital Painting Softwares, color mixing becomes a little more user friendly and intuitive than having them in a row back to back as one already is familiar with it. For plein air I own a Sante Fe handmade Brass Box (Etsy), and a New Wave Ugo Pochade Box seen in one of Marty Owings Videos and the Demi Palettes from Art Toolkit small and large. For holding Water I found some Animal shaped Water Cups specilized for Watercolor Artists (TramaiCeramics Etsy) I went for the Whale Family they are so adorable and cute but othes are special aswell like the Fox Palette or Cat Palettes etc, don't look em up you may end up buying a few. So far I'm happy with all my purchases. I thought I mention what a real beginner ended up getting after years of watching watercolor channels with no budget limit in mind. Keep Finger Dancing and Happy Splashing, I'll be watching. ;)
For your Canadian viewers, amazon.ca has 6"x9" Bee paper (cotton) in packs of 50, in both 140lb: www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0044SAXKQ/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_7?smid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&psc=1 And 90lb www.amazon.ca/Bee-Paper-BEE-1152P50-609-Watercolor-6-Inch/dp/B004KPLLGS/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=bee+90+lb&qid=1568324364&s=gateway&sr=8-3 This paper is really quite nice for being so low cost. I would go for the 140lb over the 90lb, but even the 90 isn't too bad. Blick sells bulk packs of Richeson paper, but that's wood pulp, so probably not quite so nice. Be great for light wash work and other art projects though.
I have to say I disagree with most of what you said here. Prima Marketing are not lightfast and they are semi opaque. I suppose if someone is doing portraits you may not care, the colors are specific. You don’t get pigment numbers either so you hhave no clue what you are mixing with as a beginner. Brushes- annimal hair are difficult to control water on as a beginner. I am currently working on a series on brushes watercolor and paper in three parts vvery in depth, but also there is no rationale here except that you think they are really really nice.
I don't think pigment information and lightfastness are of importance to most beginners. I haven't heard a lot of great things about the prima marketing paints, but artists all prefer different things.
I still love me my Canson XL, I find it interesting how bright and vibrant colours can be on it vs 100% sometimes. It really is good for beginners and I totes agree with you about Winsor and Newton. I think their pocket box set is good but there are colour strength differences that can be frustrating for brand new to watercolour beginners. Great list :)
I’d strongly recommend getting the Daniel Smith starter set before I’d suggest the cotman or the Primark “Marketing” paints which are cheaply made. You’ll pay close to the same and the professional grade Daniel smith will be must more of a pleasure to use.
Thank you for this video. Wish I had it a little sooner. lol I bought the Japanese paints when they were the hot topic on youtube thinking they would be a great option getting back into watercolors. They are nice paints but have been "in my way" paints for sure. I want to glaze and it messes up. Its hard doing a video like this Im sure because there are so many opinions and personal preferences that impact the topic with watercolor but every video out there on where to start is helpful. Thank you.
4 years late for the give away....😭😇 Just starting with watercolor. I am orientating myself I actually want tubes, but one has a color called a name and another 19:34 has the same color but another name. Confusing !
Hi. Gravitate to the opinion that as a beginners you shouldn’t use very cheap and muddy watercolors. I’m from Russia. At first when starting I bought Sonnet because they are cheaper butt was uninspired with how they mixed and overall. And I wasn’t really into watercolors until my mom bought me 12 colors set of White nights. The difference I felt!!! The colors were so nice. Nowadays I still mostly use White Nights. But also in my sketches , when I draw outside I use Van Gogh 15 colors set. I also would recommend it for beginners. It’s a nice set of colors, colors are pretty rich and not muddy also mixing nicely. Kinda wanna try Schmincke professional watercolor set. But it’s hella expensive for me.
I love kneeded ereasers. Faber castell is my favoriete go to ereaser. And my go to sketchbook is canson mixed media paper. I buy A4 and A3 i love these sketchbooks. I love to paint large and the A3 sketch pad of canson mixed media is perfect for that. The A4 sketchbook i buy for on the go. 😊👍🏾👋🏾
I love boahong 300gsm watercolour paper. I order it from alliexpress and i order 3 of the large size. I cut them in smaller pieces wen i want to paint small. But don,t need to buy watercolour paper cause i got cartboard that i got for free from my work and i paint on them. So i buy the canson mixed media 300 gsm paper. I don,t buy the baohong watercolour paper cause i have my cartboard to paint on. I love these art suplies revieuw Arleebean 😊👍🏾👋🏾
I'm in an odd position, where I haven't seriously painted with watercolor in about 13 years. Turns out, I've forgotten how to paint with them. Which is tragic to me. Of course, I remember major differences between watercolor and other methods. But my instincts are built for digital and acrylic paints now. I tried to casually start again, and immediately realized something was wrong. Didn't know what, but something was. I have two sets of watercolor paints, that I purchased maybe 3 years ago when I wanted to continue with them but ended up not. They are both the two that you specifically did not recommend for beginners. So I'm sitting here laughing because 13 years ago, when I was much more... intermediate in level? They probably would have been fine then. But now that I've forgotten everything? lolol Thanks for helping clarify why I might be struggling with them. I guess, maybe I need to approach using them differently than what I do remember about using watercolor before.
