Beginner watercolour supplies – all you need!

Watercolour painting is incredibly popular. It’s a beautiful medium where many artists produce anything from vibrant and luminous to soft and atmospheric paintings. It’s also a medium that allows the artist to get started with just a few supplies, can be done in a fairly small space, and is nowhere near as messy as acrylic or oil painting. I’ll share my suggestions for beginner watercolour supplies, to help you start your watercolour journey. You’ll only need a handful of supplies to get started. 

You can generally pick up these or similar supplies at your local art supply store but may want to order from Amazon. I’ve added links to similar products on the US and Canadian Amazon sites throughout.

Watch me show the supplies you need as a beginner on my YouTube channel.

A watercolour palette

I suggest buying a pre-made palette with 10-12 colours. A pre-built palette also has palette space to mix paints and sometimes even comes with a watercolour brush. It will include almost everything you need in a small portable package.  

A student-quality palette is excellent when you’re starting out, and usually much more affordable than buying each colour separately and building your own. A pre-built palette also takes away the stress of choosing which colours from the wide variety of individual tubes or pans. The pans in a pre-built palette will last quite a while before they need to be replaced. Generally, you’ll be able to refill each individual colour with either a pan or tube paint. 

What are tubes and pans? A tube is a metal squeezable, well, tube, of wet watercolour paint. A pan is a rectangular block of dried watercolour. The dried watercolour becomes paintable when re-wet.

I have reviewed a couple different types of watercolour palettes that are great for beginners. Check out my reviews on the Winsor and Newton Cotman watercolour palette and the Van Gogh Pocket Box palette. Try the Van Gogh palette from Amazon.com or Amazon.ca.

Brushes

If your palette comes with a brush, you can start painting using it. But I would recommend purchasing a couple others. If you have never painted before, I suggest picking up a couple round brushes in different sizes. That shape is fairly flexible for a variety of painting styles. 

You’ll need to make a decision between synthetic and natural hair brushes. Years ago, natural hair brushes were considered the absolute best and synthetic just didn’t measure up. Nowadays, the quality of synthetics have dramatically risen. Not all synthetics are great, but there are many options that come close in quality. 

To give you a very short comparison between the two types, natural hair brushes are very expensive, hold a lot of water, and are made of animal hair. Synthetic brushes generally are much less expensive, hold less water, and tend to have a snap, or stiffness, that many artists enjoy. 

I personally have a mix of both, but for beginners, I suggest Princeton Heritage brushes. They’re an inexpensive synthetic, yet hold a decent amount of water, and are nice and snappy.  Princeton has some sets available on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca that make it easier to try out a few brushes.

Paper

Watercolour paper is very thick. It’ll almost feel like a cardstock. Watercolour paper has gelatin in or on it, which is known as sizing, so you’ll only want to use paper specifically made for watercolours.. You won’t be able to see or feel the sizing, but it helps keep the watercolour paint from immediately being absorbed by the paper. 

With paper, your toughest decision is whether to buy cellulose or cotton watercolour paper. The price point between the two is usually substantial, with 100% cotton being the more expensive option.  

If you can afford to spend a bit more money, I encourage you to choose 100% cotton paper, especially if you already have some drawing skills or have painted in another medium. If you’re on a stricter budget, or you’re just starting on your art journey, go with cellulose paper. Once you start feeling more comfortable with your skills, then it might be time to invest in cotton paper. 

A note when purchasing cellulose paper: it won’t be labelled as cellulose. Essentially, if you’re looking at watercolour paper and it isn’t labelled as 100% cotton, it’s likely cellulose. That just means it’s made from tree pulp. 

In addition to choosing between cellulose or cotton paper, you’ll need to choose between hot press, cold press and rough paper. Hot press is very smooth, and great for more detailed work. Rough is just like it sounds – it has more texture to it. And cold press is somewhere in the middle. I recommend cold press. It gives you a bit of both worlds, and it’s very popular and easy to find. 

I like the Strathmore 400 series watercolour paper, as a cheaper option, and it’s available on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca. Arches is always a wonderful choice, if the budget allows. There are a few size options on Amazon.com or Amazon.ca.

Additional items

Those are the main items you’ll need when painting watercolours, but there’s a few other items you’ll want to either pick up or you may have these supplies already.

• A water container. I usually use two clean jam jars. I fill both with water. I use one for my first rinse, and that water starts getting dirty with paint pretty quickly. Then I dip the brush into the clean water and it’s ready for fresh paint. 
• A clean rag or paper towel. Water control is very important when painting watercolour. I use a flour sack tea towel to dab my brush when it has too much water. 
• Washi or masking tape. Use this to tape off your paper and create a clean edge to your painting. You can also skip this and just have a rough edge to your painting. 
• A pencil. I usually use a 2H pencil to sketch out my subject, because it’s very light and won’t be too noticeable once I’ve layered on watercolour.