Free Watercolor Beginner Classes

I am producing a series of free watercolor beginner classes on YouTube. These videos cover the subjects, exercises, and paintings I normally do with my new inexperienced students. The course is desinged for anyone from absolute beginner to someone who has been struggling with watercolor painting. Once they get through these sections they are able to join in with my more advanced class.

Video 1: Watercolor painting materials

The first in the series, which I expect to run for about 10 weeks, covers the needed materials. I have kept ths to a minimum so if someone is not sure they will continue with the medium, and I hope they do, they will not be too much out of pocket.

I aim to make watercolor painting as easy to understand as possible so everyone can benefit from this wonderful medium.

Here are some links to the key items mentioned in my video; where they are affliate links I will mark them as such.

Watercolor palette

Palette with plenty of room for paint and big mixing areas

Palette: https://amzn.to/2W7l7Ym (affiliate)

Watercolor paints

Only Winsor and Newton artists quality watercolors – not their student grade Cotman colors.

Winsor Blue Red Shade https://amzn.to/3gf1SDc (affiliate)

Winsor Lemon https://amzn.to/37SYvx7 (affiliate)

Permanent Rose https://amzn.to/3AVlowo (affiliate)

Brushes

Watercolor painting brush sizes 8 and 12

You need brushes with a good point when wet, and which hold a lot of paint. The ones I prefer, have hairs made which a combination of squirrel hair and man made fibers.

You need two brushes, a size 12 and a size 8. As there is no universal standard for brush size, I will give you some dimension to look for.

For the size 12 brush the length of the hairs from the metal ferulle to the tip of the brush should be around 29 mm. The diameter of the hairs at the ferulle should be about 8 mm.

For the size 8 watercolor brush the demensions are 21 mm and 5 mm respectively.

Most reputable manufacturers should display these sizes on their website. Though ideally you should go into the store to inspect them the first time you purchase a particular type of brush.

As the brushes I use are only available in Australia I am not recommending a particular brand for the course.

Watercolor paper

I use Arches Cold Press paper, though Rough is good too.

Amazon sells a 10 pack: https://amzn.to/3AVmTL2 (affiliate – you should be able to buy single sheets from your local art store which will be much cheaper at the start)