Palette
set-up The set-up above
shows a palette with paint and brushes, a wet sponge (for blotting
brush as needed), a large water container, and paper towels. It
is good to get a sturdy plastic palette with cover. The cover
helps keep your paints moist inbetween sessions, serves as an extra
mixing area, and is convenient for transporting.
The
pure tube paints are squirted and stored in the outer wells
of the palette. You then pick up pure paint on your brush
and mix in central mixing area, adding water to get the consistency
you want. More water will lighten the value.
It
helps to spray the paints with water occasionally inbetween
sessions to keep them from drying out. Also you might
want to spray them 15-20 minutes before a painting session so that
they will be moist when you begin to paint..
To start out,
you can do well with 3-4 brushes: 1-2 medium
or large round brushes, one 1" flat brush, and 1 rigger or
liner brush (for detail).
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Paper
set-up Watercolor paper
comes in hot press (smooth surface), rough (rough surface) and cold
press (inbetween smooth and rough). I recommend
that you begin with good quality 140# cold press paper. It
helps to tape your watercolor paper to a sturdy backing board.
(Some artists will use bulldog clips instead, or just paint
with the paper loose, but this is more challenging.) For
tape you can use artist tape (or masking tape in a pinch). For
a board, you can use plexiglass or coated masonite board. I
like to use "tile board," which is masonite with a white
waterproof coating on one side.
It usually helps to keep
your board at a slant (I use a block of wood to prop up my board). This way gravity
helps you--for example as you apply a uniform wash, you usually
go from top to bottom. When the board is slanted you
always know that the wet edge will be the bottom edge of a brushstroke.
In
the above image you also see a water spray bottle and a box of tissue,
both very helpful in your work area. Besides using water from
your water container, you can use the spray bottle to add water
to your paint mixtures.
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