'My TOP 6'
Favourite watercolour materials
MY TOP 6
Because I couldn't pick 5!
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Paints – Winsor & Newton Cotman. Reliable student-grade paints with vibrant colours and excellent value.
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Paints – Gansai Tambi by Kuretake. Rich, creamy watercolours with a unique, slightly opaque finish—great for bold, expressive work.
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Paper – Saunders Waterford 100% Cotton High-quality, archival-grade paper with beautiful texture and absorbency.
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Sennelier Concertina Watercolour Sketchbook - elegant fold out format with great quality paper, ideal for panoramic sketches and travel journaling. I take one of these books on holiday with me and it's fantastic.
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Escoda Synthetic Brushes Durable and versatile brushes with great spring and control—perfect for detailed and loose styles alike.
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Drawing Pens – Uni Pin Permanent Pens Waterproof and fade-proof, ideal for line work under or over watercolour.
Winsor and Newton Cotman
These paints are so inexpensive but the quality is wonderful. Yes, you can spend more on Winsor and Newtons Artist range and yes they are more highly pigmented and slightly more luscious. But I have painted with Cotman watercolours for over 20 years and they are always my trusted favourite. They offer great quality washes for a really reasonable price.
Click the button to head over to the Winsor and Newton website. You'll find lots of stockists of these paints at great prices. I buy my Cotman from Northwich art shop
Kuretake Brand - Gansai Tambi paints
I am relatively new to working with these paints but I already can't live without them! The colours are creamy and more on the opaque side which can give a slightly gouache feel to them. The pans are large which for me and my sloshy, messy brushwork is ideal. I never really get on with normal pan watercolours becuase they felt too small for me. These aren't like that. They will take my heavy handed-ness easily. I particularly love their Art Nouveau colour set. It's a curated set of colours that works so well together. I use this set a lot for sketching out and about and I know all the colours will harmonise together even if I'm working quite chaotically with my sketches. I also love their metallic gold colours!
Click the button to head over to the Kuretake website. But do search around on the internet for a good price. Offers pop up on these paints all the time with different art shops
Saunders Waterford by St Cuthberts Mill
100% Cotton watercolour paper
I can honestly say I've never done a dud painting on this paper. I adore the way the paint flows on the surface, it feels nice to touch and feels like luxury. And ok many people might think they can't afford to spend this much on paper, especially when they are 'practicing' or 'learning' but trust me you can get a sheet of this for £6 quid, cut it down into any size you want, work front and back AND if that wasn't enough of an advantage you can even dunk it in the sink, wash all the paint off and start again.
There are other 100% cotton papers that offer the same quality as this.
So don't scrimp on your paper!
Your paintings will be so much better.
Experiement with their Hot Pressed, NOT and Rough varieties in different paper tones.
My personal fave is 300gsm NOT high white. Full Imperial which is 22 x 30 inches approx. Slightly smaller than A1 size.
(NOT stands for not hot pressed, otherwise referred to as Cold pressed. This is just the way the paper produced to create a different finish)
Northwich art shop sells individual sheets and pads.
Shop around. Buy in bulk for the cheapest prices. Or club together with fellow watercolourists and share the cost.
Sennelier Concertina sketchbook
100%cotton paper
These wonderful little books make painting on location so easy. Fold them out a page at a time and create a perfect nature journal.
The paper surface is great. They are bright white and take all drawing and painting media really well.
The problem I always had with other sketchbooks, even ones that were supposed to be good quality watercolour paper is that they buckled under the amount of water I use. Not this! It takes anything I throw at it.
I take one every time I go away now. I hope that I can continue to create a collection of these as nature journals.
Note that Sennelier make a Watercolour version and urban sketching version with slightly different paper.
Shop around for the best prices.
Escoda synthetic watercolour brushes
The Escoda Último Synthetic Mop Brush has a round profile and is made with Tendo synthetic fibres that mimic the properties of squirrel hair.
I have used countless watercolour brushes over the years from different brands, different bristles, sizes, shapes etc.
Then 'I fell for a marketing ploy' haha. Haven't we all! It was a set of brushes designed by the watercolour Artist Fabio Cembranelli. I was in love with his floral watercolours and thought wow I NEED those brushes, maybe they will make me to paint like him hahaha.
Well they didn't make me paint like him, no surprises there.
BUT WOW they are an absolute dream of a brush and I am so glad I was sucked in as I would never have found what have become my best watercolour brushes ever.
Escoda manufacture a lot of amazing brushes. The ones I particularly love are on the link below. Size 10 to 14 are what I use most. The bigger brushes are really for larger scale paintings.
The Escoda Último Synthetic Mop Brush has a round profile and is made with Tendo synthetic fibres that mimic the properties of squirrel hair.
Último tendo fibres are extraordinarily soft and retain water and colour with the capacity of natural hair, making these brushes perfect for painting large washes of colour but also the delicate point enables much smaller intricate details to be achieved.
You'll get offers coming up from lots of online retailers all the time. And of course I highly recommend the Fabio Curated set.
Uni Pin
Permanent Ink drawing pen
I like the option of being able to draw in pen before I apply any paint.
So I would always go for a permanent ink (unless I was looking for a smudgy look of course)
Uni Pin pens have never disappointed me. They last for ages, unlike some other brands I've used. The lines stay exactly where you draw them. The range of sized nibs make it easy to change up your line style and they don't leak.
what's not to love.
Perfect for line and wash techniques, urban sketching, nature journals.
And I often use them to sign my paintings too. Even on top of acrylic.
Buy a set they are better value for money.
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