Materials

For our session, I have tried to keep our materials as simple as possible. Here are a few materials that I will be using.

Pencil – this is to an initial pencil sketch before we start painting. It will be helpful to use a pencil with a harder lead, like a B or HB pencil. This is to avoid the paint smudging the pencil lines.
Eraser – this is to make any adjustments to the pencil sketch or lighten any dark lines.
Paintbrushes – please work with what you have. Here I have included a large, medium and small brush. That is more than plenty. If you have only one brush that is fine too.
2 jars of water – this is very helpful to clean your brushes when switching paints.
Papertowel – this is to clean or dry your brush throughout the session.
Paints – I will be using watercolor paints. Feel free to improvise and use whatever paints you have handy. A small paint set of 8-10 colors is plenty and we will be flexible on which colors we use for our piece.
Paint-friendly Paper – This is important. See more below.
Scrap-paper – This is to test your paints on and any other scribbles. Any scrap piece of paper will do.
Optional: A white palette – I find it useful to have a separate palette to mix my paints on. You don’t need anything fancy and even a small soap dish could work.
Optional: A black pen – to do some final detail work
Optional: Ruler – definitely not necessary, but you mind find it useful.

The Importance of Paper

When painting, especially when using watercolors, there is nothing more important than the paper you paint on. Ideally the your paper is 100% cotton.

This will make a huge difference in how much you enjoy your painting experience. This kind of paper is a little pricey but it is the most worthwhile thing investing into if you want to paint frequently, more than any other material listed above.

For our session, I will be using Arches cold press watercolor paper.

There are many companies that make really great paint-friendly paper. The key here is to ensure that it is 100% cotton.

I’m conscious you may not have 100% cotton paper available for Sunday, but please use the best paper available to you, even if it’s the really fancy or expensive paper you’ve been too afraid to use or saving for that special masterpiece 😉

Let’s make this weekend that special occasion 🙂