By
eHow Arts & Entertainment Editor
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Things You’ll Need:
- Art Sets
- Fan Watercolor Paintbrushes
- Flat Watercolor Paintbrushes
- Round Watercolor Paintbrushes
- Watercolor Blocks
- Watercolor Brush Cleaners
- Watercolor Brush Holders
- Watercolor Paintbrushes
- White Artist Palettes
- Watercolor Paints
- Watercolor Paper
Step1
Make a list of the basic colors you need. A suggested list for beginners is cadmium red, alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow, lemon yellow, cerulean blue, ultramarine, ivory black, and burnt sienna.
Step2
Choose colors you like. Your color choices will become part of your artistic style.
Step3
Decide whether to buy student-quality or artist-quality paints. Artist-quality paints are generally more expensive and less likely to fade than student-quality ones.
Step4
Buy separate paint tubes rather than pans or boxed sets of tubes.
Step5
Select paints that have a lightfastness rating of I or II. This information can usually be found on the back of the tube.
Step6
Buy a white plastic palette for mixing additional colors.
Comments
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 Dry pans are a personal choice. Depending on what brand you get they are no better or worse than tubes. You can allow your tube paint to dry on the palette and reuse. Do not obsessively clean your palette. Leave it as is. If you clean your palette too much you are simply wasting paint. Buy the most expensive watercolors you can afford. In my opinion Daniel Smith watercolors are the best! Cheap watercolors are just that, cheap. They contain fugitive coloring agents and will fade very quickly (under 5 years). Expensive paints will last for hundreds of years. Never use white! This is the ultimate faux pas committed by beginners. Watercolors are meant to be thin and transparent, the paper is the white that shines through. Most importantly, have fun and experiment, but take a college level watercolor class to master the basics. Watercolor is one of the most difficult of mediums, but with time and practice you will be painting your heart out. Pick challenging subject matter. I'd much rather attempt to capture the subtleties of the strange and unusual than a log cabin in winter.
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 When painting people, try to avoid black when using shadows. As an alternative, mix shadowed colors with a dark dark blue or very deep purple. Black tends to make colors look dull.
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 Buy a plastic box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. Eat the chocolates. Cover the bottom of the box with kitchen roll sheets, wet the sheets, cover with cling film. This will act as the pallet for paints. When you have finished painting close the lid on the box. This will keep paint moist and it can be used again the following day, as it will not dry out.
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 I found it very pleasing to have the primary colors in a good quality. They contain more pigment, so when you mix them with water or other colors, the colors stay much brighter.