What Supplies Will I Need?

You’ll want to be able to mix color effectively with the same supplies you will use for creating your paintings, so wherever it’s practical you should use your usual watercolor supplies for the activities in this course.

Please don’t rush out to buy a bunch of new, unfamiliar stuff—especially paints!—before taking the course. We’ll address color choices for the course in the next lesson, so please watch that video first before deciding to buy any new colors. In most cases, you’ll be able to use what you already have. 

However, there are a few areas where choosing the right type of supplies can make it easier to do the course activities. 

Following the lesson video, you’ll find a bit of additional information on finding or making some of the optional convenience items.

More Info on the Optional “Convenience Items”

(please watch the lesson video before buying any of these)

Extra Painting Support Boards

If you don’t already have several, you can make them out of cardboard and packing tape. This lesson from Watercolor Jumpstart will show you how: How to Make A Painting Support Board

An Inexpensive Synthetic Watercolor Brush (maybe)

ONLY consider buying a brush if 

• all your brushes are too small (under size 8 round) 
• OR you struggle with pale, wishy-washy color and you are painting with a brush that is squirrel, imitation squirrel or other soft, floppy fiber
• or, okay, if you just needed an excuse to buy art supplies . . . 
• and let’s be honest, did you really need MY help with that? 🙂

Otherwise, use the brush(es) you are already most familiar with. 

If you do decide to buy a brush, I suggest either a round brush in size 10-12 or a 1/2-3/4” flat brush. The type of brush you’re looking for will be relatively inexpensive and have gold or yellowish bristles (often called “golden taklon”). 

some examples of this type of brush

• Princeton SNAP golden taklon (about $9 per brush in the US)
• Royal & Langnickel Soft-Grip (about $3 per brush in the US)

1/2” Masking Tape

I’m using XFasten Artisan tape, which you can order from Amazon in the US. Dick Blick also carries a similar tape called Intertape. These are both just good-quality masking tape, nothing special about them, so if you already have a tape you know and like, stick with that.

If you have trouble with your paper tearing when removing masking tape, please have look at this lesson from Watercolor Jumpstart: How to Remove Masking Tape Without Tearing Your Paper

The important features to look for with masking tape:

• white or off-white (don’t use colored tape)
• moderate to high adhesion instead of low-tack tape (so paint doesn’t creep underneath when the paper is wet for a while)

Please do your own search for retailers or similar products in your part of the world. If you do the search, you’ll get search results tailored to your location.