Information about Watercolor Paints to create rich and transparent watercolors
Watercolor Paints
I am using only the highest quality watercolor paints such as
- Schmincke and
- Winsor and Newton
- Daniel Smith
I never use student grades colours. I always use the artists colours. I want to make sure that my painting will be successful. Especially as a beginner in watercolor you should have the best art supplies at hand. There are so many technique questions when painting with watercolors so that you never should struggle because your paints do not have the best qualities.
There are many other brands available. I choose Schmincke and Winsor and Newton because Schmincke is a german product and I can get it here very easy. Winsor and Newton is also available here and I tested a lot of their paints and I really love them. Daniel Smith also create some stunning paints, especially I love the Sap Green from them.
When creating your watercolor palette please have in mind that it is the best to put always a warm and a cool colour on your palette to create clean colours (like a warm and a cool yellow, a warm and a cool red, a warm and a cool blue).
Mixing clean colours from the same temperature will avoid moody colours.
Transparent Colors
I love to work with transparent colors. This means that colors do shine through other colors. Try it out: Make a wash of maybe some yellow. Let it dry. Then add a wash of maybe blue. Let it dry again. You will notice that you can see the yellow layer shining through your blue color layer. It is amazing. Also transparent colors do not lift so easily as when you use opaque colors.
Flowers and Roses do have such delicate petals – so it is wonderful when you can describe those petals with transparent colors to capture all the different colors which are there.
Watercolor Palette
For my watercolors I am using a porcellain palette.
When I have finished a painting section I simply use some wet paper towels and clean the area in my palette where I mixed my colors. All colors on my palette can be used again and again, also when they are dry. Simply wet them again and you can go on with your painting.
Watercolor Tubes
I am also using watercolor tubes. I love how rich the colors are when they come fresh out of the tube. I usually buy the 14 ml tubes, but sometimes I also buy the smaller 5 ml tubes, when I want to test a new colour.
Read more about the Colours for my Watercolors which I use for my flower and rose paintings