Buy the best materials you can afford - and don’t be afraid to use them. Don’t keep them ‘for good’. Use them for practice. It’s better to buy three tubes of high quality paint in the primary colors then to spend the same amount on a set of inferior paints.

Paper:
Paper is the number one hindrance to watercolor. Arches paper is the only paper I've found that reliably performs. I could use other paints, other paintbrushes and still create good paintings, but without very good paper it just doesn't work.

Arches brand 140 lb cold press paper is ideal. I buy them in a pack of 5 - 22x30 sheets, about $40 at Blick. Buy the large sheets, fold them in half, and in half again to get smaller sheets, these are much more cost efficient than the blocks they sell. You do need a substrate to tape them to. I recommend gatorboard which are lightweight, durable and easy to cut to size. If it’s out of stock you can check Artist and Craftsman in Saugus. Wood panels work as well.

If you’d rather have them precut, this 12” x 16” 20 pack of Arches on Amazon might suit your needs better and comes already attached to a backing board, no gator board needed.


Colors:

I mainly use just three colors, the three listed here:

• Ultramarine blue

• Quinacridone Magenta/Quin Rose

• NIckel Azo Yellow or Azo Yellow Gold

- Don’t buy plain Nickel Yellow, it has white mixed in and colors will not look right)

If Nickel Azo or Azo yellow are unavailable Windsor Newton have a Transparent Yellow that uses the same pigment.

Also I occasionally use

• Phthalo blue (green shade),

• Phthalo green (yellow shade),

• Hansa Yellow Light,

• Quinacridone Violet,

• and Pyrrole Red Light, so these might be worth picking up.

These are the colors I use generally, both in teaching and in general painting. If you have other colors and want to use those, that's fine.

If you want to get a full set of good colors this set by QOR brand has some excellent colors that are reasonably priced.

Palette

Ceramic palettes are the best I've found. Plastic (and some metal palettes) the water can bead up, not allowing you to see the strength of your washes, which is important in watercolor.
Here's one that you might consider.


Brushes
Rosemary company in the UK makes excellent brushes for reasonable prices.

I use a #8 and a #10 round from Rosemary. The #8 is my workhorse, it gets used in almost every painting. A larger brush ¾” or 1” for spreading large amounts of water, and a 30mm hake for softening edges and washes.

Here are three sets I can recommend with prices.  The second set is a blend of natural and synthetic and the first set is pure synthetic, meaning the brush doesn't hold as much paint.  The third set is red sable, a natural hair brush. Rosemary sources responsibly and they perform wonderfully, even larger brushes have a fine point.  If the set doesn’t have a hake brush I’d consider getting one.

Set 65 - Red Dot Collection Intro Set

Synthetic set

$66.82

Set 30 - synthetic/natural blend 

50/50 split synthetic and natural hair

$97.94

Set 80 -  Pure Red Sable

Pure Red sable brushes, my personal favorite

$160.71


Misc
Light tan masking tape - (no colored tape - can cause color/value errors) I use a lot so this 10-pack works for me

Ruler - I like a clear plastic one so I can see where I’m placing it.

Backing board - something to tape your loose sheets of watercolor paper to. I mention gatorboard in the paper section above.

Paper Towels - Viva brand are good quality

This lamp is excellent for still life and botanical subjects. It’s battery powered and has a nice brightness.

Portable Easels - When outdoors this one is reasonably priced and you can have a great setup in a short time, plus it packs away neatly. **Not needed for indoor classes

The color chart
I recommend making color charts. It will help you see how colors are mixed. Any three primaries will work (blue, red, yellow), it's to see how those particular colors interact and what colors they create.

In each of the five squares, you start with purest tint at the top and going down, add more water until it's just a step above the white of the paper at the end.

Here are a couple videos I made to guide you.

https://youtu.be/lXF7Bsli3lg
https://youtu.be/kR-c1GMA16U

If are having trouble mixing colors or are new I really recommend making your own charts. Set aside an hour or so for each, it's very helpful.

Last, some thoughts by Todd Bonita.

Squint, See like an Artist, Think like an Artist, Start with a broom and finish with a needle, Have excellent tools, Keep it simple, Remember the Holy Trinity and The Seven Elements of Picture Making (Design / composition, Values, Line, Shape, Color, Hierarchy, Unity). When in Doubt Leave it out, Paint with Intent not by Accident, We are Poets not Reporters, God made nature perfect but not perfect for the painter so edit, Most paintings pass or fail within the first fifteen minutes so Think, Strategize, (Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Baby Bear),  Paintings derive their interest from Juxtaposing elements, Become sensitive to Tensions, Avoid Tangents, If you have a chance to overlap you take it, Value does all the work and color gets all the credit, 85% of the success or failure lies in a strong value plan, Grow, Thrive, Try harder, Focus, Really See.

If you have questions please feel free to reach out.

 Canvas

11” x 14”  up to 18” x 24”  

2-6 of them, depending how fast you paint.

Cotton is good, linen is better.  If you’re just learning cotton is fine.  Michaels canvases tear easily and are of poor quality, I do not recommend them.  Blick, Jerrys artarama, cheap joes better quality.  I’d recommend panels as they are easier to transport.  Jerry’s artarama has some linen panels on mdf that are reasonably priced.   

It can be helpful to tone your canvas with a color before coming to class, transparent red oxide or burnt sienna is a common one. This eliminates the white of the canvas and warms the painting from underneath.

Paint

• Quinacridone Red

• Hansa Yellow Light

• Ultramarine blue

• Transparent red oxide

• yellow ochre

• cobalt turquoise

• Titanium White, without zinc if possible, as zinc cracks after time.

You can also use the old standard of cad yellow, cad red, yellow ochre, permanent alizarin crimson, terra rosa, ultramarine blue, and viridian.

Brushes

• Flats from ¼” to 1”.  

• A rigger for detail work

• a few bristle brushes to scrub in colors

• Palette knife

Palette

I’d recommend a 12” x 16’ Masterson palette case to keep your paints tidy.  I have a 12” x 16” piece of glass in mine which is easy to clean.  This does require a razor to keep clean if you let paint dry.

Wood palettes are good also, disposable ones if you have nothing else.

Other Materials

Paper towels - a must.  (Viva is a good, strong paper towel)

Bungee cord and plastic store bag (not necessary but handy to throw away paper towels without disrupting painting flow)

Sketchbook, pencil, white eraser, sharpie

Canvas carriers are handy for carrying wet paint panels around safely.  Raymar has some excellent ones that are lightweight.

Linseed oil - I use this sparingly to thin my paint occasionally. I do not use any mineral spirits or paint thinner.

My CCAE classes in Harvard square can be found here.

In this six week class you will learn the basics of painting landscapes with watercolors, including skies and clouds, trees, reflections in water, mountains and many other things.  Adam will demonstrate a variety of techniques and other ways to create your paintings.  A variety of different landscapes will be painted from week to week, using what we learn the previous week into the next painting.  Come and learn some new techniques, meet some new friends and have fun while we paint landscapes in watercolor.  If you need materials, a set for the class will be available for $40.  Please let the instructor know at studio@adamadkison.com if you will be needing this.

Class signup coming in December.

For help signing up contact Heidi Barberio at Belmont Rec Department 617-993-2760 - HBarberio@belmont-ma.gov