Watercolor Paints & Brushes

What watercolor to choose?

When I look at a set of watercolors it always brings me back to kindergarten - the days where we just loved to color. To put anything on paper with any type of paint of crayon. To look at the arrays of colors laid in front of you and your hand sporadically goes to grab one. What fun!!!

When looking for paints there are so many to choose from. There are the tubes, in individual colors or in sets. There are the tubs in individual (usually a refill) or in set boxes.

My luck was that I fell in love with this little box of colors and I never looked back or searched anything else. I did here and there buy some tubes but I hardly use them and I always revert back to the tubs.

Acquarelli Maimeri Blu - Italian Watercolor Paints - top of the line

The first professional set that I bought is Venezia (colori acquarello extrafini - extrafine watercolors) by MaiMeri

 A very small box - almost a travel kit - with 12 basic colors. The colors are very condensed and last a very long time. When you see this small box and the price tag (yes a bit pricy) you can console yourself by knowing that it will indeed last you a very very long time and they are top of the line.

Tip: You should try to keep the paints clean; wipe them with paper when finished. This is especially important for the light colors.

What watercolor paintbrush to use?

When using watercolors it is extremely important to use a paintbrush with very soft hairs so that the brush strokes do not become visible. In addition the brush has to have a sharp point so that you can use only the point and gradually press to increase the size of the brush stroke. It is very effective when the point is compact and a bit stiff.

I recently visited Pearl Paint in downtown Manhattan and I purchased new paint brushes. I bought brushes BLACK GOLD by Dynasty and I must say that they are fantastic for watercolors. The ones I bought are size 6 and 8 and I am sorry that I didn't buy an even bigger one like size 12. The tip is stiff and keeps its shape and that is extremely important to me.

The  BLACK GOLD by Dynasty brushes can also be found on their website if you're not in the vicinity of the Pearl Paint store.

I am also continuing to use and I strongly recommend is Cotman III Winsor & Newton - size 12. For a more detailed description of the Cotman brushes look at the doubleclick website.

Of course you can use many different paintbrush sizes (I have about 3) but still I always go back to size 12. It has the best tip out of all of them and I can go from wide to thin (point) quite easily.

I only wash the brush with water - no soap. It isn't necessary and I ONLY USE IT FOR WATERCOLORS.