Water colour materials

Water colours, also known as aquarelle, are paints based around water solutions.

Support

 The most common support used for water colours is paper (water colour paper) . Although other support such as wood, canvas, fabric etc.. could be used. They key to chose the support is that it has to absorb water (e.g plastic will not be suitable) and it cant absorb too much water as the colour will just fade into the material painted on.  Water colour paper differs from the normal A4 paper due to the texture. Having the water colour paper include parts of cotton, it makes the paper more rough and absorbent with the water.

There are two main paper qualities: Student's quality and artist's quality. Artist's quality is commonly known for archival paper, is acid free and designed to endure. As a beginner, it is okay to use student quality paper although as a more advanced artist, the better the quality of the paper, the better the outcome.

Above is the paper I use for water colours. There are three main types of water colour paper based on texture:

Hot press: also known as Hard press paper, is hard and soft mainly used for extra detail or pencil drawings.

Cold press: semi rough paper, used by both, beginners and advanced artist's. 

Rough: Used for rough texture work. 

The paper used above to produce the flower, I used Cold press, the most common paper used for watercolours. 

Brushes

Natural brushes and synthetic brushes

There are two types of brushes: Natural and synthetic. Personally, I prefer using natural brushes specifically for water colours because I can create smudgy effects with it. Natural brushes are more expensive compared to synthetic brushes, and the most expensive brush is Kolinsky with sable hairs. Whereas synthetic brushes are much cheaper and are known to hold in much more water. 

More information about choosing the correct brush could be found here :https://thepursuitofimagination.blogspot.com.es/2018/03/chosing-brushes.html

Picking the paints

There are two types of water colours: Pan and Tubes paints. Pan paints were first used in 1846 as water colours yet when they were first invented in 1841, they were used as oil paints. Liquid paints come in sizes of 8 oz, 4 oz, 1 oz or smaller. These paints have strong and saturated shades allowing you to control how saturated you want the colours to be. Personally, I have the Pan set with around 25 tones. I find these easy to use because whenever I travel, I do not need to worry about forgetting a specific colour or a set of paints. Instead, I always have the full set with me. 

Pan set

Tube set

Try to avoid buying the basic set of water colour you used at school as they usually come in very low quality and with bad brushes. Yes they are good for the use for children but not developed artists. 

Basic set

In the end, materials play a big role in an artist's life. And most importantly, if you want your work to be beautiful in a good quality, do not save on paints. Use as much as you need. Enjoy!