My all-time favorite painting supplies for watercolor
My all-time favorite watercolor supplies! From top left clockwise; masking fluid, watercolor dot sheets, bleed-proof white paint, bulb pipettes, glass ink pen, compass, gold, and metallic paints.
I feel like no art blog is complete without at least one post on favorite painting supplies, so this is mine!
In this post, I plan to go over some of my favorite supplies that I use for painting that aren’t necessarily your typical, everyday watercolor supplies. These are things I don’t necessarily use every day in my painting practice, but I use these supplies regularly enough to make them near and dear to my heart.
Oh the wonders of masking fluid and how I love it so! I’m hoping to do a more in-depth post strictly about masking fluid soon, so this will just cover the necessities.
Masking fluid is a latex-based liquid that you paint onto the areas of your artwork that you want to remain white. Paint a little masking fluid, let it dry, then paint over it with any color watercolor with no fear of leaking and getting on the paper underneath. Then, once you are done with your painting and it’s completely dry, you remove the masking fluid, and ta-da you have some pristine white paper that looks untouched!
Galaxy-inspired watercolor quote was made with the help of masking fluid.
I used this technique for my Adventurer’s print above. I sketched out the quote and constellations, painted over them carefully in masking fluid then covered the whole page in Galaxy inspired blues and purples. When the painting had completely dried, I removed the masking fluid to reveal a beautiful watercolor galaxy painting!
Masking fluid can be used in more ways than just ‘save’ areas of paper you want to remain white. You can use it in other ways to add creativity to your artwork, here I use masking fluid OVER watercolor. This piece was created from a whole class about masking fluid by Ohn Mar Win on Skillshare - if you are looking for some masking fluid prompts I would highly recommend!
Here I use masking fluid over watercolor to get the effect of fruit in a bag with a dark background.
I picked up a glass dip ink pen when I was studying abroad in Berlin at a flea market back in 2008 and it’s been a trusty tool ever since. While this is usually used with ink, this works just as well with watercolor or gouache, the trick is all about getting the right consistency! I do find myself loading the pen more often when I am using watercolor but I love the thin lines and control I can get from it. I use the pen a lot for outlining and for lettering in my work. A quick google search showed me that there are beautiful glass nibs available online if you are interested in adding this to your art toolbox.
Dr. Ph Martin’s Bleed Proof White Paint
Like white gouache, Dr. Ph Martin’s Bleed Proof White paint is great for an opaque water-based white paint that can be used for creating white spaces, adding highlights, or even to cover mistakes. The paint also mixes with both watercolor and gouache well to make lighter versions of colors. What's nice about this paint is how thick it is, how easy it is to apply, and how long the jar lasts. You can also reconstitute/reactivate dried white paint on your palette, but be mindful to really mix because it can be chunky, like gouache, if not fully reabsorbed with water.
I used Dr. Ph Martin’s Bleed Proof White paint to create the skeletons of the cat and dog in this Dia de los Muertos-inspired painting.
Metallic watercolors/gold gouache
Who doesn’t love something shiny? Metallic watercolors are a great way to add a little extra to your watercolor painting, just be careful to not go overboard! With metallic watercolors sometimes less is more, I like to use it for accents or for small areas of the painting.
As for gold paint, I cannot say enough good things about Holbein Brilliant Gold Gouache! It is so luscious and rich and it quickly gives more energy to any painting, or I just really love gold because it’s sparkly! I also like to mix the gold with a little brown to paint picture frames, it gives a rustic bronze color perfect for frames.
Holbein brilliant gold gouache at work! Here I didn’t listen to my own rule and said more gold please!
Also, it should be noted that metallic and gold watercolors don’t scan great and can sometimes be lost when transferring to digital, or even in pictures as shown in parts of the image above.
Watercolor dot sheets
Watercolor dot sheets are a great way to try pricier watercolors for a cheaper price, and try a lot at once. I got a Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolor dot sheet with 66 colors to try from Blick art and swatched all the colors next to the their names and paint dots. On this sheet is a whole range of watercolors that are called Duochrome, meaning they have more than one color in them and they can appear differently in different lights. My favorite is Duochrome Hibiscus, great for final touches on floral pieces. There is also a whole group of watercolors called Interference watercolors that only show up on dark paper! I had no idea about either of these kinds of watercolors and probably wouldn’t have it I hadn’t tried this dot sheet. And now that I have seen what colors I use the most on the dot sheet, I can buy specific tubes of the fancy stuff without taking the risk that I won’t like it.
Compass + Bulb pipettes
During the daytime I am a scientist, so I was introduced to bulb pipettes through my job, but I quickly realized how helpful they could be for painting. Bulb pipettes serve more or less the same function as a spray bottle. Its an easy tool to get your paint wet and reactivate before you start painting. You can get a pack cheap online and use them forever, I’ve had a few that I’ve been using for the past 3 years.
A compass is just another great tool for your day-to-day drawing. It gives a cleaner look to your art if you are using circles and there are some amazing things you can create with just a compass. Below is the flower of life, which uses sacred geometry and a compass to create the intricate pattern seen below. A great resource for sacred geometry (and the one I use) is a book by Ana Victoria Calderon titled Creative Drawing: Symbols and Sacred Geometry.
The flower of life was made by using the compass and Dr. Ph Martin’s Bleed Proof White for the flower details.
What do you think?
Did your favorite watercolor supply make the list or did I forget something so incredibly obvious? Comment down below and let me know! Also be sure to subscribe to my newsletter to get updates on new blog posts with art tutorials, supply reviews, and shop updates.
Thanks for reading!