Keeping it as simple as possible. If you’ve been painting awhile you’ve probably got most everything you’ll need, but here are my favorites, and some things you may want to have on hand:

Step 1:

-a sketchbook - 2 favorites: if you like cold press paper (or are new at this) go for the 100% cotton Hahnemuhle sketchbook - http://bit.ly/3DIP1Yl

or if you prefer a hot-press paper (what I’ll be using for the most part in this class, try the Stillman & Birn zeta series: https://bit.ly/40srbcs

-a pen, pigma microns are great & fountain pens, too if you like those and are familiar with them, but one that I’m really enjoying right now is the Pentel Arts - Hybrid technica, in a 03 nib and also a 06. (get the 03 if you are only wanting one). It’s like a super smooth ball point pen that never blobs or skips! I LOVE this - it floats across the paper!

-a pencil, no darker than 2B, I like mechanical pencils so I don’t have to carry a sharpener with me.

-***Optional fun- some other fun additions for this session are the Neocolor II Aquarelles (they look like crayons but are water soluble) and also some watercolor pencils like those made by Caran d’Ache - ‘Supracolors’. I always like to buy the individual pencils or crayons at an art store like Jerry’s Artarama - in some blues, greens, and earth-tones/varieties of browns.

-a kneaded eraser (they are gentle on the paper, and don’t leave dirty/weird marks)

-You will also greatly enjoy some POSCA pens to embellish your pages with. I always have one in white, and one in gold. They come in various nib sizes, I have several. You’ll likely find the bullet-shaped or pin-shaped nibs the most useful.

-bulldog clips - to hold your pages. Incredibly helpful outdoors or in, whether it’’s windy or your paper is buckling. Get a package of these at Staples. They don’t have to be huge, just hold your page.

2.Step 2 -

Here’s where we bring color into the work. I’ll be honest, there are some ‘student grade’ paints out there that just make the job harder and will never give you the beautiful luminosity that professional grade paints do. (The difference in price is the binder vs the amount of pigment. The cheaper paints have more binder/less pigment, and have quite a chalky look to them. ***You can continue to use your favorite little student pan or small travel pan for this step….but over time, you’re most likely going to want a bigger palette with more mixing space. You’re going to want the better quality ‘artists grade’ paint….it simply makes this whole quest easier. Here’s what I use every day:

-Mijello paint palette. This has 18 wells and a nice tray you can remove for more mixing space if necessary. I’ve been using this one for several years now and really love it. It’s small enough that I take it on travel with me, but large enough to use on my desk for small to mid-sized paintings out of the sketchbook. Here’s a link for this.

Here are the colors I’m currently using. The starred colors are the ‘must-haves’. I’ve made a few changes over the years, but it’s pretty similar to this:

*-DS-Lemon Yellow (or a cool transparent yellow)

*-DS- New Gamboge(a warm mid-value transparent yellow)

-DS- Naples Yellow (a pale, neutral opaque)

*-DR-Raw Sienna-transparent earth color

*-DS-Quinacridone Gold - transparent

*-DS-Burnt Sienna - workhorse color, can’t live without (like a dirty orange/brown)

-DS-Pyrrol Orange

-DS- Cadmium Red Medium Hue

*DS-Quinacridone Rose (transparent cool red)

-DS-Rose of Ultramarine (transparent purple, can mix from quin rose & Ul. Blue)

-DS-Lavender (opaque)

*-DS-Cobalt Blue

*-DS-French Ultramarine Blue - (can’t live without Ultramarine Blue)

-DS-Pthalo Blue (transparent blue, dark, intense, staining)

*-DS-Cobalt Teal Blue - on it’s own or mixed with others - makes nice aqua greens

-DS-Green Apatite Genuine - a very interesting granulating green, not totally necessary but beautiful and fun.

-DS-Pthalo Yellow Green - strong brilliant transparent yellow green, great for mixing

-WN-Neutral Tint - does exactly what it says, darkens and neutralizes colors. I rarely use it, but it can be handy in a pinch.

*-DS-Green Gold OR Sap Green - (note, there are some brands of Sap Green out there that are NOT transparent and can end uplooking like MUD on its own or mixed with anything else. Avoid the heartbreak, go with DS.

-DS-Cerulean Blue (a beautiful opaque that is fun for layering a veil of color on)

*Quor or DS - Titanium White - I don’t use white that often, but when I do, I want an opaque one.

Brushes - for most of the sketchbook work, you’ll want a size 6 round, perhaps an 8 round. In the later weeks, when we start working a bit bigger you’ll want a larger brush, perhaps a size 12 round and also a 1” flat.

3.Step 3 - Here’s where we’ll practice a bit of larger looser work, some of it in your sketchbook, some of it on better paper. For very inexpensive practice work you can use a sketchbook like the Strathmore Mixed Media 500 series, 100% cotton. I also like the Canson XL pad of watercolor paper, for testing & swatching colors - as it’s very inexpensive.

Bulldog clips, to hold your pages (even indoors, so your paper doesn’t buckle). either a 8” x10” size or a 9”x12” size.

Other necessities are basic to watercolor

- a cup or jar to hold your water (I usually have at least two jars of water handy at a time. One for dirty water, one for clean).

-paper towels (I like Viva best, they are smooth & absorbent, and don’t leave weird marks on your paper).

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