Galactic Watercolor: Preclass

Welcome to the preclass lesson – all about supplies plus a little technique tip! Watch the video, and then see the supply list below that.

Before we start…a little housekeeping

I retain the copyright to the content you are learning in class. That means…

1. Do not sell or give away the concepts from my classes – you may not re-teach my instruction contained or created within these lessons.
2. Do not post a video tutorial or step by step photo tutorial of your own redraw of class content.
3. Do not repost any handouts you receive in class.

However…I love to see students making strides and taking this teaching and personalizing it with your own skills.

1. DO make your own designs and develop your own style! I love that!
2. DO gift your creations made with these techniques, of course!

At the bottom of each lesson you’ll see some ways to share your homework and ask questions, so that’ll be handy for you.

Paper

For the demos, a full sheet of Arches Rough watercolor paper was folded down and torn to create 5-1/2″ x 7-1/2″ paintings (5″ x 7″ plus the white border). Another brand I love is Saunders Waterford. You don’t need all of these, I’m just providing options.

• Arches cold press 9×12 pad Blick | AMZ
• Arches cold press full sheets Blick
• Arches rough 9×12 pad Blick | AMZ
• Arches rough full sheets Blick
• Saunders Waterford Cold Press sheets
• Saunders Waterford Rough sheets

Watercolor paints

Use the colors you have! I’ll list the colors used in each lesson but you can change them up all you wish. The colors in the palette used in this class are below – the ones with * are colors used in a demo.

• Nickel Azo *
• New Gamboge *
• Aussie Red Gold
• Yellow Ochre
• Burnt Sienna
• Burnt Umber
• Perylene Maroon *
• Anthraquinoid Scarlet *
• Pyrrol Scarlet
• Quinacridone Rose *
• Imperial Purple *
• Moonglow
• Cobalt Blue *
• French Ultramarine Blue *
• Iridescent Electric Blue
• Cobalt Teal Blue *
• Phthalo Blue GS *
• Indanthrone Blue *
• Serpentine Genuine
• Green Apatite
• Sap Green *
• Perylene Green
• Payne’s Blue Gray
• Neutral Tint

These are the dark colors used for the background sky in the lessons – you do NOT need them all! And if you have a dark blue or black you love – just use that!

• Lamp Black
• Indanthrone Blue
• Prussian Blue
• Indigo
• If you want that little temp palette I use in this class it’s here – or you can squeeze out a little color to play with on an 89-cent white tile from the hardware store!

Brushes

You need not get fancy brushes for these – but you’ll want one that’s large enough and soft enough that it will both hold a lot of pigment and water, and release a lot of pigment and water! We’ll be painting the background washes quickly, and a small brush that barely puts out color will mean you’ll be making 30 strokes when you just need to do one large one. Note that the Silver brush is listed as a 12 because a 10 doesn’t put out as much fluid as does a sable 10.

• Synthetics, less expensive:
  • Silver Brush Black Velvet Round #12:  BLICK | AMZ
  • Silver Brush Black Velvet Round #4: BLICK | AMZ 
• Sables, more expensive:
  • Da Vinci Maestro Kolinsky Sable Brush – Round 10 BLICK
  • Da Vinci Maestro Kolinsky Sable Brush – Round 4 BLICK
• Old cheap brushes for masking fluid

Other materials

• White for stars (choose one); the grounds are used in class:
  • Daniel Smith Titanium White Watercolor Grounds BLICK | AMZ
  • Liquitex Acrylic Ink, White BLICK | AMZ
  • Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleedproof White  BLICK | AMZ
  • Old toothbrush
  • Liquid dish soap
  • Separate water for rinsing white ink/paint
• Mounting:
  • Ampersand Hardbord: BLICK | AMAZON
  • Artist Tape to mount paper (this tape wipes pigment off, unlike masking tape)
• Masking Fluid supplies:
  • Grumbacher Misket Liquid Frisket BLICK | AMZ  
  • Rubber Cement Pickup BLICK | AMZ
• Misc
  • Compass or round objects to trace
  • Pencil
  • Baby Wipes
  • Paper Towels

Pigment consistency

As a review – this pic is from Watercolor Jumpstart Lesson 3….it may help to go review that lesson if you’ve taken the course.