Watercolor Favorite Things: Preclass

Welcome to the preclass lesson!

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.

Welcome to the preclass lesson!

As part of the Favorite Things series of classes, this one has a few things to be aware of that don’t apply to the others. In other mediums, a provided printable image can be printed onto the appropriate paper and you can just work with it. Watercolor is a bit different — a LOT of printers don’t let thicker paper go through the machine, and even more do not have waterproof ink. So if you printed the images, you’d get all kinds of crazy bleeding. 

I recommend either getting a lightbox to trace the sketches, or tape your work to a window with the sketch in between – that’s free! 

Video: Supplies

A discussion of supplies – and alternates!

Supplies:

As with all my classes, use supplies you love, being prepared for different results. (Which is not a bad thing!) 

Watercolor Paper 

The demonstrations are painted on cold press watercolor paper (Arches) – but you can use rough too.

Daniel Smith Watercolor

I’ve linked to both the sticks and the tubes below, so use what you like best.

1. Yellow Ochre 15ml Tube / 12 ml Stick
2. Burnt Sienna 15ml Tube / 12 ml Stick
3. French Ultramarine Blue 15ml Tube / 12 ml Stick
4. Cobalt Teal Blue 15ml Tube / 12 ml Stick
5. Lamp Black 15ml Tube / 12 ml Stick

Brushes

1. Silver Brush Black Velvet Round #2: BLICK  • AMZ
2. Silver Brush Black Velvet Round #4: BLICK  • AMZ
3. Silver Brush Black Velvet Round #8:  BLICK  • AMZ

Miscellaneous

1. Artograph light pad
2. White artist tape, 3/4” 
3. Ampersand Hardbord (larger than your painting) OR Incredible Art Board, Grafix 
4. A palette or white dish of some kind for mixing
5. Pencil
6. Kneaded Eraser 

Watercolors for class

There’s only five colors needed for this course – and you’re welcome to substitute some similar colors if that’s what you’ve got. And remember you don’t need to use the “sticks” but you might want to watch the video below to see if that’s something to put on your list for Santa!

Video 2: More on watercolor sticks