If you want to know more about the science of paint, highly recommended is Handprint.
Rule number one: Buy the best paint you can afford. In other words, don’t buy student grade paint; start with the artist or professional grade.
You will have to decide which manufacturer and what type of paint. This will depend a bit on how you work and you haven’t started working yet. A dilemma. But you probably have some clues. Do you want to sit in a room or designated space at home and paint from photographs? (Nothing wrong with that, no matter what you might read or people might say.) Do you want to go outside to parks and other areas and paint what you see? Do you want to take your materials when you travel, perhaps by plane?
You have several choices. You can work from “pans”, little plastic open boxes that are little rectangles and squares, known as whole or full pans and half pans as they are half of a whole, or you can put paint from tubes in some sort of tray usually with a hinged lid called a palette, and there are many different types.
If you like the neatness of the pans, you can either buy them already filled or you can buy them empty and fill them with paint from a tube. If you work from a palette you will put dabs of paint on them from a tube. Note: a palette is also the box that you can put your filled pans into. It can also mean the rainbow of colors you choose. One word, multiple meanings.
How you want to work may influence which manufacturer you choose. Some offer paints in both pan and tube. Schmincke and Winsor & Newton do. But sometimes the formula for the tube is different than for the pan. Some paints never quite dry and are always moist, making them difficult to carry around without making a bit of a mess. Some paints dry so hard they are difficult to rewet, making them impractical for pre-loading a pan or palette.
I recommend staying with one manufacturer at first for all of your colors. Some do not mix well with others as all manufacturers have proprietary formulas that may or may not mix with another manufacturer. Safest to stick with the one brand until you are more experienced.
I use Daniel Smith and most of my references will be based on my use of Daniel Smith. Daniel Smith does not make student grade watercolors and did not make pan paints until recently. You can buy a palette with pre-filled pans but you cannot buy replacement pans so you would have to refill them yourself from a tube. (BTW I highly recommend their 15 half pan set as a started set.) So I buy empty pans and fill them myself. It isn't hard so don't spend a lot of money buying a pan someone else already filled for you. If you use another manufacturer, be sure you know what grade of paint is in their different watercolor lines. For instance, Winsor and Newton's student paints are "Cotman" so don't buy those. Buy the "artists" or "professional" grade paints. When I switched from my childhood Pelikan watercolors to a professional grade, I bought a set of Winsor & Newton 24 half pans because I was used to working with pan paint. I still like it. But the Winsor & Newton didn't behave quite like my old Pelikans. They also didn't have the color range I was looking for. I eventually switched to Daniel Smith that only comes in tubes. So I fill my own pans in steps, allowing to dry between each partial fill, and use them. They are softer, rewet faster than my Pelikan and have a wider range of colors and are more comfortable to use than the Winsor & Newton. I still keep the W&N for plein air and travel.
Grumbacher Finest is artists and Grumbacher Academy is student grade.
Maimeri Blu is artist and Maimeri Venezia is student.
Reeves, Sargent and Van Gogh are all student grade.
There are many manufacturers of paints that are artist grade. Daniel Smith, Winsor and Newton, Schmincke, DaVinci, Grumbacher, Holbein, M.Graham, Maimeri Blu, QoR, Rembrandt, Sennelier and Old Holland are just some. Cheap Joe's American Journey paints are quite good but the names are very imaginative and may throw you a bit.
As you read up on websites and blogs you'll learn which are the better brands and which have characteristics you may want in a watercolor. So don't go out and buy a huge supply of paints. Buy just a few to use. If you're comfortable, fine. But if you don't like them, consider buying a few of another manufacturer until you find a good fit.
Availability may be your biggest challenge if you do not have local art supply shops or their selection is limited. If that is the case, you will be purchasing from an online supplier. I'll be posting a page with names and links to suppliers along with some boutique custom paint producers.
How you want to work may influence which manufacturer you choose. Some offer paints in both pan and tube. Schmincke and Winsor & Newton do. But sometimes the formula for the tube is different than for the pan. Some paints never quite dry and are always moist, making them difficult to carry around without making a bit of a mess. Some paints dry so hard they are difficult to rewet, making them impractical for pre-loading a pan or palette.
I recommend staying with one manufacturer at first for all of your colors. Some do not mix well with others as all manufacturers have proprietary formulas that may or may not mix with another manufacturer. Safest to stick with the one brand until you are more experienced.
I use Daniel Smith and most of my references will be based on my use of Daniel Smith. Daniel Smith does not make student grade watercolors and did not make pan paints until recently. You can buy a palette with pre-filled pans but you cannot buy replacement pans so you would have to refill them yourself from a tube. (BTW I highly recommend their 15 half pan set as a started set.) So I buy empty pans and fill them myself. It isn't hard so don't spend a lot of money buying a pan someone else already filled for you. If you use another manufacturer, be sure you know what grade of paint is in their different watercolor lines. For instance, Winsor and Newton's student paints are "Cotman" so don't buy those. Buy the "artists" or "professional" grade paints. When I switched from my childhood Pelikan watercolors to a professional grade, I bought a set of Winsor & Newton 24 half pans because I was used to working with pan paint. I still like it. But the Winsor & Newton didn't behave quite like my old Pelikans. They also didn't have the color range I was looking for. I eventually switched to Daniel Smith that only comes in tubes. So I fill my own pans in steps, allowing to dry between each partial fill, and use them. They are softer, rewet faster than my Pelikan and have a wider range of colors and are more comfortable to use than the Winsor & Newton. I still keep the W&N for plein air and travel.
Grumbacher Finest is artists and Grumbacher Academy is student grade.
Maimeri Blu is artist and Maimeri Venezia is student.
Reeves, Sargent and Van Gogh are all student grade.
There are many manufacturers of paints that are artist grade. Daniel Smith, Winsor and Newton, Schmincke, DaVinci, Grumbacher, Holbein, M.Graham, Maimeri Blu, QoR, Rembrandt, Sennelier and Old Holland are just some. Cheap Joe's American Journey paints are quite good but the names are very imaginative and may throw you a bit.
As you read up on websites and blogs you'll learn which are the better brands and which have characteristics you may want in a watercolor. So don't go out and buy a huge supply of paints. Buy just a few to use. If you're comfortable, fine. But if you don't like them, consider buying a few of another manufacturer until you find a good fit.
Availability may be your biggest challenge if you do not have local art supply shops or their selection is limited. If that is the case, you will be purchasing from an online supplier. I'll be posting a page with names and links to suppliers along with some boutique custom paint producers.
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