Class Supply List
Watercolor Materials List - Adam Adkinson
Buy the best materials you can afford - and don’t be afraid to use them. Don’t keep them ‘for good’. Use them for practice. It’s better to buy three tubes of high quality paint in the primary colors then to spend the same amount on a set of inferior paints.
Paper:
Paper is the number one hindrance to watercolor. Arches paper is the only paper I've found that reliably performs. I could use other paints, other paintbrushes and still create good paintings, but without very good paper it just doesn't work.
Arches brand 140 lb cold press paper is ideal. I buy them in a pack of 5 - 22x30 sheets, about $48 at Blick. (or $10 a sheet) You can buy the large sheets, fold them in half and once more to get 8 small sheets. These are more cost efficient than the blocks they sell.
You do need a substrate to tape loose paper to. I recommend gatorboard as it’s lightweight and easy to cut.
Plexiglass will work, as will acrylic/oil painting panels that are still plastic wrapped. If you use masonite you’ll need to seal it with acrylic gesso or clear packing tape.
If you’d rather have them precut, this 12” x 16” 20 pack of Arches on Amazon might suit your needs better and comes already attached to a backing board, no gator board needed.
Colors:
I use QOR. Daniel Smith, and M Graham watercolors. I mainly use just three colors, the three listed here:
● Ultramarine blue
● Quinacridone Magenta/Quin Rose
● NIckel Azo Yellow or Windsor Newton Transparent Yellow
- Don’t buy plain Nickel Yellow, it has white mixed in and colors will not look right)
Also I occasionally use
● Phthalo blue (green shade),
● Phthalo green (yellow shade),
● Hansa Yellow Light,
● Quinacridone Purple,
● and Pyrrole Red Light, so these might be worth picking up.
These are the colors I use generally, both in teaching and in general painting. If you have other colors and want
to use those, that's fine. If you want to get a set of good colors this set by QOR brand has some excellent colors that are reasonably
priced.
Palette
Ceramic palettes are the best I've found. Plastic (and some metal palettes) the water can bead up, not allowing you to see the strength of your washes, which is important in watercolor. Here's one that you might consider.
Brushes
Rosemary company is a mother/daughter company in the UK that makes excellent brushes for reasonable prices. Rosemary sources responsibly and they perform wonderfully, even the larger brushes have a fine point, good for detail work.
** As of 10/29/2025 The US hasn’t renewed Rosemary’s CITES, meaning they can’t ship sable brushes at the moment. However I have used and can recommend their synthetic brushes for their almost natural hair qualities. I’ll list two sets below that I do recommend, either one for beginners and professionals:
The Set 65 Red Dot Brush intro set $74.17
and the Set 75 Red Dot Extended Set $138.93
I’d also recommend getting a goat hair mop brush for blending which is very helpful for edges that need work.
Misc
Light tan masking tape - (no colored tape - can cause color/value errors) I use a lot so this 10-pack works for me
Ruler, mainly for city and landscapes - I like a clear plastic one so I can see where I’m placing it.
Backing board - something to tape loose sheets of watercolor paper to. *Note If you purchased a block of watercolor paper you do not need this.
Paper Towels - Viva brand are good quality
This lamp is excellent for still life and botanical subjects. It’s battery powered and has a nice brightness.
Portable Easels - outdoors this one is reasonably priced and you can have a great setup in a short time, plus it packs away neatly. **Not needed for indoor classes
The color chart
I recommend making color charts. It will help you see how colors are mixed. Any three primaries will work (blue, red, yellow), it's to see how those particular colors interact and what colors they create.
In each of the five squares, you start with purest tint at the top and going down, add more water until it's just a step above the white of the paper at the end.
Here are a couple videos I made to guide you.
If are having trouble mixing colors or are new I really recommend making your own charts. Set aside an hour or so for each, it's very helpful.
I recommend checking my website at adamadkison.com/workshops for new links and information.
If you have questions please feel free to reach out.