My Favorite Watercolor Paints

Of all the many questions that I get from students and other artists, through emails and DM's, by far the most common question is a surprising one:

More than anything else people want to know what my favorite watercolor paints are! 



Since I get this question so much I felt that it needed its own post. Really, its pretty simple, like with any art supplies I am always drawn to colors, before anything else. So, that means that I try any products, both high and low end, if I like the colors. With that as my compass, I have found some beautiful serendipitous surprises like this set:



Its the cheapest set that I own and yet it was the set that was in many of the photographs in my book, and over and over again this is the set that people ask about, and its only $10.99! Head over here to buy it.

Then there is the set pictured bellow, I like to pair it with the set above. Its a German brand called Angora, available here.



 Here are these two sets together in a shot with my demo painting from the first chapter of my book:


Having all those colors at my finger tips is dreamy!!

I also love to take my watercolors along with me when I travel, so over the past couple of years I have worked on streamlining my travel painting kit. Here are my two favorite travel watercolor painting sets, they are by AQUAnaut and Bianyo, both are available on Amazon, here and here.



 Another of my favorite travel watercolor sets is pictured here in the top left corner of the image.....



 And again pictured here, next to this lesson on embracing the messy!! This is the Jane Davenport travel set, it comes in both a Bright and a Neutral color way, and I never travel without both of those sets these days!!

 

Another favorite travel watercolor set that I am never without these days is by The Ocean Paper, they sell pre-packaged sets, and you can also build your own set with the colors that you like best (that's what I did!). You can see that set to the right of my painting here, I filled it with lots of neutrals that I reach for all the time!


I also love experimenting with the Daniel Smith colors, their watercolors come in tubes and are so rich, their colors are super saturated, I love this sweet higher end set by Daniel Smith. These paints have actual ground up minerals and gems like Amethyst, Jade and Hematite, in the paint, which feels so special. So much good energy!


My favorite watercolor paper is hands down Arche brand, this size pad in particular is the pad that I always come back to.
 
If you'd like more instant access learning, all about my Watercolor Painting Practice, how I gather inspiration through watercolor at home and when I travel, what else I pack in my travel painting kit, developing a daily practice of seeing, and so much more.....


 In this instant access class I share my favorite ways to work with watercolor.


A 2 UNIT PAINTING COURSE GUIDING YOU THROUGH ALL OF MY TIPS, TRICKS & STRATEGIES FOR CREATING MY DETAILED SIGNATURE TIDE POOL PAINTINGS. USING INSPIRATION FROM NATURE, TO GET YOU PAINTING AND RENEW YOUR CREATIVE ENERGY!
 

 




While I'm at it another question that I get asked all the time is about these glass jars of brightly colored paints that also appear all over my book and often in my Instagram feed. These are Flashe brand Vinyl paints and they are available HERE! They are some of my favorites to layer with acrylic paint, I love them!


Enjoy and Happy Painting!!!
xoFaith

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Faith. Regarding the Flashe paints, how do they compare to acrylic paints? Do you like them? Thank you, Caroline Crisp

Faith said...

Hi Caroline, I included the Flashe paints here since they are some of my favorites. They come in such fun colors, they thin well with water and for layering they work very well with acrylics. In the studio currently I work with the Flashe paints, my Golden acrylic paints, and my acryla gouache paints most often! Happy Painting!

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