Favorite Materials

Happy 2023 everyone!

Usually around the holidays I do a bit of research about art supplies I could potentially get for my birthday/Christmas, and I thought it might be fun to list some of my favourites here for you guys! Maybe you have some money left over to spend, or want to try something new in the New Year.

This is just Part 1, I want to go into more specific colours and palettes I use in Part 2. Also, I want to emphasize that a lot of these materials are professional grade, and are expensive. I do prefer to use things you can buy open stock, meaning you can buy the individual colours. I highly recommend just getting a couple to try out rather than an expensive set if you’ve never used them before.

Ok, here we go!

Paper

I have 2 variations of paper I use, cheaper stuff for tests and expensive stuff for final work. Also for anyone not in the know, Coldpress = Rough Textured paper and Hotpress = Smooth texture

I use Strathmore Vision Watercolor pads for tests, it’s a cold press paper but is closer to a hot press in my opinion. It’s actually a really good paper for the price, and takes various media pretty well.

For final work I use Arches Hot Press. It’s nice and smooth (good for scanning), and it can take a beating without disintegrating.

I also like Saunders Waterford Hot Press, but it’s hard to find in Canada and I had to import it from England. It comes in Natural White and High White, so if you’re picky about the white tone they’re a good option! If it’s available near you I would definitely try it out, but for me Arches is the most reliable and readily available.

Watercolour

Watercolour is fun because a lot of brands have their own special colours and effects, so I have a mix of different kinds in my palette. Watercolours can come in both a dried pan and tube, but I buy tubes personally.

The palette itself is a Meeden Watercolour palette I bought off Amazon purely because it’s pink. I’ve managed to squeeze 27 half pans in it right now, and I can mix basically any colour I need at this point. Tip for metal palettes: If your paint is beading when mixing colours, give it a good scrub with toothpaste to rough up the surface.

Most of my paints are Winsor & Newton professional grade. I like every colour I’ve tried EXCEPT for the reds. Do not like W&N reds for some reason. Maybe I just prefer a more opaque red and theirs just aren’t punchy enough for me? I’ll go more into this is Part 2 where I’ll talk about the specific colours I use. Cotman is the W&N “student” range, and they’re great for beginners.

For granulating colours Daniel Smith is my go to. Their Lunar Black and Hematite Genuine are especially fun to use, and always surprising. Also reminder! You don’t need the big tubes! Watercolour is super concentrated, a little goes a long way. Get the 5ml tubes, especially for these specialty colors.

Lastly I have a few Holbein colours, mostly convenience colours like greens and greys. Love the ones I have, but I haven’t tried a lot of colours so I can’t speak on the line as a whole. They seem very consistent in their smooth texture, so if you’re not a fan of granulation they’re a good choice.

Gouache

I’ve only ever used Winsor & Newton Designers Gouache, and they’ve always worked well enough for me so I haven’t really needed to try anything else! I’ve had trouble with certain colours not rewetting well, but I’ll go over those in the post about specific colours.

Watercolour Pencils

I use Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils almost exclusively now. My first set was Derwent, and I started filling in gaps in my collection with Faber-Castell because they sold them open stock at my local art store. I fell in love with how smooth and pigmented they were, and started buying colours I already had in Derwent. Eventually I just bought the 120 set (oh man did it hurt to spend that much money), but I’m really glad I did. They are so versatile, and I use them A LOT in my work so having every colour available is really helpful. I use them instead of my Prismacolor pencil crayons as well.

I like to store them in jars sorted by colour. I make much better colour selections this way, so I’m a bit of a stickler about this (also it just looks nice). I keep one empty jar to hold the colours I’m using in the illustration I’m currently working on so I don’t have to go hunting later on.

Wax Pastels

Wax pastels are sort of like fancy crayons. I’ve tried a couple brands, but Neocolor ii’s by Caran d’Ache are what I always go back to.

Neocolors come in two types. Neocolor i’s are not watersoluble and Neocolor ii’s are. I’ve only used Neocolor ii’s, and as far as I can tell they’re the more popular version. I’ve been experimenting using them with oil pastel lately, and you can get some really cool effects. If you don’t like the messiness of regular pastel, neocolors don’t smudge and still lets you get that chunky, saturated colour that layers over a lot of stuff.

I’ve recently realized you can do sgraffito with neocolors. Just layer 2 colours on top each other nice and thick and carve into it, it works great!

Oil Pastel

My most recent obsession is oil pastel. Years ago I purchased a set of Cray-Pas Expressionist oil pastels and did not like them at all. They’re more on the transparent side and don’t layer well, so they kind of scared me off the medium for a while.

I can’t remember what prompted me to try them again, maybe I watched a video of someone using them on instagram, but this time I bought Mungyo Gallery Soft Oil Pastels, and I was hooked. They’re more opaque and layer better, and I was experimenting using them with watercolor/gouache to make a sort of resist. They opened up a lot of possibilities for creating texture.

Misc Tools

Pencil Sharpener

I use the small hole on this sharpener for pencils, and the larger hole for neocolor ii’s. This one is by Faber-Castell, I think any kind like this would work though.

Carving Tools

When I first got oil pastels I used a bent paperclip for sgraffito. It served me well, but then I found a pack of clay tools and they’re much easier on the hands.

Anything that makes interesting marks work, toothpicks/palette knives/sticks are all good.

Blending Stumps

Useful for more precision with oil pastel/graphite.

Gouache Palette

I’m someone who likes having all their colours ready to go, so gouache was a bit of a struggle for me. I needed to set up my palette every time I wanted to paint, and I prefer fresh gouache over reactivated gouache. This airtight Kelifang Paint Palette really helped. I have every colour all in one convenient little case and they keep their moisture pretty well.

This palette has its pros and cons though. I usually put a bit of water in about once every 2 weeks or so, if you don’t do this they will dry up eventually (gouache re-wets though so it’s not a huge deal if this happens). Also, moist=mold. Personally only the white grew mold in mine, not sure why. I ended up cleaning out the white and just squeezing it out onto the mixing palette whenever I paint. Some colours dry out faster than others also, its usually the ones that get super crumbly when they dry. I’m working on phasing those out from my palette since they’re a pain to re-wet.

I’ve heard mixing honey into paint can deter mold, never tried it myself though so research it before trying!

Ceramic Palette

My favourite mixing palettes are ceramic ones. I made mine in a pottery class, but I’ve seen plenty of trays and plates at the thrift store that would work perfect. You really don’t need anything fancy.

Ok I think that’s it! The next post is going to go into depth about what colours I use (and the ones I regret buying), so keep an eye out for that! Let me know if you decide to try any of these out, and I’d also love to hear about your favourites whether that be the materials themselves or just colours you love!

Thanks for reading!