Art Materials

We’re going to Africa to paint… from Home!

7

AFRICA with Watercolor

You can paint and draw with any of your favorite art materials and mediums, but we’ve prepared a list of recommended watercolor materials to match your teacher and tour guide, Jacqueline Hill. Watercolor is a beautiful medium and is super easy to transport, making it ideal for travel and plein air painting.

Learn Watercolour Gradient Painting

Be sure to check out your introductory watercolor lessons. They’re the perfect place for a total beginner to learn the basics or a seasoned artist to freshen up their watercolor skills.

Print List

Paper

  • Visual Diary
    A4 (letter) size, with acid-free paper, preferably one with a thick cardboard back cover to provide support when sketching on location!
    Advanced artists who want to spoil themselves might select a watercolor album to paint in, which has heavier weight watercolor paper (cotton rag optional — and more expensive!) Then you won’t need separate sheets of watercolor paper for individual paintings.
  • Watercolor Paper
    An A5 (half letter) sheet of watercolor paper as heavy weight as you can afford. Anyone using a journal made of watercolor paper won’t need these extra separate sheets.
    Beginner artists: to save pennies, a sheet from a pad of wood pulp (cellulose) paper would be fine, anything from 180-300gsm weight.
    Advanced artists: Choose cotton rag paper, 200-300gsm. For an optional special painting, why not also bring a full A4 (letter) size or even larger!

Drawing Materials

 

  • Pencil & Eraser
    Beginner artists: ordinary HB graphite pencil and an eraser, such as Staedtler Rasoplast, OR a combination retractable pencil-eraser such as Pentel Twist-Erase 0.5mm with HB graphite
    Advanced artists: HB or 2B pencil, whichever you prefer.  Add a Faber Castell kneadable eraser as well if you love them.
  • Willow Charcoal
  • Black ink pen
    Waterproof black pigment ink pen, such as Uni-Pin Fine Line 0.5mm

Watercolor Brushes

Good watercolor brushes are important to have! You can buy ones made with natural or synthetic bristles. Make sure to find some that spring back into shape when wet. Cheap golden color bristles often have no spring; white taklon usually does.

Since all brush companies number their sizes differently, I’ve given you the dimensions.

If you are comfortable with using a water brush (aquabrush) with a handle that fills with water, then go for that. These are perfect for travel and plein air painting. If you prefer to use traditional brush with tub of water, go for it! That’s the beauty of travelling at home.

  • All-rounder brush
    A medium sized round watercolor brush around 5–7mm diameter that comes to a good fine point when wet.
    If using an aquabrush, select a large size round pointed one such as Pentel Aquash.
  • Large flat brush
    A large flat watercolour brush around 8–15mm wide.

Watercolor Paints

A quick note on brands:

Beginner artists: find a small travel set with around 8 pan paints from a reputable brand (not children’s paints). A really affordable brand is Mont Marte or PaperMill. But with those you’ll probably need to flick some of the yucky colors out and replace them with squeeze of good paint from tubes, or you may be disappointed with your results. I usually throw away any black and white they give you.

Advanced artists: use your favorite watercolor paints or give my favorite ones a try! My favorite brands of (more expensive) professional artists’ watercolors are Winsor & Newton and Rembrandt.

  • Warm yellow
    orangey yellow e.g. Cadmium yellow
  • Cool yellow
    lemony yellow, such as lemon yellow or transparent yellow
  • Warm blue
    purpley blue such as French Ultramarine
  • Cool blue
    greeny blue such as phthalo blue
  • Warm red
    orangey red such as Cadmium Red, or Napthol red scarlet
  • Cool red
    pinky red such as Permanent Rose or Quinacridone magenta
  • Your favourite colors (optional)
    I always add in my two extra favorite colours: Dioxazine Purple and Phthalo Turquoise

Other

 

  • Watercolor masking fluid
    I recommend not using “colorless” masking fluid. It’s much easier to remove the masking if you can see it! My usual go-to is the Art Spectrum masking fluid.
Print List