I don’t require my students to have my exact palette or supplies, but the quality of paint, paper and brushes I use allow me to get the results that I do.
Please have a transparent warm staining yellow, pink and thalo, (or winsor) blue and green!
(Aureolin is too green) I use mostly transparent staining paints. I use the Indanthrene Blue, Perylene Maroon, thalo/winsor green and blue to make my blacks. I strongly urge students to use Arches watercolor paper, 140 or 300 lb. cold press. I use 300 # Arches bright white. Old paper is subject to sizing problems and should be saved for something other than a class or workshop setting.
* Permanent Yellow Light –Mijello Mission (mine) T
* Permanent Rose (Winsor Newton) (Mission) T
* Perylene Maroon (W. N.) I use this a lot T
* Indanthrene Blue (Daniel Smith) T
* Winsor Blue Red shade(W. N) or phthalo Blue, Joe’s Blue T
* Sky Blue (Cheap Joes) semi opaque
* Winsor Green Blue Shade (W.N.)or phthalo Green, Joe’s Green T
Chinese White (for fixing mistakes, if needed)
Brushes are important. You need a good large wash brush, I use a sable/synthetic W.N. 2” brush. I also paint with it. I use a Joe Miller Signature series 50/50 cat’s tongue ¾” for my damp color applications. I find that a rounded flat brush is essential for smooth application of paint in many situations. I also use rounds that come to a good point. I use sable, sable/synthetic blends and some synthetic, one or two sizes 6 thru 12. I have a couple very small sables for tiny lines.
A scrubby brush, I use a fritch scrubber, 6 and 12. (Cheap joes)
Paper- I use Arches 300lb. bright white paper . I prefer sheets, not blocks, so you can wet the back of the paper.
Palette- A plastic palette with mixing wells, I use Robert Wood. I think it important to have a palette with wells large enough for a generous amount of paint that you can put a larger brush into. I let my colors dry and then spray them. They are more concentrated and easier to work with, in my opinion. Please get your paints squeezed out before the first day of class. Tiny pinpricks of fresh color won’t work for wet-into-wet painting! If you have questions, e-mail me.
Masking fluid- I use Incredible White Mask
A fine pointed brush for applying mask and a little dish soap
Spray bottles, regular and a fine mist sprayer
Masking tape, paper towels, (I wrap my paper towels around a big car washing sponge)
Mr. clean magic eraser, plain
I use a mechanic pencil, a good eraser
A piece of gator board or some hard waterproof board to mount your painting on. Plexi-glass works well to flatten paper during the painting process.
Water container
Hair dryer
If you have any specific questions, you can e-mail me kgilesstudio@hotmail.com