Before we get started, I'll go over the materials that you need to complete this class. We'll keep it fairly simple. So you're going to need a nice big jar of water. Some people like to work with two jars so that one of them just has clean water for mixing washes, and the other one is used to wash your brush. So you choose what you prefer. You will need some watercolor paints you can work with liquid watercolors, watercolors out of a tube, or watercolors from a pan set like the ones shown here.

I will say that if you have a really cheap set like a kid set, maybe $5 for a pen set, you might find yourself really frustrated with using this app. The colors can be really chalky and grainy and the colors aren't usually very vibrant. So that's what you're paying for when you spend a bit more money on watercolors. Having said that, I think that the sakura Koi brand or the Windsor Newton kotlin range of really good sets that are good quality, but also really affordable and entry level tubes and pen sets are pretty much the same thing. You can even squeeze the tubes into your pen set to refill them and let them dry up and they work the same The difference being that you can get a bit more bang for your buck by buying a pen set, whereas tubes have a bit more painting them but they're a bit more expensive per color.

Next up you need some brushes. Sometimes it can be a bit intimidating looking at all the different brushes that there are for this cause all you really need is a couple of round brushes. When I'm working with watercolor 95% of the time using the brushes that you see here. If you like to work over big areas, something like a size 10 or a 14 is really good and the smaller ones that you can see on the right hand side, little fine brushes, that's a size zero and a size one whichever Good for details. They're all synthetic brushes and you can see they've got a really nice point. So that's the thing that I look for when I'm going and buying a new brush that the bristles are nice and soft and then they come to a nice point.

Now watercolor paper for this class, I recommend a four size or nine by 12 inches. My personal favorite is cats and in Australia we don't get this Excel range but I picked some up in on a recent trip to Hawaii. This one is okay and it's really really affordable. But the other cats and papers are really really good. I recommend that you get something that is 300 GSM. That's the weight of the paper.

The heavier it is equates to the thicker the paper is. What that means is that the paper can withstand having more water on it before it starts to buckle. If you've ever tried to paint with watercolors on printer paper, or journal paper in a notebook, you'll notice that it can buckle and the color doesn't dry out. leap. So 20 bucks will get you a big pad of watercolor paper that's the right thickness, and that will withstand the amount of water that we want to put on it to really help you succeed in this class. We need just some basics here, a pencil and a razor.

I like to use a flannel something that I can reuse and wash rather than paper towel just so that I'm minimizing the waste that I produce when I'm painting and some washi tape or painters tape if you'd like to secure your work to a piece of cardboard or board while you're painting. And finally, you need something to mix your painting. Now a white dinner plate will work well. Otherwise, you can pick up a palette from an art shop, but I like to find quirky shaped dishes at op shops. So if you're into thrift store shopping, then why not have a look for something you can repurpose as a watercolor palette next time. That is all we need to get started.

So I'll see you in the next class.