Best Watercolor Paints for Beginners, and Why?

A plethora of paints.

There is a plethora of paints available today, in both student grade and professional grade categories.  When it comes to which paints to use as a beginner, it really only comes down to one thing. What is the end result you want to achieve in this specific painting session? Will you be selling the original painting, are you doing light washes on a drawing practice sketchbook, would it be scanned as a digital image? Those are just a few of the questions I’d ask.

If you decide on using only professional paints, then great!  Problem solved.  You won't have to consider fading when exposed to UV light, (for the most part) and professional watercolor paints will last you your lifetime.  Buying the largest sized tubes is usually the most cost effective choice, and you can dry the paint in full or half pans if you’d like them to be more travel sized.

There’s nothing wrong with using professional paints for everything; your studies, color testing, everything.  In fact, what is best is learning on the supplies you are ultimately wanting to use for final pieces.  This way you're not having to re-learn things on different supplies, getting different results.  Your skills become attuned with one set of supplies that you really enjoy using.  

In the previous blog post, I discussed how watercolor papers can be very different from each other, which will affect your painting experience and the end result.  Paints aren't as dramatic, but they do have their own set of behaviors too.

How I use student grade paints.

I have student grade paints and I use them when the painting will live in a sketchbook.  When I'm practicing my drawing skills or mark making with watercolor, I do them in inexpensive, wood pulp sketchbooks.  This way, I’m not worried about wasting expensive cotton paper.  I can get away with lesser quality papers because the focus I’m developing is about muscle movements in the strokes or marks I'm making with the brush or maybe it's about the drawing I did and I just want light washes of color vs a an actual focus on painting with watercolor and water control with the paper. 

I can also get away with student grade paints if the final goal is a digital version of the painting, where fading isn’t an issue.  When the painting is more about practicing my drawing, which would be done on drawing paper, or a general color study vs an original painting that would be displayed on a wall, then student grade paints are perfectly great.  

Ways to go about learning, as a beginner.

There’s a couple of ways to go about watercolor painting as a beginner.  Someone had suggested starting with a set of student grade paints and starting on wood pulp paper, then replacing the paints as they run out with  professional grade.  This is great but then you’ll end up with a mixture of quality and still be risking fading while using professional grade paints.  And to me, using a variety of quality on expensive 100% cotton paper seems like a waste of paper.  Of course, to each their own.

 What I would advise instead is learning from a teacher that creates the kind of paintings you want to learn.  Use all the supplies they suggest in order to learn how to do that similar style.  This way you’ll have the least amount of variables (Ahh, excuses) you can use as reasons for why you couldn’t quite make something work.  Plus, the teacher will be able to help you much better and easier, without all the added variables of using different supplies.  

Some painting styles can be learned and even finalized with student paints, on wood pulp papers.  Pen sketches with watercolor washes, while doing urban sketching style for example, could be done this way and then scanned in as digital images.  

There are also styles where nothing else will do but good 100% cotton watercolor paper. When that’s the situation, like when you’re learning watercolor pouring, you’ll need paints in paint tubes (student grade tends to only be available in pans) because you will be making loads of paint to be able to literally pour over the watercolor paper to create the painting. And since good watercolor paper is needed, you might as well use professional grade paints and display your work or even sell your work (if you’re allowed to).  

**On a side note, don’t sell someone else’s copyrighted material without permission.  That could include the reference photo image for the composition.  I’ll talk more about copyright on later blogs.

My paint recommendations.

As far as recommendations for which paints to get, if you really just want to start with student grade paints then I tend to recommend the student grade versions from any of the professional brands.  There’s Sonnet, Winsor and Newton Cotman, Sennelier La Petite Aquarelle, Van Gogh, Akademie Aquarell, there’s many to choose from.  Just look for a professional or artist grade brand (Winsor and Newton Professional, Sennelier, Schmincke, and many others) then check for the student version of their paints.  These tend to be of higher quality than others you’ll find on Amazon.com, because they’ll tend to use lightfast pigments.

Student grade from professional brands will even sometimes have the lightfast information and use the same pigments as their artist grade paints.  They might just have some added fillers to stretch the paint and keep the prices low.  Keep in mind that student grade will probably not come in tubes of paint.  Usually they’re only available as half or full pans, so watercolor pouring would be really ridiculously annoying to try and do.

If you’re just wanting to play with paints and don’t care too much about any of the color fading, then obviously get anything you want. There’s a lot of fun to be had with glitter, reflective, UV reactive, there are sooooo many different paints out there to play with.  You can even easily make your own watercolor paints.  It is absolutely an awesome time to be an artist!

If you’re more on the professional route or I mean, technically you can be pro with any paints… but what I mean is, if you’re really looking at longest lasting paintings for your fans to hang on their walls, then I’d recommend professional paints with Arches watercolor paper, even as a beginner.  With intention, vision, and focus you’ll seriously be amazed at what you’ll be able to accomplish in a short amount of time.  

Paint color recommendations.

If you’re leaning more towards the professional grade route, as far as colors of paints, I’d start with how much you can afford.  If that means starting with one tube of professional grade paint, then so be it.  There's plenty to learn by painting monochromatically.  You would then add a second color, then another, and another as you are able to afford it.  

If you don’t want to dive in too deep with a teacher that wants you to buy 20 colors or more up front, then starting with one color that will be part of a warm or cool primary color set is actually a very decent idea when learning on your own.  

For this limited palette route, I’d recommend starting with Winsor and Newton Professional Watercolor French Ultramarine or Permanent Rose at the 37ml size, because these two colors are part of a cool primary set that’s usually a staple in everyone’s palette.  I wouldn’t start with Winsor Lemon since it’s such a light in color. 

If you can afford to buy all three, your best bet to save on price and get free shipping is probably going online to shop at Jerry’s Artarama.  I’ll provide links below.  I’m always comparing online stores, totals with tax and shipping, and will even include Jackson’s Art, which is in the UK.  You’ll be able to paint 80% of what’s out there with a good red, yellow, and blue set of colors that play nice with each other.  This means either a warm or cool set of primary colors.  Even better if you go with a split primary set with both the warm and cool, but let's not too ahead of ourselves.  I’ll discuss what all that means in later blogs.

You won’t reach super bright colors like Opera Pink or Bright Violet, (these two colors are actually fugitive paints but are used when digitally scanning or keeping the painting behind UV glass) but you’ll be able to paint portraits and landscapes, and learn color mixing like a champ.  Being limited to only 3 colors forces you to learn how to mix colors, which is an excellent practice.  Part of becoming a great artist is knowing how to mix colors and learn the importance of values. The skill of color mixing transfers to any art medium.  

Starting with 3 tubes of the largest size (usually 37mL), will probably cost over $60 just for the paints, depending on the brand, but it’s one path I’d recommend if you really want the best bang for your buck.  These large size tubes will most likely last you years, even if you paint with them daily, and they are staple colors on most everyone’s palette.  

Watercolor paints aren’t used like oils or acrylic paint where thick paint can be used for texture.  With watercolor, you’re essentially painting with tinted water.  Your job is controlling the levels of water mixed with the paint. Watercolor painting is all about water control.  You’ll be painting with very little paint, compared to other mediums.

So, even though starting with a limited palette is not how I went about my own journey with learning watercolor, it’s not a bad way to go at all.  In fact, it might even be a better way in many cases.  If you’re really on a limited budget, starting with one color and adding more as you can afford it would honestly be a decent route to take.  

My learning path.

When I found and decided on my own learning path, I jumped right into a professional grade palette of 20+ colors, which was what my teacher recommended for doing hyper realistic and mostly botanical paintings.  I have absolutely no regrets doing that.  I wasted money buying student grade paints that became chalky and confused the poop out of me, by having 48 colors and no guidance.  I was also using the wrong paper.  

Color mixing isn’t as straightforward forward as red + blue = purple.  Oh, you’ll see. I don’t know how many varieties of red there are out there and each contributes differently to the many varieties of blues, or yellows, or purples, etc.  I just wanted to get to the point and be doing amazing paintings already, not waste time so confused. 

Starting with a lot of colors this time, with a teacher, was no problem because now I have a guide that showed me step-by-step what I needed to do.  I mean, it was literally what color and how much pigment, and how thick. It is the best journey I can recommend.  This leap frogged me into achieving amazing paintings, with one small complaint.  Since I had a guide, it also had me relying heavily on guidance.  Kinda, sorta like having a GPS.  I swear I’d be completely lost without Google Maps guiding me.  I still needed to develop my own confidence with color mixing and doing things on my own.

The guided lessons did teach me color mixing, a little at a time, but if you learn to paint with one color, then go to 2, then 3, then 4, then 6, then 8, and then 12, and then 20 or more, then I think a beginner would grow to have a better at understanding of hues, values, and intensity of color. This is an option I would love to have available through my own teaching platform.

Even though I was accomplishing the paintings in tutorials like an absolute pro, and really being mind blown at what I could easily do, I still didn’t have the confidence to actually do a painting on my own.  This is the problem I want to avoid when teaching.  

I mean, yes, I guide with step-by-step instructions to accomplish complicated paintings, but what I’d also really love to have available is a course that also teaches from the ground up, with the intent on teaching you how to do all of this on your own.  My desire as a teacher is to have a course that intentionally focuses on you gaining all the skills needed to be able to go from idea to final painting like an absolute pro.

Well, I think I’ve gone off on a teaching topic tangent, so that’s enough for now.  

In summary,

I think adult beginners should not limit themselves to student grade just because they don’t feel professional. I don’t feel student grade vs artist grade paints necessarily have anything to do with what level you feel you are in.  It has more to do with the quality level of the paint and what situation they are suited for, as far as who is using them and the end result of the art piece. 

Is it for just playing around? Is it practice that will be stored away from UV light, like within a sketchbook? Will it be scanned as a digital image? Is lightfast and archival qualities important?  Are you needing to paint on higher quality paper to get the gradient effect you want to learn?  As an adult, you know not to drink the paint water, right?  Professional paints have pigments that are toxic if consumed. Student grade paints would be the correct choice if we are talking about young children using them.  These are the questions to ask that I feel are much more relevant when it comes to what grade of paints to use.

Well, I hope that’s all clearer than mud.  See you in the next post!  It’s all going to be about watercolor paint brushes for beginners, and why? 

—---- Online Shopping Links —----

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If you can swing the cost of all three in order to get free shipping, Jerry’s Arterama is a better choice.

Jerry’s Artarama - W&N Professional Watercolor as of 20230326

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Winsor Yellow 37ml at $20.99 

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