If you’re wondering what you need to start watercolor painting, the good news is that you only need a few basic supplies. This blog post contains affiliate links.
Buy the essentials to get started and add to your watercolor supplies as you practice because what you end up needing can vary depending on what subjects you want to paint and your personal painting style.
Skip straight to my Amazon Storefront for Watercolor Supplies For Beginners Recommendations.
The Essential Watercolor Supplies for Beginners
You need 3 basic things to get started: 1) Watercolor Paint. 2) Watercolor Brush. 3.) Watercolor paper.
And of course, you need a glass or jar of clean water to activate your paints and clean your brush between paint colors. You will also want to have handy paper towels or reusable towel to dab and dry your brush.
Best Watercolor Paints for Beginners: 3 Options for Different Budgets
The watercolor paints you use make a big difference in how you will learn to use watercolor paint and how your artwork looks when you finish. You don’t need the most expensive paints, but you can balance quality with cost.
Low Cost Option: Beginner All-in-One Watercolor Set
Artistro All-in-One Watercolor Set
Why: An option for beginners who want lots of colors and accessories in one package. This is a convenient choice that includes paints and brushes. Watercolor Paper is NOT included.
Mid-Cost Option: Beginner Traditional Starter Set
Why: An established brand student-grade paint range for learning washes, blending, and basic color mixing. Beginners can upgrade to the Winsor & Newton brand artist grade paints.
Highest Cost Option: Best Artist-Grade Option
Why: A small, professional quality set for anyone who wants to learn color mixing with artist-grade pigments from the beginning.
NOTE: You will need a paint palette to use with the tube paints. I recommend this inexpensive plastic palette or a ceramic paint palette.
What Brushes Do Beginners Need?
Start with 1 to 3 watercolor brushes in different sizes (small, medium, large) and see what you need from there as you progress in painting.
For me, the basic most useful ones are small detail brush like Princeton round #2, a Princeton #6 round brush, and a larger round brush #10 or #12 can cover a lot of uses.
These three sizes are very commonly used in beginner watercolor tutorials found online. If you can only pick one size to get started, pick a size #6 round.
Choosing Watercolor Paper
For best results, watercolor teachers and professional artists recommend 100% cotton watercolor paper. Arches brand watercolor paper is widely considered to be one of the top brands. It is fairly expensive, so I have some cheaper paper options to recommend, too.
Luckily, I have found some great budget friendly watercolor paper options for watercolor practice. They may not be 100% cotton, but they do work very well for practice.
Budget-friendly watercolor papers I have found to do a good job are Canson XL Series, Meeden, Baohung, and Fabriano Artistico.
I do think it is worth it to practice on the more expensive watercolor paper when possible to see how it performs. It really can improve the look of your watercolor paintings because the paper quality makes a difference.
Budget Watercolor Paper Hack: I purchased a pack of Arches paper cut it into smaller sizes so I could make lots of tiny paintings about 2 inches by 3 inches instead of one big painting. It’s a great way to practice on expensive paper without blowing a budget.
Watercolor Beginners: How To Get Started
Once you have watercolor paint, brush, and paper, you are ready to begin your watercolor artist journey! Get started by following along with beginner watercolor tutorials online (YouTube has a ton!). Or, find a local art studio and take in person class, get a beginner watercolor skills book (buy one or check one out for free at the library, or just use your imagination and start experimenting with your new supplies.
