When I first started painting with watercolours, I bought everything. Every brush type, every brand, every size of paper. Within a month I had a studio full of equipment I didn't understand and a bank account that looked like I'd been robbed.
Years later, my setup is simpler — and the work is better. Here's what you actually need to get started.
Start with student paints, not artist grade
Artist-grade watercolours are beautiful, but they're expensive. As a beginner, you're learning technique — not exploiting pigment depth. A set of 12–24 student colours (Winsor & Newton Cotman, or Royal Talens Van Gogh) will give you everything you need to learn mixing, layering and wet-on-wet.
The one exception: buy at least one tube of a good artist-grade transparent yellow and a deep blue. These give the greens and purples that student mixes struggle to hit.
Brushes: you need fewer than you think
You can do almost everything with three brushes:
- A size 12 round — for washes and large areas
- A size 6 round — for mid-detail work
- A size 2 or liner brush — for fine details and signatures
I use Princeton Neptune and Winsor & Newton Professional brushes. They're not cheap, but they hold water well and keep a good point — which makes all the difference when you're trying to control a wash.
Paper is where you should spend your budget
Cheap paper is the single biggest thing that will hold you back. It buckles, it pills when you lift paint, and it dries differently depending on humidity.
The minimum I'd recommend: Fabriano Artistico 300gsm cotton rag or Bockingford 300gsm. If budget is tight, buy a single sheet and cut it into quarters — that's four practice sheets from one piece.
Avoid anything labelled "sketching paper" or "mixed media" for watercolour — it's a false economy.
What else you need
- Two jars of water (one for rinsing, one clean for mixing)
- A white ceramic palette or old plate for mixing
- A roll of masking tape to stretch paper to a board
- Good natural light — or a daylight bulb
What you can skip for now
- Masking fluid (frustrating until you understand your paints)
- Watercolour pencils (a different skill set)
- Expensive easels — a simple wooden board propped at an angle is fine
- More than 12–24 colours (you can mix almost anything from 6 good pigments)
How I'd spend £50 starting out
If someone handed me £50 and said "start from scratch," here's what I'd buy:
- Winsor & Newton Cotman 12-colour set — £12
- A set of 3 Princeton Neptune rounds — £15
- 4 sheets of Fabriano Artistico 300gsm — £8
- White ceramic palette — £5
- Masking tape, jars, pencil — £5
That leaves you £5 for your first big splurge: a tube of artist-grade Winsor Blue (green shade). Worth every penny.
The most important thing
No supply will make you a better painter. Practice will. Buy enough to start, learn the basics of water control and mixing, then upgrade when you know what you actually want from your materials.
I still use the same ceramic plate I started with. Some things don't need to change.
