lindenmori, but just the reblogs

Table of Contents... (use Ctrl+F to navigate)

Supplies 1a. The Paints 1b. The Brushes 1c. The Paper

Techniques

Quirks/Random Paint Observations

*This guide assumes you are planning to use watercolor for character illustration. Also, no paint/art supply companies have ever sponsored me for anything, so I only bring up brands or link to websites for reference. I tried to focus on budget-friendly supplies because I am not a big believer in more expensive materials = better art.

1a. The Paints

By looking at which paint wells have the biggest dent in them, I'd say my core watercolor palette is:

Cadmium red/Pyrrole red*

Cadmium yellow/Hansa yellow*

Quinacradone magenta/Alizarin Crimson

Dioxazine violet

Ultramarine

Cobalt turquoise/Turquoise*

Burnt sienna

Yellow ochre

Lamp black And bonus but not absolutely necessary colors are:

Juane brilliant No. 2

Lavender

Burnt umber

White gouache, white ink, or a white gel pen/acrylic paint marker for adding hilights

*Nontoxic alternative

You can purchase these as tubes or as a pan set that contains most of the colors.

I rarely, if ever, use green straight from the pan, since it tends to look unnatural for scenery. If you draw characters with green clothes or accents, you might want to keep Viridian or Sap green in your lineup.

I wouldn't recommend blowing money on professional watercolors right away. Some good starter sets are:

Cotman (by Winsor and Newton - I'm pretty sure I got mine for ~$20 USD, no idea why it's twice as much now.. I would not pay more than $25 for this)

Kuretake Gansai Tambi (there is a mini portable set, you do NOT need 50+ colors) - personal favorite

Meiliang (from Amazon)

I highly favor paints that are manufactured in East Asia (Japan/China/Korea) as they seem better suited to character illustration, both in terms of the color selection and how the paints react on the paper.

If you already have one of these introductory sets and are looking to upgrade... Holbein is my absolute favorite, but they are sooo overpriced outside of Japan. You might be able to snag a good deal on Amazon.jp depending on your exchange rate. There is also a Korean brand called Mijello that I really like, but I'm not sure how widely available it is.

If you aren't able to get those, then I would look at the professional-grade house brand from your local art store, and consider cheaper alternatives for colors like cerulean and cobalt so the texture doesn't surprise you when you're painting.

A note on safety: Many professional grade paints contain heavy metals like cadmium and cobalt. These are used because they make the paint resistant to fading, but they can be dangerous if accidentally ingested in large quantities. This is also why I recommend avoiding professional paints at first, to reduce exposure to potential toxins. To my knowledge, the following brands have 100% nontoxic paints or nontoxic options in their lineup:

Winsor and Newton (cadmium free red/yellow, but ngl I did not like how the red performed)

Kuretake (100% nontoxic)

Kusakabe (100% nontoxic, not widely available outside of Japan)

1b. The Brushes

If you have no watercolor brushes at all, a small, inexpensive synthetic set is a good starting point. Watercolor brushes come in a lot of different shapes, and I don't use all of them. My go to brushes are:

Round #0/1, 4, 6, 8 - the 0/1 is for linework, everything else is for painting details

Flat 1/2 inch - recommend synthetic squirrel or something very soft, I use it for glazing/layering paint over larger areas

Flat "bright white shader" #2, for lifting mistakes

Asian calligraphy brushes: one large, one small

The calligraphy brushes can often be found from sellers from China (I have found brushes from China have a finer point than the ones from Japan, so I would look there first). They are not terribly expensive (<$10 USD per brush) but perform extremely well. Also, because they are made of natural (animal) hair, the bristles are softer and less likely to disturb dried paint when layering. This makes them great for working on less expensive watercolor paper.

I literally bought these calligraphy brushes because I thought they were pretty, and they ended up being one of the best, most versatile brushes I own (hopefully the link works for a while, and hopefully that seller is actually selling the same product).

I know kolinski sable is supposed to be the best-of-the-best for watercolor, but because the calligraphy brushes work so well, I haven't been interested in trying it.

1c. The Paper

Watercolor paper is made of either cellulose (wood pulp) or cotton, or a blend of both.

They also have different textures, which are called "cold press", "hot press" or "fine grain", "rough grain". I recommend hot press or fine grain paper for character illustration because it is hard to do linework on rough paper.

A lot of guides will recommend that everyone start with 100% cotton paper because it handles paint better, but it is expensive. Some of my favorite budget papers are:

Canson XL watercolor paper (cellulose)

Canson XL mixed media paper (cellulose)

Fabriano Studio Hot Press (cellulose/cotton blend)

White Ibis Fine grain/hot press (cellulose/cotton blend, may not be widely available outside of Japan - rivals Arches in its ability to hold onto paint for layering imo)

Maruman croquis (cellulose, technically not even watercolor paper but takes watercolor surprisingly well. May not be widely available outside of Japan)

If you are gentle (don't push/scrub too hard with your brush) and let the layers dry, you can do a lot with cellulose paper.

Also, regardless of the weight of the paper, you should tape it down on all 4 sides when you are working so it doesn't warp.

You can buy inexpensive packs of painter's tape online or you can use washi tape (in my experience, the MT brand is the only one with enough hold to keep the paper down). Other types of tape might rip the paper.

I usually do my sketches digitally and either print them directly onto the watercolor paper or transfer them using a lightbox. If you are planning to do the same, I would recommend buying loose leaf/pads of paper and NOT blocks. Blocks are watercolor paper that come pre-glued on all 4 sides so you don't have to tape it yourself, but because the sheets are stuck together, the only way to transfer an image would be using the tracing paper-graphite technique or removing the sheet entirely. Also, pads/loose papers are cheaper.

Another note, tools I like to use for transferring lineart to watercolor paper:

Graphite pencil

Colored pencil with a harder lead (Prismacolor col-erase, red checking pencils, Uni Nano Dia colored pencil lead are all waterproof)

Print directly on paper with waterproof printer ink (check your printer for compatibility)

2) Techniques

Watercolor is unique in that it can be manipulated when wet, but creates sharp edges when dry. It is also transparent, so it can be difficult to cover up mistakes and most paintings have to be worked from light to dark.

Vocabulary for reference:

wet into wet/wet on wet: putting paint onto an already wet area of paper - Used to make smooth gradients, soft edges, underpainting

wet on dry: layering paint onto dry areas - Used for details, shading - Also used to "glaze" color, or add a tint over already painted areas

I tried taking some process photos but they grew very numerous, so I think I might upload a video of myself painting with the Cotman watercolors mentioned above and link it later.

I will also link some youtube channels that I think showcase watercolor for character art very well without doing a lot of sponsored content/supply reviews (none are in English and some aren't active, but I find watching their technique to be helpful):

airsky

so kimura

mokumoshieru

yukoring

yuyuharu

natsume lemon

tontoro

3) Quirks/Random Paint Observations

Bonus: just some observations about my paints that I have had over the years.

Dioxazine violet leans warmer in Japanese brands like Holbein and Kusakabe compared to my western watercolors

Burnt sienna leans more yellow from Holbein, more red/orange from Blick and Winsor & Newton - this is probably due to differences in soil composition - I favor the red/orange-leaning version for skin tones and for neutralizing with ultramarine

Kusakabe is the only Japanese watercolor that dries hard instead of tacky

Winsor & Newton paints seem to dry really hard, and may even crumble/fall out of the pan

Granulation means different things in Japanese and English - Granulation = paint looks grainy when it dries (good for landscape painting, not so good for fine details) - 分色 = bunshoku lit. "split color" = paint separates into different colors on the paper, like in chromatography

English definition "granulation" is far less prevalent in watercolors from East Asia, most notably in colors like cobalt teal, ultramarine, and cerulean

@joe-spookyy Ben and Socrates

@gooseontheinternet Chamomile and Beefy

@runawayy-rat Bartholomäus and Emo

@theunholystromboli Macrogryphosaurus, Xenoceratops, and Graciliraptor

@techlecticwtch Solas and Dorian

@merlyn-bane Roslyn and Rizzoli

@logictoinsanity Luna and Buttercup

@hagsthehag Orphie, Psyche, Calypso, Ariadne, and Eury

my sweet ladies Bonnie, Mira, An, and Tula

and of course, the irreplaceable

Neil,