Recommended Materials for New Students

My Palette

I use a large palette produced by NEEF. It has plenty of paint wells for my colours, some of these wells I leave empty so I can use them for mixing colours in addition to the four main mixing areas in the centre of the palette.

Here is a picture of it:

As you can see it originally came with three mixing areas in the centre but I divided one into two (to give me four in total) with the help of some glue.

Overall I like this palette as it can hold lots of pigment and also give me many areas for mixing.

My Paints

My must have paints are as follows and are laid out roughly in my palette in order of the colour wheel:

Cerulean Blue                                    This is a cool blue. Granulating, Semi Opaque,

Cobalt Blue                                         A relatively pure, Granulating, Semi Transparent

French Ultramarine                         A warm blue, Granulating, Transparent

Permanent Alizarin Crimson        A cool red. Produces a beautiful purple when mixed with French Ultramarine. Staining, Transparent

Cadmium Red                                    A warm red. Granulating, Staining and Opaque

Cadmium Orange                             I use this for certain sunsets and to grey off the blues. Opaque.

Cadmium Yellow Light                    A warm yellow. Opaque,Staining.

Aureolin                                               A cool yellow. Transparent, Staining.

Yellow Ochre                                     A relatively opaque, yellow earth colour. Semi Opaque.

Raw Sienna                                         Similar colour to Yellow Ochre but more transparent. Transparent, Granulating.

Raw Umber                                        Brown colour with green tinge, used in painting trees and foregrounds. Transparent, Granulating

Burnt Sienna                                      Orange brown colour – mixes a great dark with used with Ultramarine Blue. Transparent.

Viridian                                                 My only green which I use when painting waves. Transparent, Granulating.

Cobalt Turquoise                              I use this when painting the water around Venice, can produce a bright green when mixed. Semi Opaque, Granulating.

Brushes

Brand :  NEEF

Series:  4750-LP

Sizes:     24, 16, 12, 10, 6

Paper

Brand:   Arches 300gsm Rough

Backing Board

Plywood or other light material to tape paper onto

Miscellaneous Items

Masking tape, small plastic water bucket or container (about 1 litre in size), 2B pencil and neadable eraser