Watercolor Painting for Beginners

Dates of Class: Tuesdays, November 4, 2025 - December 16, 2025

POSSIBILITY OF AN INTERMEDIATE CLASS TO FOLLOW STARTING SHORTLY AFTER THIS CLASS IS OVER.

Time: 6pm - 8pm

Open to anyone 16 years old or older

Cost:

$270 for watercolor class - bring your own supplies

-OR-

$295 for watercolor class- rent supplies in class ($25 covers renting supplies for the entire course).

This class teaches you the traditional methods of handling transparent watercolor in representational painting. You will learn how to control watercolor through washes and glazes, creating soft edges, using wet-in-wet techniques and using dry-brush. You will also learn how to work with the time constraints of the medium through a simplification of value shapes: a key to success in watercolor.

You may buy your own supplies or rent them for an additional $25.00 (this will supply you for the entire class).

If you choose to buy your own supplies, please see the following list:

 You will be provided with provide paper towels and water containers.
PAINTS
Tube paints are preferable.
Paint colors you will need:
- alizarin crimson
- cadmium yellow
- viridian green (or phthalocyanine green, or Winsor green, depending on
brand)
- ultramarine blue and/ or cobalt blue
Professional-quality brands (such as Winsor and Newton Professional, Daniel Smith,
will run you $15-20 a tube. You won’t need more than the smallest tubes (5 ml) for
this class. You can start with lower quality, and they may have different names than
the traditional ones above (like "primary yellow" or "sky blue.") I only ever work
with tube paints so I can control my own palette more. Otherwise, you can get cakes,
which are just dried tube paints already set in pans.
Students who are renting supplies from me will be using student grade watercolors.
A good student grade option is the Windor and Newton Cotman series. The below
set has everything you need but viridian green, so add a tube of Cotman Viridian
Green as well.

*Please try to place your paints in your palette at least 1 night before class meets.
Wet paints fresh from the tube are hard to work with. See my palette below, and
try to place the paints you buy in the same wells that I have put mine in - Leave
empty the wells that you do not yet have paints for; this will allow you to add
colors to your palette in the correct order if you choose to try other colors in future:

PLASTIC PALETTE
- Preferable one that folds:

BRUSHES
- One large round brush size 10-14, like the Daler Rowney Simply Simmons
Synthetic Round Acrylic/ Multimedia Brush, Size 12
- One small round brush size 6-8

The traditional top quality brush is made of kolinsky sable hair. Especially for
beginners I would work with synthetic (as opposed to real) animal hair. Sable hair is
preferred by many watercolor painters because it is firm (unlike squirrel hair) but
not stiff (unlike bristle); however, squirrel hair is a usable, affordable alternative to
sable and may be a better option than a synthetic brush. Squirrel hair holds more
water than a synthetic brush, resolving a problem for most beginner watercolorists;
however, students with shaky hands may do better with the control of a stiffer
synthetic (or real) sable brush.

PAPER
- About 9” x 12” heavy mixed media paper, such as this set (Canson XL
Watercolor Series textured paper pad, 140 lb, 30 sheets, 9”x12”)

Eventually you will want 100% cotton paper, which is what professional quality
papers are made of and more reliable to use. That being said, it’s expensive, so to
give yourself the freedom for lots of practice I recommend just buying heavy (at
least 90 lb) paper that's called "mixed media" paper
PENCIL (and sharpener)
PENCIL (and sharpener)
ERASER
Optional:
- masking tape

- a board slightly larger than your paper such as a chip board or a board taken
from the back of a sketchbook.