Whether dabbling delicate florals, dreary cityscapes or abstract whimsy, experimenting with brilliant watercolour paints transports artistry for expressive escapism and mindfulness. As the glow from juicy pigments unleashes your inner muse, the saturated magic of watercolours remains unparalleled. From buttery student palettes to luxe artist sets with dynamic hues spanning the rainbow, find your perfect aquatic paints. Then pick up a brush to dive passionately into nature’s kaleidoscope, emotions’ depths, or fantastical dimensions limited only by imagination itself!
1. Types of Watercolour Paints
- Pans – Dry, solid watercolour cakes set in a palette. Must be wetted before use. Great for travelling and convenient mixing.
- Tubes – Moist watercolour paint contained in metal tubes like acrylics. Smooth application with intense colour. Requires palettes for mixing.
- Liquid watercolours – Extremely fluid-concentrated watercolours with intense staining abilities, sometimes used as inks or washes.
- Pencils – Colored pencils containing water-soluble cores. Allow precise dry application then water-blending for washed effects.
- Honey-based paints – Use honey as a binder for lush application, vibrant colour and smooth washes. Appealing natural option.
- Gouache – Opaque, a heavier-bodied cousin of watercolors allowing solid color layering like acrylics. Popular for graphic painting/mixed media.
- Staining vs. Non-Staining – Staining watercolours seep into pores for long-lasting colour; non-staining sit atop paper so are resettable/adjustable.
With myriad forms from portable pans to fluid inks, select watercolour types aligning with your preferences for portability, texture, opacity and more.
2. Essential Supplies for Watercolour Painting
Paints – Watercolor paint options include tubes, pans, pencils or liquid watercolours. Focus on professional-grade paints for better pigmentation and mixing. Build a primary color palette then expand over time.
Brushes – A variety of brush types aids different techniques. Look for pointed rounds in small, medium and large plus flats in sizes like 1/2-inch and 1-inch. Natural hair bristles are best.
Paper – Favor thick 100% cotton cold-pressed watercolour paper over wood pulp for durability, texture tooth and minimizing buckling. Stretching paper beforehand also helps. Blocks make painting easy.
Palette – Porcelain, ceramic or enamelled metal palettes resist stains. Include deep wells and a large mixing area. Disposable paper/plastic palettes offer convenience.
Water containers – Have a few containers on hand for clean water as well as dirtier rinse water. Glass jam jars work.
Rags/paper towels – Keep paper towels or soft rags around for quickly dabbing up excess water and pigment spills.
Easel – A sturdy tabletop easel keeps paper properly angled. Affordable lightweight aluminum options are easily portable for plein air painting.
Start with high-quality paints, brushes and paper suited to your skill level. Build out other accessories over time for a customized watercolour painting setup.
3. Best watercolour paints at WHSmith
1. WHSmith Watercolour Colouring Pencils (Pack of 24)
Unlock effortless colour-shifting magic with WHSmith’s luminous watercolour pencils, introducing a seamless blend of pencils and watercolour paints, packing 24 richly pigmented shades from sunbeam yellows to midnight blues. Simply sketch, paint flowing watercolour washes, and then watch tones shift gorgeously.
2. Royal & Langnickel Mixed Media Art Set
Royal & Langnickel Mixed Media Set – This versatile art toolkit pairs 24 pan watercolours, ideal for artists exploring a range of techniques with watercolour paints, alongside graphite and charcoal pencils for blended media brilliance. Flip between delicately dabbing florals then sharply sketching still lifes as creativity flows unfiltered.
3. Faber-Castell Creative Studio Watercolour Pan Paints 24 Colour Set Includes Water Brush
Faber-Castell Studio Paints – Faber-Castell’s brilliant paste watercolours squeezed into this sleek metal set offer buttery application and dazzling colour intensity perfect for igniting student creativity. The included water brush speeds up vibrant washes.
4. Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolour Set of 20x5ml Paint Tubes
Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolors – Budding watercolourists will fall for Winsor & Newton’s luscious Cotman tube colours — delivering rich, velvety hues far beyond student-grade quality at an affordable price, especially bundled in this set of 20 essential shades.
5. Daler-Rowney Simply Watercolour 25-Piece Set
Daler-Rowney Simply Watercolors – Daler-Rowney simplifies getting started with watercolor painting through this accessible set providing 25 essentials from high-flow pigments to precision brushes. The colour-mixing visual guide unlocks masterly colour blending too.
6. Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolour Travel Tin 12 Tubes
Winsor & Newton Professional Travel Set – Winsor & Newton cram 12 half-pan Artist Quality watercolours, catering to artists seeking the finest in watercolour paints, known for exceptional handling, into this portable tin box perfect for painting en plein air or laying washes during daily urban sketching adventures.
7. Caran d’Ache Gouache Studio Paint Tubes (Pack of 5)
Caran d’Ache Gouache Paints – Experiment with opacity using Caran d’Ache’s ultra-pigmented modern gouache paints, perfect for artists exploring the vibrant world of watercolour paints. These paints layer gorgeously without cracking, and their thicker consistency makes them ideal for precise graphic renderings too.
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Conclusion
Lay bare paper’s potential magic with the liquid dance of watercolour paints, as vivid pigments merge, flow and meld into artistic visions. Let the right set from WHSmith unleash your untapped creativity, may the splashy wonders of watercolours release inner worlds, manifest meaning and ignite a new passion for artistic liberation. For more information on watercolour paint sets visit TheWebHunting.
