Sketch Your Adventures

Recommended Art Supplies

Pencil
Any standard pencil. I prefer B or 2B as they are easiest to erase from the watercolour paper. Always be careful when erasing as you don’t want to ruin the surface of the page.

Pens
Must be waterproof! Usually states this on the barrel. I recommend fineliners to start out with. Any brand is fine. Popular brands are: Pigma Micron, UniPin, Copic, etc.
I recommend a thin size, such as 0.2 or 0.3 and a thicker one from 0.5 upwards to 0.8. You can buy packs with all different sizes which may help you find your preference. Here is an example of a pack.

Watercolour Sets
Artist grade or high-quality student set is preferred. 12 colours is a good size. Here are some good examples to investigate:
Rosa Gallery
Roman Szmal
White Nights

Watercolour Paper
Canson XL watercolour pad – I use this inside the course – perfectly adequate for learning with.

Watercolour Brushes
One big(ish) one such a size #10 or #12 round
One small(ish) one such as a size #4 or #6 round
Optional: 1/2 inch flat brush
Brushes can range from the insanely cheap (avoid) to the incredibly expensive (you can also avoid).
You could get a set like this to ascertain your preference, or you could buy some brushes individually. I don’t have the specific brushes I linked to but I do have some travel brushes in the same brand and they are very reasonable for the price.

In my opinion, your paper and paint are the most important elements, brushes less so but still avoid the bargain basement stuff.

Black brush pen
Make sure it has waterproof ink!!
Disposable version – brands like Pigma Micron and Copic have brush pen variants of their fineliner pens
Refillable version that will (probably) last forever. I have had mine for 10 years and counting.

White Gel Pen
None of them are perfect but these are probably the best two:
Uniball Signo (must be “Broad”) – this is my preferred choice
Sakura Gelly Roll (recommend size 10)
Always go for the thickets / broadest gel pen as there is less chance of the nib clogging up. Fine pens are useless.