Watercolour Advice from Mark Holmes

Teoh Yi Chie  at Parkablog  has been interviewing artists about their tools of the trade--sketching.

Mark Taro Holmes, an Urban Sketcher and a very good one, recently shared his tools in an interview and made a few excellent points:

About the paint:

1) try the paints out in smaller size tubes until you know you "really like" the colour.

Pentamento's watercolours

I so wish I had been given this advice years ago when I started to paint with watercolour because now I have a huge collection of paint that will undoubtedly not get used.

About the paint brushes:

He says, and I often agree, that synthetics can be as good as the best sable.

My favourite synthetics these days are the Lowes Cornell 7020  & Utrecht's 228 sabettes.  

Both these synthetics hold a good point, are easy on the hand and inexpensive.