My favourite (traditional) art supplies

For the last few years I've been all about digital painting, but I haven't forgotten the good old paper and

paint. Watercolour is my all-time-favourite medium, and I've tried sooo many different types of paint, paper, masking liquid, anything you can think, concerning this medium.

I am here to share my experience!

Okay, so my all-time-favourite brand of watercolour is definitely this "Leningrad" palette.

The colours are vivid and pigmented, and behave so well on the paper. They also last forever, even if you are to use them consistently. I also feel like the value-cost ratio is pretty good.

Here is a little timelapse video, where I colour an illustration of my original character Mara the Witch, using these exact paints!

In my experience and testing, I've concluded that paper is just as important as the paint- even more! Watercolour painting is a balance between paint and paper, so I would like to share my best combo, and why I love this paper.

The Paul Rubbens watercolour paper block is quite thick, so it does't wrinkle up easy, and the texture... oh that texture! It works so well with watercolour paint, even simple colour shapes turn out very elegant and artistic. The water and pigment absorbation helps it to dry fast and keep the colours vivid. The pages are sealed together, so it is great for outdoors use and carrying in a backpack. The price is also good, as you know good paper usually is quite expensive, so I believe we're getting a good deal here too.

The Winsor and Newton pocket set attracted me with how compact it is. The little brush is also folds! And I would use the open lid as a mixing palette. It is good if you are planning to draw outside or on the go, although there are some flaws I noticed: there is no black, and the colours aren't as pigmented as the Leningrad ones. It is still very practical if you're not painting at home, and I enjoy it but I must note those two disadvantages.

Again, with the Winsor and Newton! If you are a watercolourist, at some point you would feel the need for masking liquid. You use it to cover some areas, while you're painting around them, and when it's dry- you peel it off, and colour in the blocked area. This is the best one I have tried. Even once when I left it dry on my paper for days, it still peeled off normally and didn't ruin my paper. Only flaw is the smell.. it smells really bad when you open it. But all masking liquids do, if you have found one that doesn't please let me know!

Now, at some point you might feel like jazzing things up! It's when the pearly watercolours come in. The Finetec Pearly sets offer a wide variety of different colour combos, and I also found out that you could mix them with your regular watercolours and create new pearly shades. They would really well on small details, I especially like their gold nuances. They're also very pigmented, which is something I did not expect by just looking at them. Love them!

Here's a little something I used them on, kind of overdid them on this piece though haha. Shot in the dark so you could crearly see the pearly effects.

All the paintings in this post are made by me. The materials I talk about are materials that I have bought myself and used a lot, and I am simply sharing my experience with you.