Tools of the Trade: Watercolor

Here's what's going on in my studio.

Right now I'm mainly working on watercolors and these are the "tools" I use.

Arches Watercolor Blocks, I can't tell you how nice it was to find that there was an alternative to taping down your own watercolor paper or not taping down your own paper and having it buckle. Watercolor blocks are pads of prestreched paper and Arches is some of the best watercolor paper I know of.

Windsor Newton Series 7 sable brushes; it took a long time for me to accept that I could make better work with quality materials. It seems natural now that poor quality materials will not make something high quality just through sheer artistic talent, that if you want to make something great it seems only right to start out with quality.


Another wonderful type of brush is a Hake (pronounced ha-ke); Windsor Newton Series 7 brushes are wonderful, but they are also expensive (justifiably so) and more than that, if you want a very large brush there is not only a large price but a waiting list; hake brushes are another solution to the problem. Hake are Japanese brushes made of soft natural hairs and are much more affordable.