Water Colour Paints

Create Beautiful Artworks With Watercolour Paints From Spotlight

Watercolour paints are a wonderful medium, known for creating soft and flowing artworks with beautiful translucency and layering of colours. They're highly water soluble, meaning that clean up is always a breeze. Perfect for creating landscapes or seascapes, they're also a gorgeous medium for portraiture or abstract artwork. At Spotlight, you can find watercolour paints in both tube and tablet form from well-known brands such as Reeves and Jasart. Whether you're a beginner to the art of watercolour painting or an experienced art professional, you can find the perfect watercolours and watercolour essentials for any art project you have in mind.

What Materials Do I Need To Start Painting With Watercolours?

To start creating watercolour art, you will need just a few basic supplies:

• Watercolour Paper: The right paper is essential when it comes to creating watercolour artwork. Watercolour paper is specially designed with thickness and construction that accommodates repeated application of water washes and layering of paints. Don't be tempted to use regular drawing paper as it will buckle, and the smoother surface of other art papers won't show the pigments of watercolours to their best advantage.
• Paint Brushes: At Spotlight, we have a huge variety of brushes to choose from, and they come in many sizes, shapes and materials. Choose a range of different brushes to work with your watercolour paints - think large, flat brushes for quickly applying large areas of washes, and smaller round brushes to add fine detail.
• Paint Palette: Choose a plastic paint palette for watercolour painting, particularly if you're using watercolours in tube form. Palettes are essential for being able to mix a variety of different colours. Even if you favour tablet or cake forms of watercolours, being able to mix a range of tones on a separate palette can take your artwork to the next level.

Watercolour Paints FAQs

How to use watercolour paints

The way you'll apply your watercolour paints will differ slightly when using them in cake form or tube form. If your watercolour paint is in tablet form, wet your paint brush and swirl over the surface to start dissolving the paint. For tube watercolours, squeeze out a tiny amount of paint onto your palette and add water a few drops at a time to loosen the paint. Remember, the more water you add, the lighter the wash colour will be on your paper. You can paint onto wet or damp paper to create delicate effects, or onto dry paper to create bolder lines and vivid colours. The nature of watercolours are flowing and organic, so lean into what the paints want to do - and don't be afraid to experiment!

How to mix watercolour paints

You can blend colours in a few ways with watercolour paints. Using your palette, you can mix paints from the tube and then add water. You can also mix colours in cake form by taking an activated amount of each paint colour and blending them together on your palette. It's also possible to "mix" colours by layering them up on your artwork - wait for one wash to dry before applying another transparent colour on top to adjust the tonal quality of your artwork. For more details on creating the right shades for your artwork, you can read our informative article on how to mix paint colours.

• Hot Tip #1: Keep a scrap of paper aside to try out your mixed colours before applying them to your artwork, as the tones can sometimes look different on the palette vs paper.
• Hot Tip #2: If you find your watercolour washes are "beading" up on your plastic palette, try scuffing up the surface slightly with a piece of fine grit sandpaper.

Watercolour paints vs watercolour pencils: What's the difference?

Aside from the basic differences between the two (i.e. shape), there's really not much difference in finished artworks created with watercolour paints vs watercolour pencils. The core difference is in the application of the medium. Watercolour pencils are applied and blended on the paper while dry, before wetting the surface to create the watercolour effect. Watercolour paints are typically applied onto wet or damp paper, and are always mixed with water before the artist painting starts. Find out more about how to use watercolour pencils here!

Shop Watercolour Paints & Art Supplies At Spotlight

Spotlight has an extensive selection of art supplies, catering to all ages and skill levels across a range of mediums. You can find sorts of paint & painting supplies, canvases & boards, drawing supplies, art pads & visual diaries and much, much more! Discover the whole range in-store, or choose to shop online and enjoy the convenience of home delivery for all your online orders. You can explore our Create blogs for some wonderful art and craft inspiration too. Spotlight VIP members enjoy exclusive discounts and benefits like early access to sales events, so if you're not already a member make sure you sign up today!