Introduction to Watercolour Tools
Masking Fluid
Masking fluid feels a bit like craft glue. It can be painted onto dry paper and left to dry so that it forms a hard-to-move mask in areas of your painting.
Masking fluid is great when you want to paint very fine lines, such as the rigging on boats, or highlights in foliage. Once you’ve finished painting and it’s dry, you can delicately peel the masking fluid away to reveal the white of the paper. Masking fluid can be applied with a brush, a fine point such as a colour shaper, or a ruling pen.
Masking Fluid Applicators
There are many ways to apply masking fluid. Most of them are good for applying relatively fine lines, as this is generally what masking fluid is used for. Whatever you use to apply your masking fluid, always remember to wash it thoroughly after use. Masking fluid is very tricky to clean from tools once it has dried.
Ruling Pen
A ruling pen is traditionally used in technical drawing. It is a metal tool made up of two spokes with an adjustable cog in between. This cog allows you to adjust the distance between them.
When you dip your ruling pen into masking fluid, it sits between the two spokes, and as you drag the pen across paper, the masking fluid is fed onto the paper. This leaves a line the width of the set distance between the spokes.
Brushes
A brush can be the preferred tool for applying masking fluid, as the marks you make with the masking fluid will be similar to the marks you make with your brush when applying the watercolour itself.
We suggest that you use synthetic brushes to apply masking fluid, and a separate brush to the brushes you use to paint. This is just in case the fluid hardens in the hair. A cheap brush will do the job! You can work a pea-sized amount of washing up liquid into the hairs of your brush before you use it to protect it from the masking fluid. But you still shouldn't use your best brush for this activity.
Alternatively, you may want to use the end of the handle to apply masking fluid, or move it around on the paper to make very fine, intricate marks with it.
Colour Shapers and the Double Ended Blender
Colour shapers have a brush-like handle and a plastic or rubber tip of varying softness/hardness on the end. Artists use them to move colour around on a surface, for blending, or burnishing. They are popular among pastel painters and those who work in pencil.
Colour shapers are great for applying masking fluid. Simply dip in the fluid and drag the nib across your paper to deposit the fluid where you want it.
Masquepen and Supernib
The Masquepen is a handy product composed of a bottle of masking fluid with a nib attached. Squeeze the plastic bottle very gently to push the fluid out of the nozzle and create flowing, even lines of masking fluid.
The Super Nib is even smaller. It is used to create very fine lines and fits on the regular masquepen bottles. After use, fill the empty bottle with water and attach it to the nib so that you can squeeze water through the nozzle and rinse it through. This helps to prevent any clogging.
Sponges
A sponge can be used to lift wet colour from a painting. This is done to lighten the tone of a brushmark or to remove it completely. Watercolour is rewettable, so applying clean water to a section of painting will allow you to remove some of the paint if you then dab the area with a clean sponge.
A sponge is also useful for blotting a loaded brush. This helps to reduce how much paint will be deposited with your brushmark. If you get into stretching your own paper, a sponge is great for removing excess water from the gum-stripped edges of your paper.
Natural sponges are more absorbent than synthetic types. This makes them a great tool to use with watercolour paint. The irregular texture of natural sponges also makes them more interesting to work with.
Watercolour Palettes
You can use an extra palette in addition to the palette area found in most watercolour paint boxes. This will provide you with more room for colour mixing. If you want your colour mixes on another day, or if you need to transport your colours, a palette with a lid will protect your mixed paint, as well as offer even more palette space.
All watercolour palettes have at least some wells. These are for squeezing tubes of colour out into. They also help to ensure that the colours do not run into one another. Watercolour palettes are most often made with plastic and ceramic.
Water Pots
You will need a pot of water in which to rinse brushes when changing colours, or at the end of a session. While a glass jar is perfectly usable at home, you might like to reduce the weight of your load if going elsewhere to paint.
There are a number of collapsible water pots available. These fold compactly back into your kit bag at the end of your painting session.
A larger, multi-compartment brush washer is useful in the studio. This gives you an area of water to wash your brush in and an area of clean water to mix with paint.
Watercolour Wheels
Colour wheels are a handy, quick tool for learning about colour and tonal theory. They are a great help for beginners who want to get to grips with the concepts. A colour wheel will have the colours laid out so that complementary colours are opposite one another. The primary colours of red, yellow, and blue are spaced out evenly around the circle.
A colour wheel can help you learn the ideas about primary, secondary, and tertiary colours. Many of the wheels also show a greyscale chart. This helps with reading tone, both in your painting and in your subject matter.
Colour wheels can be found in our Composition Tools category. You can also explore Color Wheel Company products.
Watercolour Easels
What is the Difference Between a Sketching Easel, a Studio Easel, and a Table Easel?
Watercolour easels come in many different forms to suit where and how you like to work:
Field or Sketching Easels: Lightweight, foldable, and easy to carry. Great for outdoor painting or small spaces.
Studio Easels: Sturdy and stable. Ideal for indoor use and with larger canvases. Available in H-frame, A-frame, and radial designs.
Table Easels: Compact and convenient. Great for seated work or limited space. Also useful as a second easel in the studio.
Field and Sketching Easels
Field and sketching easels are easily folded and lightweight. They do not take up a lot of room. These easels are designed to be taken out of doors for painting 'en plein air'.
These easels have their limitations, even for landscape painting. For example, a field easel will hold your work, but they are often not very wind-resistant. We suggest you don't paint in very breezy conditions! These easels are great for taking on painting trips because they are so portable.
Some field and sketching easels are known as ‘box easels’. These have a special compartment for carrying all your paints and brushes. The lid acts as the canvas support for the easel. Box easels are also great to help make sure you do not leave any important art materials behind.
Field and sketching easels can also be ideal for painters who work in a space often used for something else. For example, a storage room at home. This is because the easel can easily be folded and stored when it is not required. They are stable enough to hold small to medium works on paper, canvas, or panel. However, they are not suited to larger works. Anything larger than half imperial on paper is a bit of a risk on a field easel.
Studio Easels
Studio easels are much heavier than field or sketching easels. They are designed for indoor use only. Studio easels can hold a greater range of different sized canvases and supports. They are most often made as an H-frame or an A-frame easel.
An H-frame easel tends to be sturdier and heavier than an A-frame easel. The base is made up of three wooden bars that make an ‘H’ shape that lays flat on the floor. This makes it very difficult to push the easel over. The heavier H-frame easels have wheels fixed to their bases to make them easier to move around.
A-frame easels are so called because they have three bars of wood assembled in an ‘A’ shape, with the cross bar forming the canvas ledge. A third wooden leg props the structure upright. The A-frame easel becomes less stable the more upright it is, so it is best used at an angle for maximum stability (i.e., a good distance between the back leg and the front legs).
A-frame easels are easily folded up, making them easy to store. this is why they are popular with art schools, groups, and classes. The base of an H-frame easel makes them more difficult to set up back to back in a painting class. A-frames have no such issue, so it is easy to have easels back to back. This helps to make the most of the space you have available for working in as part of a group.
Radial easels are just as good a solution to maximising space in an art class or group as A-frame easels. This is because the base is made of three wooden bars that act as feet that touch the ground with equal distance between each foot. At the top of the three bars is the central canvas support. Because the base does not consist of bars that lie flat on the floor, it makes it very easy to store easels in their assembled position in the corner of a studio when they are not in use. It is also very easy to position them back to back in a very limited space.
The only downside of radial easels is that they can be easy to push backward by accident. If not screwed tightly enough to the base, the central column of the easel can easily be knocked back, distorting the working angle. This is easily fixed by tightening the screws as best you can, and working with care.
Table Easels
Table easels are a useful piece of equipment if your space is limited. They can also offer an affordable ‘second easel’ in a larger studio. This is great if you want to keep more than one artwork on an easel at any one time and work on them simultaneously. Table easels are designed to be used by artists who like to work sitting down.
There are a number of different styles of table easel. This includes H-frame easels, book stand easels (which can also handily double up as a cookery book stand if you happen to paint in your kitchen!) and tripod easels (less sturdy but lighter and great for display purposes).
In addition to these, there are also box table easels. These are essentially box field easels but without the telescopic legs. They allow you to handily store your art materials with your easel, helping to ensure that none of your art materials go missing and stay with your easel.
Mabef Pochade boxes make it easy to paint small panels in the landscape. They have a handy storage box for your paints and brushes. The lid opens to reveal clips under which you can secure your panel for painting. The box will fit on most camera tripods. There are also separate wooden legs available that fit the pochade boxes. These are available in two sizes. Pochade boxes can also be used like a regular table box easel and placed on a table top for use in your home or studio.
Want to find out more about easels? Read our Ultimate Easel Guide.
Dippers
A dipper is a little pot that can be very useful for painters. They hold small quantities of water or medium. You can clip them to the side of a flat surface, such as a wooden palette.
A dipper is usually small so they are practical for painting en plein air. Larger sizes are available if you need more water or medium, for example, if you are working on a large scale or using a lot of broad washes in your work.
Plastic Pans
At Jackson’s, we sell empty half pans and empty full pans. You can squeeze your tubes of colour into these small plastic receptacles and carry them in one of the watercolour boxes that we have to offer. This can be useful if you are using a colour you have mixed yourself over a number of painting sessions.
Transfer Paper
Transfer paper is an easy and clever way of transposing an image to paper prior to painting. It is also known as graphite paper, carbon paper, or Tracedown. You can transfer any image with transfer paper. For example, you can use a magazine photo, a photo you have taken, or a drawing or a painting you have already made. The world is your oyster!
The transfer paper we sell is a graphite-coated sheet of very thin paper that is free from wax. The fact that it is wax-free means that the lines of graphite that you deposit on your paper will not resist the watercolour you apply over the top. The graphite is easily removed with an eraser, just like any pencil mark.
How to Use Transfer Paper
Place the sheet of graphite paper messy side down onto your watercolour paper and secure it with masking tape. Ensure that it is relatively taut (no waves in the transfer paper). Then, tape your image on top of the graphite paper.
Your image needs to be the exact size that you would like it, and it needs to be positioned on the paper in exactly the right place. If your image is not the size you would like it to be, you may wish to scan and enlarge it, or reduce it on a computer or with the use of a photocopier.
Using a sharp pencil, draw around the lines of the image. Make sure that you don’t miss out any important details. The pressure of the pencil will push the graphite of the transfer paper onto the watercolour paper, depositing a line. The greater the amount of pressure applied, the darker the line on the watercolour paper. Most painters do not want too dark a line, just a very faint guide. Using a light touch with a mechanical pencil will enable you to draw the composition faintly with fine lines.
After use, store your transfer paper carefully to avoid it smudging somewhere you would not want it to smudge. We suggest wrapping the paper in glassine. You can also roll it up and place it in a cardboard tube to avoid unnecessary mess.
Spray Diffuser Bottle
A spray diffuser bottle can be filled with dilute watercolour paint and sprayed onto work to create misty, airbrush-like effects. Remember to mask off areas where you don’t want the spray to appear.
It is a good idea to test that the spray is not clogged away from your work before you start spraying onto the painting. This will also enable you to work out how much pressure you need to apply. Rinse after use to prevent the spray from clogging.
You might also like to use the spray bottle to spray clean water or medium onto your work. If you are spraying on just-applied watercolour, which has not yet dried, the water or medium will break the colour down and create interesting effects.
Also, by spraying onto an area of paint that has not yet dried, you may be able to prolong the working time of the colour. This can make it easier to lift the colour from the paper using a sponge, should you need to.
Glossary
B
Blending
The fusing of two colour planes with one another in such a way that there are no hard edges. In watercolour, this is easily done with a wet brush dipped in either water or gum arabic.
Brush Soap / Conditioner
Used to clean and preserve natural hair brushes. This keeps them soft and helps to maintain their shape.
C
Ceramic Palette
Heavy, non-staining mixing surfaces. Provides a neutral colour background. Does not warp or bead like plastic palettes.
Colour Strength
Colour strength refers to the ratio of pigment to binder; it is the pigment load.
D
Droppers / Pipettes
Tools for adding controlled amounts of water to paint or paper. Great for wet-on-wet effects.
Dry Brush Technique
When paint that is relatively dry is applied with a dry brush to paper. The effect is chalky and saturated in colour. Ideal for adding texture.
F
Flat Wash
The use of a single diluted colour to cover the white of the paper. It is applied in a relatively unsaturated and uniform manner.
Fugitive Colour
Refers to non-lightfast paints, such as Opera Rose, which may fade or distort when exposed to light.
G
Glazed Wash
A dilute colour applied across a dry watercolour painting to tint the surface. You should consider how the glaze hue will affect the layers below.
Gum Arabic
A gum from species of the acacia tree. It is used as a binder in watercolour paints. Gum arabic is also used as a medium to increase transparency and gloss.
M
Masking Fluid
Applied to mask areas of the paper before painting. Once dry, it can be peeled off to reveal white paper. Also known as liquid frisket.
Mass Tone
The appearance of a colour straight from the tube.
O
Opacity / Transparency
Refers to how much light can pass through the pigment particles. Opaque colours cover underlying marks, while transparent colours allow them to show through.
Traditionally, watercolour painting was a transparent painting method. It is the white of the paper that acts as the white in your work. However, it is now common for painters to use white gouache or Chinese white watercolour in a painting. This is often done as a finishing touch or highlight.
White gouache can also be tinted with transparent watercolour and painted with. It is often referred to as ‘body colour’ due to its opacity.
P
Plastic Pans
Small plastic containers used to hold paint squeezed from tubes. Perfect for keeping your colours neat and tidy. Great for creating palettes you can take with you when you travel.
Portable Water Containers / Brush Washers
Foldable or divided containers. Used for rinsing brushes and keeping your water clean while you paint. Easy to use and great for staying tidy as you work.
S
Spray Mister / Atomiser
Used to keep paints wet for longer or to slow down drying time. Helpful for bringing dried washes back to life. Great for creating soft, atmospheric effects.
Stretching Boards
Rigid surfaces that are used for stretching watercolour paper. This helps to prevent the paper from buckling.
T
Tilt / Adjustable Boards
Surfaces you can tilt to suit your needs. Angling the surface helps with posture and gives you control over paint and washes.
Tear-Off Palettes
Coated sheets of paper for mixing paint. They make cleanup quick and easy - just tear off and throw away when you're done.
Transfer Paper
Helps you copy a design onto your painting surface before you start. Also known as Tracedown, graphite paper, or carbon paper.
U
Under Tone
The colour of paint when it’s used in a thin layer. It shows how transparent or see-through the paint can be.
W
Waterbrush
A portable brush with a built-in water reservoir. Great for sketching and painting on the go.
Watercolour Easels
These easels can often be tilted flat to stop paint washes from running. Field, studio, and table easels are made for different spaces and ways of painting.
Watercolour Mediums
Additives that change how your paint looks and behaves. For example, gum arabic will increase transparency and gloss.
Watercolour Wheels
Charts that help you learn about colour theory and tonal values. They’re great for learning how colours work together.
Weights / Clips
Tools that are used to secure sheets while working, especially outdoors.