Basic Watercolour Kit

[@noelnicholls3622]

I am 80 and just starting out with water colour after being a tapestry weaver for a few years ( retirement seems to be upping my creativity. ) I have just discovered your classes and am most impressed with your teaching. Very inspiring. Thank you

[@naturesketches126]

I just found your channel. I never hit the subscribe button so fast before! Your content is delightful and I'm looking forward to more videos. Thank you for taking the time to share. Much appreciated.

[@4merivale]

I struggled so much with the medium until I found your videos. You explain clearly and simply. I am actually making progress now.

[@YuanZ-ry6du]

thank you for your videos! i appreciate your genuinity as well as your art!

[@GM-yn9nc]

Your art is beautiful and I appreciate that you share your expertise with us. Look forward to seeing more from your channel. Thank you!

[@montygemma]

Thanks. I liked the advice about the quality of paint as I know so many people who worry about it. I always tell them to look at work by Turner, Rowland Hilder, Stanley Badmin, and John Piper and then I remind them that these painters used colours that were probably inferior to the Aquafine and Van Gogh paints of today.

[@oliverpyle-ourlandscape4442]

Quite right Adrian

[@michaelwadge1436]

Just a quick note, I have just this last week found your videos and I have been painting now for 18months, very frustrating but I am improving, tend to put too much paint on and just realised after seeing your paintings, so that has helped me. Hope it can help others if they have the same problem. I am a cabinet maker so I should of realised with being used to various stains and finishes, layering. So thank you so much and I will keep watching...

[@barbaralee3425]

Fantastic video, answered my questions about paper! Plus, I appreciate that you cover the information efficiently. This video was only 20 minutes, but you covered such important topics! I am so happy I found your videos.

[@frenchlanguageandculture6418]

Your videos are amazing. Lots of confusions have got clear and I feel more confident about doing watercolour painting. The subtleness in your painting is very reassuring.

[@daphnebessette5636]

I love the book trick Olly. I can't believe I never thought of that. Your videos are very well done with excellent organization and presentation. Please make more!

[@SpiritOperators]

Thank you for listing the colours you use.

[@NinaRogoff]

Excellent, informative and sensible! Thank you very much for the perspective on various materials and supplies.

[@watercolourartincapetown2919]

Photography tripod 😮 what a brilliant tip! Daler rowney is the first paint I ever tried back in 2007, very happy with their products

[@lindablalock1396]

Will be watching every video you make. So much great information. Will be talking up this channel to my friends. Thank you.

[@tezoodle]

You beauty! I was wondering how I could use my camera tripod with a board! Who knew that a simple plate was available from Ken Bromley - well, me, apparently. Thanks for that tip, and for such excellent info on your kit and paper 👍😀

[@raj61091]

thank you for making these videos, I am floowing them step by step. Need more of these from you.

[@joyfulldj]

I usually advise people to compare a price. I painted for ages with a travelset of cotman. You don't need more than 12 colors. There is a reason M Graham sells the tube sets in sets of five. Bc if you know color theory you can mix your heart out with them five colors. Start with a set of 12. Anything more will only be overwhelming. If anything decent paper for beginners may be expensive; but it is worth the investment if you dont want to stretch paper.

[@WediEre6654]

Very very educative video. Thanks Oliver

[@pammcreynolds]

Very helpful video. Thank you.

[@tulayamalavenapi4028]

I love the point you are making about how our practice is a superior asset than the quality or variety of kit we get immersed in purchasing. It's so easy to get subverted and detoured by the vast aray of tools, paper, and colors available. Still and yet, my quandry is if I haven't got skill, I am just practicing my novice-ness and always ending up with art that's amateur silly or obviously 3rd class or 2nd class at best. 🎨🖌️🐁🐀Rats! I guess spending time learning from others is going to be included in my practice. Thanks for sharing.

[@oliverpyle-ourlandscape4442]

You're quite right, you are practicing your novice-ness, but it is that which will help you transition to the paintings that you're happy with. It's a long process and learning from others is very helpful along the way. It helps you to see techniques and processes that you hadn't considered, but these still need to be practised. The nature of watercolour is such that much of its deployment relies on your experience of what happens between the palette, the brush and the paper and so observing others will only take you so far. WARNING.......watercolour courses that tell you that you'll be painting like a master in a few quick sessions may not ultimately deliver on that promise!

[@TheGaia2012]

You are absolutly right. I could really save lots of money if I had known you before.

[@timwarner5540]

Excellent video many thanks

[@georgemcrae2378]

I find your paintings to be quite well-done, with good representations of light over and shining through landscapes. Also noticed that you refrain from using pthalo blue. I don't blame you. Tossed a John Pike palette and a few others over the years due to pthalo stains. Always rethinking my kit.

[@beilbigi]

Thank you 🙏🏻

[@jeanfugate-besalke5734]

You are amazing! Thank you for all your tips and also for making the point that you don't have to spend a ton of $$ to paint. Can I ask one question...what brand and size of Hake brush do you use? Thank you for your time to teach!!

[@missii1432]

Every video of yours is so invaluable. I wonder if you have a video that focuses on how to paint rocks, clouds, trees, as so on by breaking the elements in the landscape into easily digestible segments that would be greatly appreciated.

[@oliverpyle-ourlandscape4442]

Thank you. Plenty more tutorials to come next year and we will certainly take a look at individual elements.

[@janicedavidson6437]

Thank you.

[@tintedsnowman]

Thank you !!!!!

[@josephcollins6033]

Thank you!!

[@guillermoisamit7784]

Oliver felicidades , y feliz año nuevo,

[@oliverpyle-ourlandscape4442]

Gracias Guillermo - HNY!

[@Pkhk1987]

I love your videos - don’t know why I never found them before. Your style is particularly pleasing because it is so light which I enjoy. Could I just ask what the brass palette is you use?

[@normaneames5901]

Very helpful.

[@dariazajac3496]

I wonder how long you paint, means how long it took you to find your best working for you supplies? I am just starting and I've already noticed what disadvantiges my cheap start kit has, but don't know with what to replace it. Thank you for your videos, I am kind of addicted to them already:)

[@margaretmorgan3693]

Thank you ,sound advice for revising my hobby

[@robbiej2070]

Cheers and thanks

[@oliverpyle-ourlandscape4442]

You're welcome Robin

[@northernexpanse_art7213]

I realize that one doesn't need a table easel, but would you mind sharing which one you use, please? An easel would be way more efficient for me than a book (which I would no doubt get covered in paint). Thanks in advance.

[@barbaraballantine5270]

Hello Oliver-I've been watching your tutorials and appreciate how your teaching gets right to the point. Regarding this video, I noticed you gave sizes to the larger round brushes yet no size for the rigger brush. Could you provide the size you use for the tree branches in one of your Tree Videos? Thank you.

[@oliverpyle-ourlandscape4442]

Its a No. 2 rigger Barbara

[@barbaraballantine5270]

@@oliverpyle-ourlandscape4442 Thank you for your quick response Oliver. I'm glad I asked. I was about to order a 0

[@thomasjuracek2406]

Oliver - great video. I just started watching your channel and am looking forward to learning more from you. I find it interesting that you do not utilize a cool yellow (cad yellow being your only ‘classic’ yellow) and that you use both raw sienna and yellow ochre, which usually have very little difference between them. Any thoughts on how you arrived at those choices?

[@waymire01]

It really depends on what you want to paint. 90% of the time you won't see a bright clear cool yellow in a landscape. There are few natural objects that shade and from the typical distance even they will not appear that shade.. they will be muted and softer. That is a lesson I learned the hard way. A ton of colors doesn't help, and the wrong colors makes things even worse. I actually have two palettes.. one with a split primary transparent single pigment set plus burnt sienna (for easy browns and greys) for my botanicals... and one with muted natural shades such as yellow ochre, cobalt blue, alizarin, hookers green and raw umber for landscapes. Neither of them is more than nine shades total and I often paint with only 3-4 at a time in any painting. Things got ever so much better when I stopped trying to collect every color and learned to use paint properly and understand color theory. I should also note that I CAN mix all the other colors in my landscape palette with my botanical palette...you can do ANYTHING with a split primary... but it's ever so much easier not to have to when every color would have to be mixed or modified in that application.

[@thomasjuracek2406]

Waymire- thank you for the insight. I have made a landscape palette of 12 colors recently, only have one yellow as I referred to here. I also have Naples Yellow, Yellow Ochre and Transparent Ochre, all for some specific purpose but not necessarily as a yellow ( at least that is what I tell myself). Three shades of blue and a couple of reds. I added burnt sienna, sepia and green olive as mixers. So far, it is going OK, but as you suggest color mixing needs to be learnt and I am just starting down that road. Olly’s videos have been a great help in trying to find the trailhead to that journey.

[@morvenb7759]

I'd love to know which colours you use/recommend

[@adrianaascenti1731]

La seguo da Milano, Italia. Apprezzo i suoi video, molto utili e chiari. La mia capacità di comprendere le sue parole sarebbe molto facilitata da sottotitoli in inglese, ma nei suoi video questa possibilità è disabilitata. Sarebbe possibile questa modifica? La ringrazio

[@lizday8140]

Hello there. I had a question about purchasing a squirrel mop. If I were going to just choose one size of the Raphael mop, what size would you suggest to have the best result in overall performance? Also, do squirrel brushes have ANY animal fur smell to them at all? I bought a goat hair hake brush and cannot use it, as a.) it has a pungent odor when wet, and b.) I am allergic to goat hair. (Found that one out when I bought my spinning wheel, but that didn't quite register in my brain when I bought the hake brush.) Because of the cost factor, since the largest of the Raphael mops are over $100 U.S.D., I think I may go with the blended brushes, as long as I am not unknowingly allergic to squirrel as well!; in which case, it will be synthetic for me.

[@lizday8140]

@@oliverpyle-ourlandscape4442 Oops! I know where I got turned around. Tim Wilmot, and perhaps Andrew Pitt uses Raphael mops. I have watched so many videos on watercolor now, it is beginning to produce run backs and cauliflowers in my brain! 🤣 I have noticed that the KZbin algorithms deliver similar content in both style and great accents. I enjoy it, as it reminds me of when my dad used to play Alexander Scourby tapes at night for us to go to sleep to, and all the Britcoms I loved watching on PBS. Ha-ha. Sometimes I just put you on in the background, just to listen. Have a good day!

[@warrengarr3709]

I have a #4 squirrel mop from Rosemary and Co. and it does not have any detectable smell. It’s a great brush for me for the 9 X12 painting I tend to do. Linda

[@lizday8140]

@@warrengarr3709 I bought synthetic, just to be safe. Princeton Aquarelle Square Wash 1/2" size, a 1" Mottler, a Quill Size 6, and a Round Size 8. I added a dagger, that looks more like a sword liner, and a travel round size 10, to round out my brushes. I am just beginning, and this, as a first set, seems to be just right so far.

[@hazelsmith9198]

How can I get your instructional videos in order?

[@epf7353]

Where do you stand on stretching your watercolor paper? I am familiar with water paper blocks…but they are even more expensive than sheets of watercolor paper. Thank you…I’m going to practice practice practice

[@oliverpyle-ourlandscape4442]

For my studio work I always stretch my paper. Yes, sheets are cheaper but also blocks will still buckle if you work very wet, which won't happen with a properly stretched piece of paper.

[@charlesmckinney]

Which cad red...light...med....dark. Same for the cad yellow. Thanks much.

[@oliverpyle-ourlandscape4442]

just cad red and cad yellow - no variants

[@waymire01]

Stick with cotton paper. For one it simply functions better and it's so different you basically have to relearn how to paint if you get trained to pulp. Additionally there are no archival pulp papers which means your artwork will eventually deteriorate. Even if you are just starting out, you never know when something amazing will pop out of your brush you want to hang on to. That said.. if you must, go with the Langton, it's the best pulp paper I've tried and I've tested over 40 different kinds for a painting group project.

[@waymire01]

@@oliverpyle-ourlandscape4442 At Jacksons it costs $3.00 more for a 12 sheet pad of 9x12 Langton prestige than Langton pulp... $0.25 a sheet difference. Arches pads are almost exactly the same price as Langton prestige. Unfortunately they don't sell the Langtons in full sheet.. but a full sheet of Arches is $6.60.. you can get eight 7.5x11 papers out of that.. which is half the price of the same sheets in a pad. It's not like cotton paper is made out of gold. Yes, you can buy absolutely terrible pulp paper for less, and really posh cotton for more.. but once you get into the realm of decent pulp vs decent cotton it's just not that big of a deal. I just don't see any reason to handicap beginners from the start. I'd rather paint with $3 a tube Van Gogh or Aquafine on cotton, than Schimicke or Daniel Smith on pulp. I don't even like to swatch/sketch/color study on pulp.. I keep a pad of 90lb cotton multimedia paper around for that to save cost but still get good performance out of the paint. It's just completely different in the way it absorbs the water and the pigments sit on the surface. Paper (and paint) fear is real..watercolor is unfortunately one of the more expensive mediums, as well as more particular regarding quality in supplies and it takes people by surprise... but I've also seen a LOT of beginners give up and quit due to bad paper. I think everyone should at least pick up a single sheet of cotton for comparison before they throw in the towel. As I said, Langton pulp is an exception, it's quite decent, and I think it's because it contains cotton to some extent per Daler Rowney.. Bockingford also has a surface layer of woollen felt so it's not a typical pulp paper.

[@watercolourartincapetown2919]

@@oliverpyle-ourlandscape4442 the most thorough explanation ever👩‍🚒! Amazed at how much valuable content you have on your channel

[@zidonjaganert7829]

hie in canada they don;t have the paper you are talking about is not your high quality

[@watercolourartincapetown2919]

Have a look at a video on the various watercolour papers by Emma Jane LeFevbre she lives in Canada, so she gives some insights on which papers are available and at what price points All the best!