My Favorite Supplies

In Get Gouachey I try to use a range of materials to be inclusive of the different supplies that people have, but I’ll do my best to summarize my favorites that I turn to often for the tutorials. Also, each of the lessons lists the exact colors, brushes and paper I’m using so you can prepare in advance.

Brushes

This one is the easiest, I’ve been using the same basic brushes for a few years now- only the earliest Get Gouachey tutorials have a few different ones.

I use Kingart Original Gold Series, and my favorites are:

  • 1/2” angled shader

  • size 8 filbert

  • size 4 round

  • size 2 liner

  • recently I’ve been enjoying their size 6 round petal brush for painting planty details too. 

I find this selection of shapes and sizes covers 98% of my painting needs. And when you’re looking for brushes, choose ones designed for acrylic paints- they make it easier to control the water content of the paint and are a little firmer and easier to control.

Paints

If you’re starting from scratch I always recommend the Winsor & Newton 6 piece mixing set. It has a great selection of colors to get you started and the paint is great quality. But if you wanted to expand your set further there’s a few other colors I love to use in my work:

Winsor & Newton colors

  • Cobalt turquoise light

  • Prussian blue

  • Opera rose

  • Brilliant purple

    M. Graham colors

  • Phthalocyanine green

  • Payne’s gray (I often use this instead of black just as a personal preference)

  • Burnt sienna

  • Yellow ochre

The most cost effective way to get a wide range of colors is to get a small set like the Arteza or the Himi jelly gouache, and these are both nice paints to use. I would always recommend buying the best quality paints that you can afford, but I painted with the Arteza set for the first year of using gouache, so if that’s what you can afford you can still make great art!

Paper

I sometimes paint in sketchbooks and sometimes on loose paper. If the tutorial gets better results on a cotton paper, this is always noted in the lesson information so you can decide what you want to use.

I like my Etchr cotton sketchbooks, and also my Hahnemuhle watercolor sketchbooks (I have a cotton and a non-cotton from these and love them both). Hahnemuhle also do a Bamboo mixed media paper that I love.

My preference is for a cold pressed paper at least 200gsm, and I love to paint on a cotton surface. This isn’t essential, but techniques such as layering and blending can be much easier on a cotton paper.

I hope this helps!

Ruth x