Watercolour Painting Accessories
There is a wide range of accessories that can be used for watercolour painting, and what you will need depends on the watercolour techniques you employ.
Sponges
Sponges are a multi-purpose accessories for watercolour painting and are great tools for applying and taking off paint, water and other media to achieve texture and special effects when creating artwork.
Loxley’s sponges are all natural sponges, which are more absorbent than synthetic sponges and are more suited to watercolour painting.
You can purchase natural silk sponges, as well as a bag of assorted sea sponges from Loxley.
Watercolour Easels
Studio Easels are designed for indoor use only, as they are much heavier and bulkier than field or sketching easels. Most commonly you will find that studio easels are either a H-Frame or an A-Frame easel. The H frame is known to be more sturdier and heavier than an A frame easel, as the more upright an A frame is the less stable it becomes.
Our most popular easel for watercolour painting is the Essex. The Essex is a versatile easel suitable for all types of media due to its flexible painting angle, either forward for pastels, horizontally for watercolours and varnishing or the more traditional angles for oil and acrylics. It is made from seasoned beech wood with quality fittings, and features a useful storage shelf at the base of the easel which folds for storage and provides extra stability for the easel whilst in use. The easel height when fully extended is 1780 mm, with a maximum picture height with easel extended of 1175 mm, the dimensions at the base of the easel when easel is set up for painting are 595 mm W, 715 mm D, the easel dimensions when its folded for storage are 1280 mm H, 640 mm W, 130 mm D. The easel weight is 6.45kg
Table easels are very useful, especially if you have limited work space. They are designed to be used by artists who like to paint sitting down.
The Durham is a superb watercolour table easel constructed from seasoned elm wood. The angle for painting has four different adjustments and can be folded flat for ease of storage or transportation. The easel height when it is fully extended is 580 mm, the maximum picture height with the easel extended is 485 mm, the dimensions at the base of the easel when easel is set up for painting are 450mm W, 380 mm D, and the easel dimensions when it is folded for storage are 385 mm H, 452 mm W, 60 mm D. The easel weight is 1.5kg.
Watercolour palettes are usually made from either porcelain or plastic. Porcelain palettes are easier to clean but they are heavier, so they are best suited to work in the studio. Whereas, plastic palettes are lighter, cheaper and slightly absorbent, meaning they might become stained over time. They make painting a lot easier, as you often need to work quickly when working with watercolours.
Loxley Watercolour Palettes come in a range of different shapes and sizes.
Porcelain Ceramic Daisy Palettes
Watercolour Wheels
Colour wheels are a useful tool that allows you to learn about colour and tonal theory whilst out painting. The Wheel is designed to help watercolour artists showing mixing combinations of the most common colours, allowing easy selecting, mixing and creating greater understanding this popular media. On the colour wheel it will have the primary colours (red, yellow blue), secondary colours (orange, green, violet) and tertiary colours (red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, red-violet).
Loxley has a variety of colour wheels available, but the watercolour wheel would be most relevant for watercolour artists.
Dippers
Dippers are very useful little pots for watercolour painters. They clip on to the side of a flat surface, and are used for holding small quantities of water or medium. Mostly, they are small making them easy to transparent, enabling you to paint outside. However, there are larger sizes available.
Large Artists Dippers with lids - Single & Twin
Metal Oil Dippers, Single & Double with Lid
Artist Oil Dipper - Single & Double
Extra Large Artists’ Dipper Extra Large Artists’ Dipper
Masking Fluid
Masking fluid is a liquid latex-based product that is very effective at keeping small areas and thin lines white when painting with watercolour, acrylic or inks. The applied art masking fluid creates a barrier which prevents the paint from reaching the masked area. When the artwork is complete it is peeled off easily to expose the original surface.
Ruling Pen
Loxley Ruling Pen is a drawing instrument for drawing with ink or with other fluids and is used as a dip pen. The drawing solution is held and transferred to the surface by two flexible metal jaws, which are tapered to a point. It enables precise rendering of very thin lines, and the line width can be adjusted by turning the screw which connects the jaws. Great tool to use as an applicator for masking fluid.
Spray Diffuser
Spray diffusers are designed for applying all kinds of liquid paints, inks and fixatives on a range of surfaces. This tool is simple and easy to use, with minor adjustments to the mouthpiece and tubes providing differing spray effects.
You can also use a spray diffuser bottle. It can be filled with diluted watercolour paint and then sprayed onto your work to create a airbrush effect.
