Hello, I would recommend buying a what they call a watercolour 'block', which is sheets of watercolour paper glued on the 4 sides. This means you don't have to fanny about stretching paper. I personally love Arches Aquarelle hot press paper, it's smooth and pretty heavy, works great with watercolour. For blending try wetting the paper with water first, then using layers of thinly mixed/watery black over the top of each other. Good luck!

cool good call i have done a few ill post them up when i get time thanks.

this site rocks for this kinda stuff

Glad to be of service :)

For the best prices on the p,lanet for art supplies go to www. Jerrysartarama.com the deals are enormpous once your on their mail list they send out cupons sometimes for up to 90% off products! They also carry aloine of great how to books on watercolor process.

Use real fine art water colors- Dr MArtins are not light fast! Many local towns have water color societies that offer classes. So you paint pretty pictures of kittens but you learn about the material and process which takes I have to say years to master.

I love using FW liquid acrylics too. They are fun to work with.

thanks every one for the heads up i have been to london and to art warehouse called atlantis. a kid in a very well stocked art super market.

if your in the uk go there. its in the islington not to far from the family business tattoo shop but they had no appointments so i poped in to frith street tattoos to see if dante had any tattooists free for a small one but out of luck there too. but a good day was had.

Using high quality paper is an absolute must. Arches is my favorite. I'd suggest getting a small block of both hot and cold press. They are different and each has it's advantages and disadvantages, in the end it's going to come down to your preference.

Good brushes make everything a bit easier as well. Winsor and Newton series 7 are what I use and they are pretty amazing, a little pricey but if you are careful with them they will last a long time. Again, brushes are going to come down to preference, get a bunch and see what you like. I would look at the mid range synthetic's to start, they come in a really wide range of stiffness and texture and will let you try lots of stuff and not break the bank. Avoid the super cheap bargain packs generally they are pretty terrible.

Dr. Ph Martins are probably the easiest to blend with and use in general. As mentioned before they are not light fast and they fade pretty damn fast if you hand something up anywhere near a window. FW liquid acrylics work very well and I use them quite a bit. Liquitex also has a line of acrylic inks, they seem to have a lighter pigment load then the FW's which can be nice sometimes. My biggest complaint about the FW inks is that they vary a ton from color to color, the opacity isn't very consistent so doing a test sheet is a must until you remember about how much water you are using for each color. Some of the FW's will separate as well so make sure you shake the hell outa them before you use them. I only have a few Liquitex colors, but the ones I have are quite consistent. Starbrite (the tattoo ink) Canary Yellow kicks serious ass for painting as well, I haven't tattooed with it in a couple years, but I still order it to paint with.

Start small and study painting's you like. Do lots of smaller painting you can finish in a sitting, and finish them. Taking on bigger stuff can get frustrating if you are having a tough time and it's important to actually complete the paintings even if you screw them up 10 minutes in. Really pay attention to what you are doing, every move you make should be deliberate. If you focus on working like that you will improve much faster.

Best of luck to you! Have lots of fun!

good paper!!!!!!!!!for me the more rag the better, hot press will puddle and show ripples almost because the paper is too slick. the problem is the rougher the paper the harder to line. so if your using speed ball nib it gets tricky, brush and markers are no problem. i pretty much only use nibs when it flash. if im doing a painting i will line with a brush for eveything but pike lettering.

brushes are super important as well like said above series seven are amazing, not cheap but find the size brush you like in a cheaper synthetic then buy the good one son line for cheap. you need a couple of sizes or atleast i do i cant do big fades with little brushes. i also am not an amazing painter but i do work with what i think is one of the best and if rassier says try this hes usaully right.

as for paint i use all kinds of shit from fw to liquidtex to water color tubes all of which are amazing when i drop the brush in the middle of the board.... rad. practice thats all it is just ike tattooing your first ones suck and your real proud of them at first and then soon you will be ashamed haha. i have to paint some stuff soon ill try to post the step by step shit and show off all my fuck ups. i outlined a sheet of flash the other day and dripped on it two minutes into it. fuck it i finished it and will worry about it when im done.

good luck oh also try cresent water color board its rad.