Following the previous post about the beginning of my process (stretching paper), this one is about the middle—making marks on paper.From left to right:
Wash brush (Aqualine Raphael, XL): I thoroughly lucked out and bought this at a huge discount—squirrel hair and so thirsty! The XXL version is on my wish list. :)
Flat brush(?): I forget the technical name for this brush, but it is great for laying down water when working wet-in-wet.
Painting brushes (Winsor Newton Series 7): I finally broke down and bought these guys after being reprimanded at a workshop for using cheap brushes. They are great for many things, but I must admit that I still like my cheap brushes for certain kinds of detail work. Even though the expensive brushes can have very fine tips, I sometimes find that the softness of the hair makes detail work tougher for me. In general though, expensive brushes are worth the cost for their ability to do beautiful washes.
Waterproof ink and Speedball nib: I use this pen for most all of my line work.
Palette
My watercolor painting process has been cobbled together from various books and occasional workshops over the years. For a long time, I favored a very limited palette of transparent colors: cobalt blue, permanent rose and aureolin. Over the years, I've added others: thalo blue, manganese blue, raw sienna, burnt sienna, quinacridone gold and sap green. For my most recent project that included a number of nighttime scenes, I used indigo and also experimented with acrylic washes. There are a few other colors on the palette that I'm testing, but haven't really integrated into my work yet.