First, what not to get. Don't buy a set of paints however tempting they look. I mean, they're a nice present and everything but we're going for something a bit less off-the-peg here. A set of colours that work well together and that doesn't include any colours that will never be used. Let's get on to the proper list.
1. A palette box. It could be plastic, it could be metal. Either will be fine. Do some research - see what you like the look of. But make sure that the palette box is empty and that it's either made for full pans to fit in (in which case you may need to buy the empty plastic pans to fill it up) or little 2-3 square centimetre holes that paint can be squeezed into. We need there to be holes/pans for at least 8 colours. Ideally more than that. Maybe 10 or 12. If he turns out to like painting, he may end up with 16 colours at some point but let's keep it to 10-12 for now as we won't be buying 16 colours.
2. Brushes. I confess I'm not a brush expert. Go for brushes that feel nice and soft. I hear that animal hair performs better than synthetic. Go for three brushes to start with: one that's flat and maybe an inch wide, a number 10 which will have more of a cylindrical tip and a rigger for detail. Actually, if there's a squeeze plasticky pipette there, pick one of those up - they're good for diluting paint mixtures.
3. Paper. Buy a watercolour block - this is a pad stuck down on (almost) all four sides so the paper doesn't buckle. The weight of the paper is important - go for 300 gsm. For the surface I'd start with either hot pressed which is the smoothest or cold pressed (aka "not") which is in the middle. Just don't go for rough. Size-wise I'd go with something small like 5 inches by 7 or 6 by 8. Save the 9 by 12 for when he's more experienced.
4. Paint. Now we're talking. We're going for tube paints that he can squeeze into his palette box. Winsor & Newton is the manufacturer I understand and use, so we'll go for them. I'd go for artist quality paint rather than the student quality Cotman paint. The 5ml tubes will be fine for a starter gift.
First six colours are the primaries. A warm and cool version of each of them (ie two versions of each primary, tending to the two secondaries on either side). All six are transparent, which makes for better looking paintings and, most importantly, reduces the chances of creating mud when mixing them. The six are quinacridone magenta, rose dore, Indian yellow, transparent yellow, Prussian blue and French ultramarine. Don't be tempted to go for anything different - you may be making the mistake of picking an opaque colour. And there are no greens, oranges or purples, but you're always better off mixing these.
The next two are Earth colours: burnt umber and raw sienna, both transparent. If we have eight pans we can stop there. With ten pans I'd add in Payne's grey (opaque but great in overcast skies) and titanium white (opaque but good for highlights, definitely not for mixing). I'd probably stop there for the starter set even if we have a 12 or 16 pan palette.
Later on (but not in this gift collection) if he wanted to fill empty spaces, he might want to add viridian and burnt sienna to a 12-pan palette, and those two plus cadmium red, cadmium yellow, cerulean (or maybe cobalt) blue and sepia (all opaque) to a 16-pan palette.
5. What about a book? The best starter book I've seen is Frank Clarke's Paintbox. The only word of warning I'd give is that there are lots of opaques in Frank's palette, whereas we're mainly buying transparent colours. So whereas Frank paints hills over the top of the sky, our new artist might need to paint the sky around the hills, so the hills just go down onto white paper. There are also some colour translations between Frank's palette and ours. Where Frank uses lemon yellow we use transparent yellow, cobalt blue becomes Prussian blue, light red becomes rose dore, alizarin crimson becomes quinacridone magenta.
If he's enjoying painting, or if you wanted to buy another book, the next step could be Terry Harrison's Complete Guide To Watercolour Landscapes. Terry uses pre-mixed greens but by the time anyone's been through the Frank Clarke book they'll be comfortable mixing greens themselves from blues and yellows. Or maybe it's The Complete Watercolourist's Essential Notebook (not the Keep Painting book) by Gordon McKenzie which I've never read but which looks great on YouTube. After that it's about where his style is going and what, in particular he wants to improve. There's a lot out there - check out some of my reviews and those on ParkaBlogs.
If the Frank Clarke Book is no longer available, then that Gordon McKenzie book may well be OK as a first book - I wouldn't start with Terry Harrison. <July 2022 edit: I've since seen the Paul Clark beginners' book and taken a quick look - that might be another alternative>
And that's the list. Buy all this and you've come up with a really well thought out present.
Feel free to ask questions if any of this is unclear.
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