Watercolor Supplies

I don't really have a very sophisticated watercolor set, I mostly rely on a Cotman travel set augmented with an extended palette put together piecemeal while I was in Japan and a few tube watercolors.  When asked what I recommend, I usually suggest starting with a decently priced travel set- children's sets, while inexpensive, usually perform badly and discourage beginning users, and its intimidating to try and put together a set from individual tubes and pans.  A travel set will cover your bases, and you can always buy colors as you need them.

My travel set, fully deployed.  I never use the mini brush.

Color swatches for comparison.

There's only one overlap between the sets (they were purchased independently, and each pan of the auxilary set was picked by me), and that's the Aliz. crimson.

I've noticed a lot of other artists who utilize watercolors like this palette.  I really like it, but I use it on flat surfaces, I'd never trust it not to buckle.

When I mix washes, I really like using little porcelain ramekins:

A  plus side to this is that unlike plastic palettes, they don't stain.

The very last brush I use to apply black (or white) gouache after the watercolor has dried.  None of these brushes are fancy, most of them came from Michael's.

My collection of tubes.  I could probably do with more yellow and green.  It's only meant to augment my travel set.

My tubes of gouache.

Watercolor pencils, which I rarely use.