Arteza Watercolor Brush Pens & Watercolor Paper

I started with Watercolors as I mentioned before, wanting to paint and color in some scenes for map sketches I was drawing.  I happened upon Arteza's Watercolor Brush Pens and purchased a set of 96 off of Amazon and I haven't been disappointed with them.

Click on the Image Below to see the set which I'm using.


Being new to Watercolor, I had watched some YouTube videos (see bottom of post) which were really helpful to get started.  One thing I didn't understand well enough the first time I started using them, was how important the paper is that you are painting on. I had purchased along with the Watercolor Brush pens, some mixed-media paper from Arteza as well, and assumed that would be fine.  That was not the case.  The brush pens act more like markers, and after applied dry, do not blend well on the mixed media paper.  I got very frustrated and figured I was doing something wrong; it looked so easy to blend these pens in the videos.  I later went out and bought some Watercolor paper and had a much easier time afterward using the brush pens.

Here is one of the first images I painted using the brush pens, it was of tulips I sketched.  You can see how the colors blended well.  I think this was even done on the mixed media paper...

As for the Pens themselves, they are very easy to use, either Wet on Wet, or Wet on Dry.  I have used them for coloring in adult coloring books as well and they work very nice.  The color range with the set of 96 is extensive, and frankly, the set of 24 or set of 48 could probably get you by just as well.  I have found that many of the colors are barely distinguishable from each other. I've linked to both of those sets here as well to save you time.



Arteza has some nice watercolor paper which I have linked below.  I will say that I have not specifically purchased this paper yet, but it is not the mixed media, which won't work as well if you are going to purchase the pens.  Be careful to make sure you are buying 140lb/300gsm Watercolor paper if/when you do.

Click on the Image Below to go directly to the Watercolor Paper


Overall, these are some good products to get you started.  They got me started and only led to me then purchasing further watercolor tube sets, pan sets, and more as I have gone along.  I'll post more on those later.

Links to YouTube Videos on Watercolor Brush Pen Tutorials.

-Rob