Paints

A5 Sketchbook (from marumam.japan...a new purchase has quite nice thin watercolour) paper)

Thanks for you comments everyone....this is for Pooja, Nancy,Vicki and Ann.

My basic sketch supplies.
 
I bought this small (and in-expensive) Van Gogh travel watercolour set half-way through Everyday in May, for convenience, and have been very happy with them. Before that I used anything I had at hand and usually acrylic paint that I use with lots of water.
Many years ago I had a Windsor and Newton tin box but this little set was such a bargain.
I was looking at larger sets last week as it might be fun to have lots of colours, but was recommended professional quality paints as the Van Gogh ones are only student quality (? this could have been a pushy assistant )....the problem with this is the fact that they quadruple in price (and my supplier doesn't sell them individually). Any suggestions?

The main thing I have come addicted to this year is good quality paper and do prefer to do most work on loose sheets...usually Bockingford watercolour paper (Acid free 140lbs).
It saves many problems with rippling, is good for HK's humid climate and is good quality if I sell a sketch.
I tend to work about A4 size or a little larger so the Arthouse Sketchbook was good for  teaching me to scale down.
My favourite tool is a 2B pencil...although i sketch at first with HB and sometimes use 4B at the end for darkness.
On my next sketch I'll do a proper step by step but here's a little one for the above to get in practise. Although after stage two I broke up the still life (as I needed my paints etc.....and sat on the balcony in the sunshine......can only do that with an aerial view)
Thanks everyone for making me think about the process, as my sketching time is limited I usually put on the radio and just do it. I'll also be adding details of paper and size on my posts from now on.

Time to clean my paints!!