As you may have noticed already, I am a confessing “art-stuff-shopaholic”… Interestingly though, I must not be the only one, since my dear readers seem to be treasure hunting, too. One keyword that attracts quite a few visitors (by the way – welcome and thank you for dropping by!) seems to be “bijou box”, referring to the lovely little black enameled watercolor box previously made by Winsor & Newton.
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In my earlier post on travelling with watercolors, I mentioned the fact that if I were to buy a new one, I would opt for the smallest version available, the one without the water tank. Having actually tried to do so quite a while ago, I found out that this legendary item is apparently out of stock. However, I was able to find a spin off at Society For All Artists, but it seems to be out of stock here right now as well. (If you do manage to find one, you might want to know that I had to pull some of the rods out, in order to squeeze so many colors in the lipstick (!) sized box and that only slimmer half pans like those from Winsor & Newton seem to fit).
If you are looking for something similar, you could now opt for the travel box with water container (very similar to the original Winsor & Newton one) at Schmincke.
Talking about Schmincke, they have a special edition mid-size enameled box right now which I found at Gerstaecker‘s 2014 winter sales lately. My first box unfortunately had a broken hinge, but they replaced it very gracefully. Both the Schmincke boxes I mentioned come filled with colors (8 for the tiny travel box and 16 for the larger one).
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.
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This time of the year being “newsletter season”, unfortunately I discovered yet another interesting travel box: Barry Herniman’s Cloverleaf Paintbox, to be found empty at Ken Bromley’s in the UK. As you can see on the pictures, it is quite big, compared to the other two, and weighs 295g (ca. 0,65lbs) filled by me with tube colors as seen. The larger Schmincke box weighs 254g (ca. 0,55 lbs) filled with the 16 half-pans provided.
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Choosing the colors is one of my biggest pleasures, so here you can also have a glimpse on the palette I want to try in this box: Quinachridone gold, Dioxazine Purple, French Ultramarine, Pthatolcyanine Turquoise, Neutral Tint, Turquoise Green and Aureoline from Sennelier, Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet from Daniel Smith, Winsor Red, Winsor Yellow, Winsor Blue Red Shade, Antwerp Blue and Transparent Orange (from the limited Sahara collection) from Winsor & Newton. The mess on the paper is what happens when mixing a stripe of Aureoline with the neighboring colors…
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I can’t wait to try the box out, but the Sennelier colors are still pretty wet – I guess their amount of binder makes for the lovely, transparent colors, but also for the slow (or maybe inexistent?) drying. The special thing about this box are the deep mixing wells – ideal for large washes. The look of the box is so-so – I found an interesting “paintbox hack” on Stephen Berry’s blog on how he made it look a bit smarter.
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Last, but not least, while I am at it here is a little collapsible cup from Humangear I found in an airport store. It is not intended for artists, but I find it very convenient as a water container on the road and the little extra space in the sealable lid could hold some white gouache – perfect for retrieving some highlights or when painting on toned paper.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
If you are looking for retailers and manufacturers of art material, I have put together a rather long link list here. (And no, still no sponsorship involved…)
Please forgive the bleak pictures, but here in Munich we haven’t seen the sun in weeks….
