Watercolor Color Kits and Studies

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CaranD’Ache Neocolor II Aquarelle. I’ve been exclusively using these in my small pocket notebook (bottom right). For the most part, I’ve been dipping a water brush directly onto the crayons, and mixing on the page, but I just learned I could sharpen them into pans and wet the shavings. Here they are shaved into half pans in an Altoid’s Smalls tin.
Rembrandt Watercolors in Art Toolkit’s Demi Palette. After looking at all the colors in a larger Rembrandt study, I chose my favorite primaries, plus two bonus colors to try out in the tiniest of palettes.
Rembrandt Watercolor Tubes. These have been sitting in my boxes of art supplies for about 20 years. I never really knew how to work with them, until I learned you can squeeze them into your own pans. So they’ve been resurrected! Most were still perfectly fine—only one was dried out, but dripping water into the tube softened it right up. After doing a little color study, I picked out a few to use in my new pans.
Koi Sakura Pocket Field Sketch Box. The colors are very vibrant, but when making these color charts, they seemed to mix a little muddier and had a more chalky texture the the WN Cotman set. While the kit is more compact than the WN Cotman kit, it’s still tad more bulky than I’d like to carry around everywhere.
Winsor & Newton Cotman Field Kit. This was the first kit I bought after my watercolor class, and while I like the colors, the kit itself (with the flask, cup, and unfolding mixing trays) was a little much for me unless sitting at my desk. I’ve since moved over 8 of the pans (all but the browns, gray, & white) into a small tin which I think will make me more likely to use them. I’ve also added a piece of adhesive dry erase sheet into the lid as a mixing tray.

Flowers

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Brooklyn Botanic Garden / Aug 16, 2023 / Caran d’Ache in Komtrak notebook
Peruvian Lily / Jul 31, 2023 / Caran d’Ache in Komtrak notebook
Flower boxes at Cafe Grumpy / Jul 31, 2023 / Caran d’Ache in Komtrak notebook
Flowers at Brooklyn Botanic Garden | July 13, 2023 | Caran d’Ache in Komtrak notebook
Dahlias / July 13, 2023 / watercolor in Artist’s Loft notebook
Flowers at Cafe Grumpy / June 18, 2023 / water color pencils

Nature Paintings

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Will Rogers Beach, LA / Aug 5, 2023 / Caran d’Ache in Komtrak notebook
Prospect Park / Aug 2, 2023 / Caran d’Ache in Komtrak notebook
Jazzy Leaf at Brooklyn Botanic Garden | July 13, 2023 | Caran d’Ache in Komtrak notebook
Road Trip / July 2, 2023 / Caran d’Ache in Komtrak notebook
Backyard Hostas / June 24, 2023 / watercolor in Artist’s Loft notebook
Caramels at Tybee Beach / June 24, 2023 / watercolor in Artist’s Loft notebook

Maine

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Horseshoe Crab / July 21, 2023 / Caran d’Ache in Komtrak notebook
Shell /July 21, 2023 / Caran d’Ache in Komtrak notebook
On a boat (The Owl) / July 18, 2023 / Caran d’Ache in Komtrak notebook
On a peninsula looking back at the cabin / Harpswell / July 17, 2023 / Caran d’Ache in Komtrak notebook
Harpswell / July 17, 2023 / Koi watercolors in Artist’s Loft notebook
Harpswell / July 16, 2023 / Koi watercolors in Artist’s Loft notebook