Another Little Paintbox . . .

DH asked me the other day whether I liked making art or making art supply kits better. He has a point and I am not sure of the answer. There is something about “sets” of stuff that gets to me.

I got another Dick Blick catalog in the mail and they have a sale on a special paintbox from Schminke, my all time favorite watercolor brand. They are expensive. This was an 18 half pan set for less than the usual 12 half pan set. So I got all starry-eyed and started figuring out how I could afford it.

Thank heavens for that occasional voice of reason. It said “I think, if you go and find the scattered Schminke half pans you already own, you won’t need this new set.”

So I did, and I didn’t.

I already had 12 of the colors in that advertised set, and 14 more colors I had purchased individually.

Then the voice of reason, chuckling to itself with that told-you-so attitude, said that perhaps I should keep them together in one place. YIPPEE! A chance to make a new paint box!

This time I started with a box like this . . .

These are Opaque Watercolor Paints by Lukas. This same box is put out by Grumbacher as well, but they are more expensive and the cover is opaque. They are nice paints. Vivian Swift used the Grumbacher brand for all her small paintings in her book, When Wanders Cease to Roam, which I still think is one of the best art journals ever put together. And the price is down to a shocking $8 at Amazon (was $19.99)

Here is the best price I could find on the Lukas set at Amazon (actually shipped by Jerry’s Artorama):

Lukas Opaque Watercolors

So, I didn’t throw out these paints, of course. But they are double decker and I thought it would be better if I could see all 24 colors at once.

So, I put them in a colored pencil box I had emptied by putting the colored pencils in one of the Global Arts leather pencil cases.

You are starting to see why DH asked the question, right? But I know you fellow artists understand this kind of thing.

There. Now, I feel right about where the colored pencils are and where the opaque watercolors are, AND . . . I have an empty paintbox for my Schminke Half Pans (remember that was what started this all?)

I use that strong redline double stick tape to attach my Schminke half pans to the bottom of the box in two rows, and then add a third row of some pans I filled myself from some favorite Old Holland and Daniel Smith tube colors.

I made a color chart on 300lb watercolor paper cut to fit inside the box, and there is still room inside for three sizes of brushes and a plastic palette!

To pack it up, I put the palette over the paint (handy when the paint is wet) and the color chart on top of that. I even have room to put my waterbrush on top of that if I want (as you saw at the top of this post).

I just love this set because it is compact and comprised of just my favorite colors. And I now know where my Schminke watercolor pans are!

A NEW WHENEVER WORKSHOP AND EXTENSION ON THE SALE

Your response to the Back to School Sale has been pretty amazing and that makes me happy. Many of you have asked for an extension, and because I have just managed to squeeze the Panpastel Workshop in under the wire (see the sidebar), I am extending the Sale through the Labor Day Weekend – through Monday, September 5.

To summarize for any newcomers, all my WHENEVER Workshops are 25% OFF through Monday. The discount will be taken in the Shopping Cart when you put Back to School in the Coupon Code box at checkout. If for any reason, that does not work, don’t worry, I will apply the discount before processing your charge.

Here is the Page of Whenever Workshops to choose from (or you can find them in the Sidebar of the blog).

http://cre8it.com/wheneverworkshop.html