Art Supply Haul

Behold, my materialism!

Despite my ineptitude with watercolors I've decided that I really like them.  So, I need to get better at them.

Went to the craft store today to pick up some real watercolor supplies.  I figured that if I'm going to make a go at this I should do it properly and not use the ancient grade school style palette of watercolors that I do have.  But because this is me I couldn't just stop there.

I like to think that I understand the theory behind using watercolor (I might be wrong about that) but I fail completely and utterly in the execution.  Thus the book.  Instead of the usual drawing basics that most instruction books have and the step by step instructions of 'first you take your pigment....' it has several painting exercises.  Complete pieces done by several artists with their notes on how they did them.  This should keep me reasonably entertained as I'll have a distinct 'prize' at the end of each exercise- a painting that looks like something besides simple shapes.  Thanks for understanding my need for immediate reward, book!

Next were some brushes.  Because I have some acrylic brushes but nothing with fine hair or that were small enough to work in my sketchbook.  Except for one flat brush I stole from my dad's stash for leather dyeing once.  I think I used it for eye shadow.  Sorry, Pater.

And then I was completely distracted from my intended shopping purpose by the drafting supplies.  Yay! technical pencils!  They make me happy.  I also picked up a piece of illustration board because Pater is always bugging me about how I should work bigger.  Now I'll make him something and it'll take ten and a half million years because it's (comparatively) huge.  No idea what it'll be yet, other than big enough.  Hopefully.

And then a new sketchbook.  Because I'm a compulsive book buyer.  I have more notebooks and sketchbooks than I will probably fill in my entire life, but I'll still buy more because they have a pretty cover or lovely paper or come in an interesting shape.  I have a problem.  Someone on the Journal Writing Knitter's group recommended the hand*book journal co.'s books as a less expensive alternative to the Moleskine.  Unfortunately, I noticed after I got it home that the elastic closure on this one was already broken.  Still, if the paper is friendlier to my fountain pens than Mole or the Picadilly I'm currently using to journal then I'll be a happy resa.

And now the watercolors.  I bought the Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolors Compact Set.

And here it is, all opened up.  Not the greatest quality on the plastic box, but I'm okay with that.  No sense getting the best of the best if I'm going to get bored of watercolor in a few weeks which is always a possibility.  Love how portable it is.  The few times I actually leave the house this will easily fit into just about any of my purses.

Here's my cheat sheet of what colors came with the set.  Just in case I actually finish off one or more of the pans and want to get replacements.  Also, it gave me a neat excuse to play with it right away.  Like any time I get a new toy the need to have a go immediately after getting the packaging off was strong.

I'm terribly excited about the table top easel.  As are my old lady bones that now protest hunching over a table for extended periods of time.  I'll get some more photos of it once I get it out of the box and set up.  I think we're going to be the best of friends.