SketchBox #6 - Watercolour

The November edition of the SketchBox arrived a couple of days early and has a focus on watercolour with a collection of supplies to give you a chance to dabble with the medium.

What makes this box a bit more interesting is that it's possible to do a whole work without necessarily going to your existing collection to support. Having said, while playing, I didn't use everything since I already had appropriate supplies on the go.

In any case, this month we have an interesting mix:

  • Dr. Ph Martin's Hydrus Liquid Watercolor in Blue Aqua, 1oz bottle. This is the larger size, but a bottle like this goes a long way. I already have the complete set, but it doesn't look like I'll need blue aqua anytime soon...
  • Handbook Watercolor Journal. This one is in a landscape format, 30 sheets, 200gsm (135 lb) cold pressed paper that can be used both sides. I didn't try this one out, given I have a few watercolour sketchbooks on the go, but I'm looking forward to trying it out.
  • Princeton Velvetouch Mini Filbert. I don't have a filbert in watercolour brushes, so this was an interesting addition. I generally like Princeton and I look forward to trying this out a bit more.
  • SketchBox Signature Waterbrush - Fine. Small detail brush, seems to work generally fine. I was a bit disappointed to see that the cap had cracked, but it still works. The bristles stain quite easily, especially with reds, but I didn't have problems cleaning it.
  • Faber-Castell Ecco Pigment .6mm. It's Faber-Castell, so good. It's a fineliner, I have a ton.
  • Daniel Smith Custom Dot Card. This is a watercolour thing, dot cards, a lot of artists like to get them so they can swatch out colours and test combinations before buying tubes. I only have some of the colours on this card, so fun to test.

Kyanite Genuine is an interesting colour, part of the Daniel Smith PrimaTek line, that produces a grayish-blue with glittery granulation. Raw Umber Violet and Burnt Tiger's Eye make interesting adds to the earth tone lines.

Anyways, because it's Halloween and I was just goofing around with the colours, I produced this doodle effort reminiscent of my childhood skills:


All of that was done from the dot card with the exception of the iris, which used the Blue Aqua Hydrus colour. 
 
Anyways, I'll probably get the most use out of the filbert and the journal.