Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Watercolor pocket box set recommendation for kids

With the excitement of having found an elusive Bijou box at the Tampa Pearl store, I neglected to also blog about the Winsor & Newton Cotman Field Studio that they had discounted down to $13 (which is about the lowest going price for the included Cotman Sketcher's Pocket box alone after Googling it a bit). They had quite a few boxed sets left in their watercolor aisle, so you might want to stop by that Pearl store if you happen to travel through Tampa.This Field Studio packs a lot of value with its other components: a large cotton towel, water bottle, 7"X10" Cotman pad with 10 sheets, instructional booklets, and 3 Cotman watercolor brushes that fit quite nicely within their weather-resistant black messenger bag. The Sketcher's Pocket box with its 12 Cotman watercolor half pans and collapsible brush was the very first Winsor & Newton watercolor box model that I ever bought while in college. It quickly proved to be quite portable and convenient for sketching on-the-go. I gave that original box to one of my nieces long ago during a trip to the West Coast and then switched to using mostly artists' grade watercolors. The value-priced student grade Cotman watercolors though are ideally suited for young budding artists since they are non-toxic and outperform generic children paint sets that are mostly fillers and contain less pigment. For a really compact watercolor kit: try bundling the Sketcher's Pocket box, a pad of blank watercolor postcards, and a nice waterbrush.

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