Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Appreciating a gift more than 25 years later

Currently I´m drawing/painting some ideas for a cover illustration of the new book by Markus Hediger. Actually my talent is sketching or ink drawings but for this cover, I somehow had the urge to try out Watercolors.

So yesterday off I went to an art store to buy a small set of these colors. I had planned on buying a little black Schminke* watercolor set. My dad had given me one of these when I was 6 years old. I never knew how to use them and painted with them the same way like I did with children´s Watercolors. And I still don´t know how to use colors with a brush properly and using the colors delicately.
But when I had a look at all these lovely Watercolor sets at the art store I just couldn´t buy one of the Schminke sets. They are very expensive (I never knew and now I appreciate it, that my father gave me the set when I was a little girl).

Just for trying out watercolors and maybe not using them again, I went for the Winsor & Newton´s Cotman
Sketcher's Pocket Box Set. It was the cheapest and the lightest. Maybe one day (hopefully) I will have understood how these colors work and you will see me running around outside with the sketchbook and the colors.
The Sketcher's Pocket Box Set is conveniently small, consisting of a sturdy, plastic box containing 12 half-pans of Cotman Watercolors and a pocket Scepter brush. It includes the colors Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue, Ultramarine, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow Hue, Cobalt Blue Hue, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Red Pale Hue, Sap Green, Burnt Umber, Alizarin Crimson, Viridian Hue, and Chinese White.

*Schmincke has a reputation for using only the highest-quality natural gums, water-soluble resins, and pigments. For example, the company uses only Kordofan Gum Arabic from the southern Sahara region, and distinguishes between good and bad harvests or "vintages" of this natural resin as it selects its raw materials.

4 comments:

Joyce Huang said...

I seldom use watercolor in my drawings either, I found that I`m not really good at these...

but I do believe you`ll be doing great with watercolor, looking forward your new cover!!!

cerebrand said...

great. congrats for the new contract for cover design. and i envy you for the color set. have a nice colorfull time.

Mim said...

wow, those are expensive but I've heard they are worth it. too expensive for a hack like me tho.

Enjoy your new set

Kerstin Klein said...

The colors are really worth it, but only if you do use them. :)