Fun with ACEOs (1-5).

I bought a hefty amount of ACEOs a little while ago for me to play with. I wanted to have a go at little paintings again - I guess I've missed working on small and quick things after all. I also thought that they'd be great for testing new art materials and practising techniques or new subjects (or old subjects that I'm still crap at). If it goes wrong, I haven't wasted much as the cards are really cheap to buy. Basically, they're for me to play around with. Some will be "finished", some won't. Most are probably just going to be the result of "I want to play with something art-related but I'm not sure what".

1.

05/05/2015

Cotman watercolours. Intentionally unnatural colours (that don't come across at all in the photo - that grass is NOT that shade of green). I couldn't be bothered with mixing, I just wanted to play with my new cards. 

2.

22/05/2015

Cotman watercolours and Copic Multiliner in Sepia. No sketch lines, no idea what I was doing, done freehand while the next one was taking ages to dry. Turned out to be my favourite so far. 

3.

26/05/2015

Cotman watercolour. Playing with more muted tones for a landscape scribble but I didn't really like them. I think I prefer the brighter ones I'm used to. Landscapes remain one of my art nemeses. 

4. 

06/06/2015

Cotman watercolour. Wanted to play with drawing pansies but then decided to turn this into a waterbrush test. I've never painted with a waterbrush before. Conclusion: detail is impossible, water water everywhere. I had to work with water when I didn't want water, which meant it had to be done in lots of layers (something I don't like doing with watercolour anymore) and the paint ended up thick and flat. For work like this, the waterbrush isn't ideal. I imagine it's more suited to sketching, which is what people use them for, so I'll try it for that soon.

5.

10/06/2015

This turned out a lot better than the last eye I tried to paint (and wasted a much smaller piece of paper, too) but I still have so much I need to improve. Eyelashes and eyebrows are really hard to do with the brushes that I have - I may have to dig my sable rigger out when I try these in future.

The only one I signed with paint and a brush is the third one, the rest were done with a Copic Multiliner. I'm not good at signing my name in miniature: 2.5"x3.5" doesn't give you much to work with! They're all a bit warped, as you can see. I did tape them all down, but there's only so much tape you can put on a card that tiny and still have a surface left to paint on.

I'm going to blog these like I did (and should still be doing but shhh) the Instagram photos. Every five ACEOs will be a blog. I have around 200 cards: I'm hoping to see an improvement as I work through them. 

Paintbox woes and homemade solutions.

The first painting of Paintcember (let's face it, there weren't many more after that) officially killed the idea of the 24-pan box for me. Rattle rattle rattle rattle rattle.

Rattle.

Unfortunately, the box I want doesn't exist and while I could probably design one, I have no idea where I'd go to get it made. Every box I can find for sale has something wrong with it.

I've been looking up homemade boxes on the Internet and trying to come up with ideas. I figure the only way I'll get a box that I like is if I make one, but I'm not great at making plastic boxes or ceramic palettes. I want a removable palette with a good amount of wells, so I'd either have to buy one and then build around it or somehow magically find one that fitted. I do have a wooden box, but it's quite large and really more suited towards tube paint (like everything else). Getting things for pan paints to fit inside the box would be a nightmare.

So.

The only other option that I had was to modify the rattle monster box. I could glue the pans in place, but I need to be able to remove them for cleaning. I also need to be able to replace the pans when they run out because I don't have many paint tubes (I know using tubes to refill empty pans is in the long run is far more economical, but since I bought so many sets on my quest for The Perfect Paintbox, I now have more paint pans than brain cells) and I like to change my palettes around quite a bit. I could fit metal plates into the box and attach magnets to the pans but that's a lot of work, as well as permanent, so it's a last resort. Also, then the pans may no longer fit in the box, which is useless. The plate and magnets would have to be super thin. So. White-tack to the rescue. I took two little pieces, stuck them to the bottom of each pan and stuck them down. Thus, the rattle monster was defeated. As a bonus to this, it now looks really neat!

Yes, it still closes with the brush there.

However, I quite liked the idea of making my own paintbox, after seeing so many videos about them while I was trying to figure out what to do. I own a decent amount of the six limited edition Winsor & Newton paints and they have nowhere to live once I start using them. If I open them and squeeze them out onto a palette and don't use everything that I squeezed out, then what? They're LIMITED EDITION, dammit!

For studio work, I bought a metal box with space for 12HP/6WP. I hate metal boxes. I really, really hate metal boxes. They're awful for mixing watercolours and I don't understand why they're so popular, but the metal box was my only option for a box that fitted pans in it (seriously, giant crater in the market, why do you even exist?). The six paints have six empty whole pans to live in and an unfortunately metal box, but as it's for studio work, I can just use one of my porcelain palettes and ignore the metal ones. The box itself is actually REALLY well made, compact, in perfect condition and I love that it fits either half pans or whole pans or a mixture of the two. It's just... metal. It fits two half pans as well as the six whole pans though, so I can have a half pan of white gouache and another colour in there too.

At least my da Vinci brush has a home now.

I'd still hate to take that metal box anywhere. They scratch fairly easily and I'd probably destroy it in a week. Useless metal palettes plus size also means that it would be a waste of space. I certainly don't need six whole pans just for painting outdoors. Instead, I bought a 1oz black "survival" tin and some empty half pans. I can carry the plastic folding palette that I always take out with me anyway and mix colours on that. I can fit some items in the box as well as the paints (the metal mini Winsor & Newton brushes fit in there but my da Vinci one doesn't), and a tiny pencil case for any extras won't hurt to carry (I have some super slim and small ones and they're perfect for things like this).

This box fits in the palm of my hand. Paintboxes don't really come much smaller than this. (EDIT: Yes they do! I found one online in America that's the size of a business card and fits 14 pans in it - I'll do another blog post when I have paints for it!)

I'm going to put more tack down to stop the paintbrush rattling around.

The box fits one whole pan and six half pans quite comfortably. Because I use blue the most, I bought the most of it before shops sold out, so that will have the whole pan and the other five colours can go in the half pans. The spare half pan can be used for white gouache or another colour. I stuck them down with the white-tack again and they haven't moved at all, so there's that. A lot of people I saw on YouTube glued their pans down but all manner of outdoor muck ends up in my paintbox while I'm out and I'd rather it wasn't permanent. 

Another idea is to use the tin you get with a Derwent 6-pack of pencils. I have four of these tins (in use currently though) and they'd be perfect for a more "complete" outdoor kit. They fit 13 Winsor & Newton half pans across the length, as well as a paintbrush and a pencil. You could probably cram another row of half pans in there as well. So that's an idea for when I use up one of the tins, if I decide that I want more space. They're quite small and don't weigh a great deal.

The studio box for the limited edition paints does have a purpose: I've been putting together my own mini studio space in my room over January/February! I have a desk and a chair for the desk and my table easel can live on top and I have somewhere to work at last! I'm currently going through my supplies and deciding what gets to live in the desk drawers and what goes into storage boxes, but when I'm done with that I might do another post to show what I have in there. The desk drawers are luckily quite deep and can hold a lot of art supplies! 

My Winsor & Newton watercolour collection.

This has been sitting in drafts for ages, but I thought I'd post it. Hopefully it'll be useful for anyone looking to buy a Winsor and Newton set. As long as people keep reading this, I'll keep updating it! If you just want to look at the sets, skip to about a third of the way down the page.

I'm trying to keep track of the colours I use, the replacements I have and the sets I have. I've never used the professional watercolours: they're for when I'm a bit less shit at painting. Lately, Cotman colours don't seem to be cutting it for me like they used to, though, so I'm itching to move on but I have so much Cotman paint still. This will help me organise my palettes so I can use them up.

I've noted which sets contained which half pans on arrival and what I have loose for when I need to replace a colour, but the whole pans are all from the whole pan studio set, which has 24 whole pans in it. Tubes were all bought individually, and I bought the colours I use the most (with the exception of Chinese white and intense blue, which someone gave to me. I hate intense blue and I've never used Chinese white).

I got bored and made a spreadsheet for my Cotman watercolours so I could see exactly how many I had of each (yay for spreadsheet calculations!), and I used the numbers to make up three different palettes: 12, 24 and 32 (the 8HP palette contains the paints that came with the set). At the moment I'm using the 24-pan palette. I'm tempted to switch back to the 12-pan until I've used a few more of them, but I'm using a lot of pinks and purples lately and it's nice to have to do less mixing as it speeds the process up a bit. I can't paint outside in winter anyway, so the size of the paintbox isn't really an issue at the moment. The spreadsheet is colour-coded according to which palette the paints are in. The darkest blue is the 8HP palette and the lightest blue is the 32HP palette. Each palette contains whatever was also in the smaller palettes.

Click to enlarge. Remember these palettes are based on how much of each paint I have, not the ideal paint selection (with the exception of the 8HP set, which are the paints that my Mini Plus came with).

THE PAINTS

T = tube (8ml Cotman, 5ml/14ml Professional)

WP = whole pan (can't buy Cotman whole pans separately, unfortunately, so when they're gone, they're gone)

HP = half pan

W&N Cotman Watercolour:

*Lemon Yellow Hue: 1WP, 8HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set, 1HP field plus set, 1HP compact set, 1HP painting plus set, 1HP mini plus set, 3HP loose)

+Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue: 1WP, 6HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set, 1HP pocket sketchers set, 1HP deluxe pocket sketchers set, 1HP pocket plus set, 1HP painting plus set, 1HP loose)

*Cadmium Yellow Hue: 1T, 1WP, 8HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set, 1HP pocket sketchers set, 1HP deluxe pocket sketchers set, 1HP pocket plus set, 1HP field plus set, 1HP compact set, 1HP painting plus set, 1HP loose)

Gamboge Hue: 1HP - (1HP studio set)

Cadmium Orange Hue: 1WP, 2HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set, 1HP painting plus set)

*Cadmium Red Pale Hue: 1WP, 9HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set, 1HP pocket sketchers set, 1HP deluxe pocket sketchers set, 1HP pocket plus set, 1HP field plus set, 1HP compact set, 1HP painting plus set, 1HP mini plus set, 1HP loose)

Cadmium Red Hue: 1WP, 2HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set, 1HP compact set)

Cadmium Red Deep Hue: 1WP, 3HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set, 1HP deluxe pocket sketchers set, 1HP painting plus set)

*Alizarin Crimson Hue: 1WP, 10HP - (1WP studio set, 2HP studio set, 1HP pocket sketchers set, 1HP deluxe pocket sketchers set, 1HP pocket plus set, 1HP field plus set, 1HP compact set, 1HP painting plus set, 1HP mini plus set, 1HP loose)

+Permanent Rose: 5HP - (1HP studio set, 4HP loose)

*Rose Madder Hue: 1T, 5HP - (1HP studio set, 4HP loose)

+Dioxazine Violet: 5HP - (1HP studio set, 4HP loose)

+Mauve: 4HP - (1HP studio set, 3HP loose)

*Purple Lake: 1WP, 7HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set, 1HP deluxe pocket sketchers set, 1HP compact set, 1HP painting plus set, 3HP loose)

*Ultramarine: 1T, 1WP, 10HP - (1WP studio set, 2HP studio set, 1HP pocket sketchers set, 1HP deluxe pocket sketchers set, 1HP pocket plus set, 1HP field plus set, 1HP compact set, 1HP painting plus set, 1HP mini plus set, 1HP loose)

+Intense Blue: 1T, 1WP, 6HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set, 1HP pocket sketchers set, 1HP painting plus set, 3HP loose)

Indigo: 1HP - (1HP studio set)

Prussian Blue: 1HP - (1HP studio set)

*Cobalt Blue Hue: 1WP, 8HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set, 1HP deluxe pocket sketchers set, 1HP field plus set, 1HP painting plus set, 4HP loose)

*Cerulean Blue Hue: 1WP, 9HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set, 1HP pocket plus set, 1HP compact set, 1HP painting plus set, 1HP mini plus set, 4HP loose)

+Turquoise: 5HP - (1HP studio set, 1HP deluxe pocket sketchers set, 3HP loose)

*Viridian Hue: 1WP, 9HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set, 1HP pocket sketchers set, 1HP deluxe pocket sketchers set, 1HP pocket plus set, 1HP field plus set, 1HP compact set, 1HP painting plus set, 1HP mini plus set, 1HP loose)

Hooker's Green Light: 1HP - (1HP studio set)

Hooker's Green Dark: 2HP - (1HP studio set, 1HP painting plus set)

+Intense Green: 4HP - (1HP studio set, 3HP loose)

*Sap Green: 1T, 1WP, 8HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set, 1HP pocket sketchers set, 1HP deluxe pocket sketchers set, 1HP pocket plus set, 1HP field plus set, 1HP compact set, 1HP painting plus set, 1HP loose)

+Emerald: 5HP - (1HP studio set, 1HP painting plus set, 3HP loose)

*Yellow Ochre: 1WP, 10HP - (1WP studio set, 2HP studio set, 1HP pocket sketchers set, 1HP deluxe pocket sketchers set, 1HP pocket plus set, 1HP field plus set, 1HP compact set, 1HP painting plus set, 1HP mini plus set, 1HP loose)

Raw Sienna: 1WP, 1HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set)

*Burnt Sienna: 1WP, 9HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set, 1HP pocket sketchers set, 1HP deluxe pocket sketchers set, 1HP pocket plus set, 1HP field plus set, 1HP compact set, 1HP painting plus set, 1HP mini plus set, 1HP loose)

Light Red: 1WP, 1HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set)

Indian Red: 2HP - (1HP studio set, 1HP painting plus set)

Raw Umber: 1WP, 2HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set, 1HP painting plus set)

*Burnt Umber: 1T, 1WP, 8HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set, 1HP pocket sketchers set, 1HP deluxe pocket sketchers set, 1HP pocket plus set, 1HP field plus set, 1HP compact set, 1HP painting plus set, 1HP loose)

Vandyke Brown: 3HP - (1HP studio set, 2HP loose)

Sepia: 3HP - (1HP studio set, 2HP loose)

Payne's Gray: 1WP, 3HP - (1WP studio set, 1HP studio set, 1HP deluxe pocket sketchers set, 1HP painting plus set)

Lamp Black: 4HP - (1HP studio set, 1HP painting plus set, 2HP loose)

*Ivory Black: 2T, 1WP, 6HP - (1WP studio set, 2HP studio set, 4HP loose)

*Chinese White: 1T, 1WP, 11HP - (1WP studio set, 2HP studio set, 1HP pocket sketchers set, 1HP deluxe pocket sketchers set, 1HP pocket plus set, 1HP field plus set, 1HP compact set, 1HP painting plus set, 3HP loose)

W&N Professional Watercolours:

Lemon Yellow: 1T (14ml), HP (2 metal box set)

Winsor Lemon: 1HP (loose)

Winsor Yellow: 4HP (bamboo box set, 2 metal box set, field box set)

Aureolin: 1T (14ml), 3HP (2 metal box set, field box set)

Transparent Yellow: 1HP (bamboo box set)

Cadmium Yellow: 1T (14ml), 1HP (loose)

Indian Yellow: 1HP (loose)

Winsor Orange: 2HP (2 metal box set)

Scarlet Lake: 1HP (bamboo box set)

Cadmium Red: 1T (14ml), 1HP (loose)

Cadmium Red Deep: 1HP (loose)

Winsor Red: 3HP (2 metal box set, field box set) 

Rose Doré: 1HP (loose)

Windsor Red Deep: 1HP (loose)

Permanent Alizarin Crimson: 1T (14ml), 3HP (bamboo box set, 2 metal box set)

Alizarin Crimson: 1HP (field box set)

Permanent Rose: 1T (14ml), 3T (5ml), 3HP (2 metal box set, loose)

Rose Madder Genuine: 1HP (loose)

Quinacridone Magenta: 1T (14ml), 1HP (loose)

Permanent Magenta: 1HP (loose)

Cobalt Violet: 1HP (loose)

Permanent Mauve: 1HP (loose)

Winsor Violet: 1T (14ml), 2HP (2 metal box set)

Indanthrene Blue: 1T (14ml), 1HP (loose)

French Ultramarine: 1T (14ml), 3HP (2 metal box set, field box set)

Ultramarine (Green Shade): 1HP (bamboo box set)

Cobalt Blue: 1T (14ml), 1HP (loose)

Winsor Blue (Red Shade): 1HP (bamboo box set)

Prussian Blue: 1T (14ml), 2HP (2 metal box set)

Winsor Blue (Green Shade): 3HP (2 metal box set, field box set)

Cerulean Blue (Red Shade): 1HP (loose)

Cerulean Blue: 1T (14ml), 2HP (2 metal box set)

Cobalt Turquoise: 1HP (loose)

Winsor Green (Blue Shade): 1HP (bamboo box set)

Viridian: 1T (14ml), 2HP (metal box set, loose)

Winsor Green (Yellow Shade): 1HP (loose)

Perylene Green: 1T (14ml), 1HP (loose)

Oxide of Chromium: 1HP (metal box set)

Hooker's Green: 1T (14ml), 1HP (loose)

Permanent Sap Green: 1T (14ml), 4HP (bamboo box set, 2 metal box set, field box set)

Olive Green: 1T (14ml), 3HP (2 metal box set, loose)

Naples Yellow: 1T (14ml), 1HP (loose)

Yellow Ochre: 1T (14ml), 4HP (bamboo box set, 2 metal box set, field box set)

Raw Sienna: 3HP (2 metal box set, field box set)

Quinacridone Gold: 1T (14ml), 1HP (loose)

Burnt Sienna: 1T (14ml), 4HP (bamboo box set, 2 metal box set, field box set)

Light Red: 1T (14ml), 1HP (loose)

Indian Red: 1T (14ml), 1HP (loose)

Potter's Pink: 1T (14ml), 1HP (loose)

Perylene Maroon: 1T (14ml), 1HP (loose)

Perylene Violet: 1T (14ml), 1HP (loose)

Raw Umber: 2HP (2 metal box set)

Burnt Umber: 1T (14ml), 3HP (bamboo box set, 2 metal box set)

Sepia: 1HP (loose)

Indigo: 2HP (2 metal box set)

Payne's Gray: 1T (14ml), 2HP (2 metal box set)

Neutral Tint: 1T (14ml), 1HP (loose)

Ivory Black: 4HP (bamboo box set, 2 metal box set, field box set)

Davy's Gray: 1T (14ml), 1HP (loose)

Chinese White: 4HP (2 metal box set, field box set, loose)
LE Phthalo Sapphire: 5T (5ml)
LE Yellow Titanate: 3T (5ml)
LE Gold Brown: 3T (5ml)
LE Transparent Orange: 3T (5ml)
LE Indian Red Deep: 3T (5ml)
LE Dark Brown: 3T (5ml)

LE Chromium Black: 1T (5ml)

LE Aqua Green: 1T (5ml)

LE Cobalt Green Deep: 1T (5ml)

LE Smalt: 1T (5ml)

LE Quinacridone Violet: 1T (5ml)

LE Sanguine Red: 1T (5ml)

THE SETS

If you want to see which paints came with which set, scroll back up to the paint section. Contents do vary, though.

I have banned myself from buying more Cotman sets. Sort of. I bought the vast majority of them just for the boxes but that's left me with so much paint it's ridiculous. I don't really want to be using student grade paint anymore, but I'm stuck with it now. 

Here are all the Winsor & Newton sets that I own. There's quite a few. 

Cotman sets

* Mini Plus Set (8HP)

The pans can be removed for a bit more mixing space.

This set is harder to find than the others. None of my usual art suppliers stock it and I ended up getting it from a shop on eBay. It. Is. So. Cute. It's tiny compared to the other boxes that W&N do. There's precious little wasted space. Pockets for women's clothing are notoriously shit, but it fits in one. It's smaller than my phone. It's adorable.

The brush fits into a slot in the lid - where the vertical divider is in the paint palette - but unfortunately, it's quite tough to get it out once its in. Unless you have magic fingernails, you might need something to dig it out with. The box itself is difficult to take apart in general: the paints don't come out the box easily, and the cartridges don't come out of the little tray very easily either. However, this makes the box nice and robust for outside work. You don't want to knock it accidentally and have your paints go flying. Despite the limited amount of paints, there's a good range of possible mixes. The mixing space is small, but in the lid the wells are quite deep thanks to the brush holder. If you run out, you could always sacrifice a well and wipe it clean with a tissue before reusing. Or you could get a little external palette. The available mixing space and the amount of pans that you get seems to work well to me, though. I don't think I've used my folding palette with this box yet.

On its own, I'd say it's not enough, but for using just to sketch, with another paintbox as the "main" one, it's a great little paintbox to have around. I also find myself using it to practice painting with a more limited palette. I can mix and match paints from other sets to get my 8 half pans (sometimes I just use one cartridge for 4 half pans) and then see what I can do with them. It was more than double the price that I paid for the Pocket Sketchers' set but since it's so fun to play with and paintboxes this small for half pans are so hard to find, it seems worth it.

* Pocket Sketchers' Set (12HP):

These paints are from another set - I put the paints I'd used into the set I'm currently using instead.

This was the first set I started to use. It was the set I used for painting outside and inside and everywhere, actually. I like how small it is: it doesn't take long for me to set up to paint or for me to clean up afterwards, and the 12 colours meant that I was given a crash course in mixing paint right from the start, which was great. As a total beginner, I really didn't need more than that. I also really love how the pans are stored. They don't budge when I'm lifting paint off of them. No rattling, no sliding along the row, nothing. They're also all individual, which makes any mess very easy to clean up. The only problem I had with it was that the paint palette, while okay at first, just wasn't big enough for everything I wanted to do, so I bought a folding palette with a thumb hole and used that when I needed a bit more space. It wasn't the end of the world. The mini brush isn't great, though. It looked quite used quite quickly and now I use something else instead, but this set has been used a lot so that brush has put up with a lot of my crap already.

* Pocket Plus Set (12HP):

The other palette also comes out of the lid so you can clean it.

This set is basically useless to me now with the other sets that I have, which is a shame. The palette slots into the lid for storage and you can also attach it to the other side, but if you do that it hangs over the paint pans slightly and my brush catches on it when I'm lifting paint, making a mess. The blue thing is actually a thumb loop but using it makes the box very unsteady and it has a tendency to come off where it's attached to the box underneath. The angle of the palette (both palettes, since the second one being in the way of the paints annoys me, so I always attach it to the lid) depends very much on the wobbly thumb loop, and I've never yet managed to hold the box in a way that makes the palette actually level. They're only almost level if the thumb loop isn't in use, so I'm not entirely sure why it's there. The brush is a proper mini Cotman brush though, which is nice. As it's one of the plus boxes, the brush is also on a little brush holder - it's raised up on rests that stop it from making the whole brush space messy if you put it back into the box while it's still wet. You also get more mixing space with that extra palette, so it may remove the need I had to buy one. The cartridges are great: they really do lock the pans in place. The only downside to them is that they aren't that much fun to clean up. It's a much bigger chore to keep this set looking nice than it is for the regular pocket sketchers' set, and I hate working with dirty paints and a dirty paintbox. The gaps between the pans and the openness of the cartridges make it very easy for them to get very messy rather quickly. This set is the same size as the regular pocket sketchers' set and it certainly goes some way to fixing the problem of mixing space, but that thumb loop is my nemesis, the cartridges are a pain to clean and it's much easier for me to just use the regular version with the external palette. If I was really pressed for space for some reason and couldn't take my external palette, then I suppose I would use this box then.

* Deluxe Sketchers' Set (16-24HP):

It didn't occur to me to photograph it with the original paints, so you'll have to use your imagination. Scroll back up to the paint section to see which 16 pans I got originally and I've marked on the spreadsheet what I have in here at the moment.

This set rattles. A lot. Those pans are NOT fixed in place at all, even with the dividers. It's not so bad when the set is new and the pans are all overflowing with paint, but when you need to dig the dregs out of your beloved half-dead pans, the fact that they run away from the brush all the time makes it quite irritating. The palette is great though, easily one of my favourites from the sets. I don't care about the pencil or the brush, but the pencil can always be replaced with a proper mini brush if you have one. This is the set that I'm currently using. When I looked at which paints I had the most of, they wouldn't fit into a 12-pan box. 

I noticed that you can add a third row of pans to the box if you have a spare divider, making it a 24-pan box instead, but I don't have a spare divider and I don't know anywhere that sells them. I searched the internet all over and then emailed Winsor & Newton about it. Unfortunately, the reply came back that they were never sold separately. The 12 whole pan set for this box comes with the divider but it's impossible to get if you get the half-pan set. The bottom part of my box had an eraser and the pocket brush in it, but the pocket brush still fits with a third row added and I never use the eraser. I've put the extra row in anyway but they aren't very secure (so they rattle even more than usual). I'm going to try and see if using the set with the palette facing me makes it any easier. I'm also thinking of adding wedges of folded tissue to stop the rattling. As an added bonus, they'd also absorb splashes. If I can have a 24-pan box that's so compact that will be almost perfect for me. EDIT: this box was eventually defeated with white tack, and it remains my current in-use set. See this post here if you're curious. If I'm a bit too rough with it, it's possible to dislodge a pan and make a mess, but this doesn't happen often enough to be a huge problem.

* Field Plus Set (12HP):

Magical box is magical. Water bottle and pots can be attached to either side, too.

This is the set that I really wish I could use all the time for everything ever. It's basically a transformer. The palettes are fantastic, there's plenty of mixing space and they're all level even when I'm holding it. The two water pots mean I can use one to clean my brush and one for when I need to paint with clear water. The water bottle clips into whichever thumb hole I'm not using so I can't lose it. The pans are practically glued into place with those cartridges. Yes, they're harder to clean up, but when painting outside I really don't want my pans to be moving around, so I don't care. It makes painting outside with less-than-full pans less painful and all the added things this set has over the Pocket Plus set make up for it. The brush is a proper mini Cotman brush again. The box isn't too heavy to hold for ages. I could write poetry about this set, I'm pretty sure. Unfortunately, at the moment I need more space, so it's been left to cry in my watercolour supplies box while I chase my paint pans around the deluxe sketchers' set instead.

* Painting Plus Set (24-32HP):

Palette in the lid is removable again. I hate the new paint packaging.

This set comes with tubes, tubes and half pans, or half pans (I think). I got the half pan set (obviously). There is space for two more cartridges to be added and I happen to have spare cartridges, so I can fit 32 pans in the box instead of 24. The cartridges click into place so they don't fall out or rattle. I could also remove cartridges and store my tubes there instead, but I won't. There's plenty of mixing space again, you get a full-sized Cotman brush with the set (on a proper brush holder, so you can put it there when it's still wet and it won't get the box messy) and a nice selection of colours. The cartridges are still annoying to keep clean but that's not the end of the world, considering. Even without the water bottle and containers from the field plus set, this set is still suitable for painting outdoors or taking travelling thanks to the cartridges and the amount of mixing space. It's smaller than the full studio set by two inches or so, but with two extra cartridges you're only missing out on 8 of the Cotman colours. Personally, I can spare them. I'm not sure that I'll use this set outside a lot when I have smaller sets to hand, but on days when I'm sick of spending time mixing colours in the freezing cold, I might want the extra 20 half pans with me to speed the process up. 

* Compact Set/Travel Bag (14HP):

Seriously, why are those ridges even there.

I got the compact set with the travel bag. The kit as a whole is great: watercolour pad, water bottle, paintbrushes, pencil, eraser, collapsing water container: everything you need to go for a walk or on a holiday with your paints, basically. The bag doesn't have a shoulder strap but I think it's possible to add one and it does have a carry handle and waist strap. But I've never gotten along with the compact set. There's a good selection of colours: with 14 pans you get more colour mixing options, but why they had to put little ridges where the pans go I don't know. The pans don't slot into the gaps, they balance there on those ridges and then wobble from side to side when I'm using them. You'd think that they'd just make the spaces like the ones in the pocket sketchers' set, only twice the size so they fit two pans in them, but no. The little tray I gather is for mediums because it's useless for water, but I don't really use any and certainly not when I'm out, and the palettes aren't bad but they aren't nearly as good as the field plus. Also, for a "compact" set... it isn't very, is it? There's an awful lot of space around all the pans that's completely unnecessary. If I hadn't got the field plus set, I imagine I'd think a lot more highly of the other small ones. The compact set just didn't seem half as useful to me. If the travel bag ever does make it outside (when I live somewhere less windy and rainy) then I'll probably switch the compact set out for something else, because it's a nice kit to have. There's a lot of extra space in the bag for adding other things to the kit, as well as all the things that are already there, which I like.


* Sketchers' Case (12HP):

Bottle still has water in it from the last time I painted outside. Usually enough for 3-4 small paintings.

I also have this for painting outside, which is now discontinued. I got mine for a reduced price as it was one of the last ones the store had and it's the set I've used the most. It comes with a pocket sketchers' box: because I already had one, I salvaged the paints, dumped them in my box for Cotman spares and used the box to store my 12 spare professional paints instead. You don't get a mini brush with the paint set because you get a full-sized Cotman one in the kit. You also get a sponge, an eraser, a pencil and a water bottle. There's no collapsing water container this time, but the one in the travel bag isn't very sturdy anyway and there are plenty of alternatives to buy. There's also no watercolour paper pad like the travel bag. You get a little A6 hardback sketchbook. Winsor & Newton apparently don't make watercolour notebooks, which is a shame, because the paper in the sketchbook just does not survive watercolours. I have to paint almost everything dry on dry or it dies very quickly. It is possible to make some nice and very quick sketches in the book without the paper falling apart, but it's not suitable for proper watercolour painting. The small size Moleskine journals do fit in the pocket though (the large size also fits in the travel bag if you want to replace the Cotman pad you get) so it is possible to use a watercolour notebook with the set, it just isn't a Winsor & Newton one.


* Whole Pan Studio Set (24HP):

Poor sap green and cobalt blue.

This set has a good range of colours, plenty of mixing space and the larger whole pans are better suited for larger brushes and therefore larger paintings. It's exactly what it says it is: I doubt it would be very nice outside because once the palettes are out it's quite large. There's space for a brush but the set doesn't come with one. The lower palette is removable so it's easier to clean (or it takes up less desk space, depending). It's a shame that the whole pans aren't sold individually, but they can always be replaced with half pans or professional whole pans once they've been used up. My only real gripe with the set is the sliding pans. They don't fit in the box; there's a gap at the side and nothing to stop them from running into it when I'm trying to lift colour. It's possible to wedge something there to stop them from doing that, but it seems weird that there isn't something included to prevent it in the first place. A removable plastic block would be enough. As it is, I'm stuck with making more tissue wedges or attacking it with white-tack.

* Half Pan Studio Set (45HP):

Paints still in packaging have been killed previously, or moved to other sets.

This set has all of the available Cotman colours "plus an extra one of the 5 most popular colours". Alizarin Crimson, yes. Ultramarine, yes. Yellow ochre, yes. Ivory black and Chinese white? Are you kidding, Winsor & Newton? That aside, this set is the ultimate one because it has all the colours. The five extra colours that it comes with can always be evicted in favour of ones that you're actually going to use. It's the exact same box as the whole pan studio set, so you get the same mixing space and removable palette (but it doesn't come with a brush either). However, the pans don't slide. They're pretty well secured by little ridges that the size of the whole pans totally ignores. Unfortunately, this gets annoying when the set is used up. 

There are currently 96 colours in the professional range. I have two studio boxes from the two studio sets. Half 96 is 48. The boxes hold 15 pans per row with those ridges: without them, they'd hold 16 per row for a 48-pan total. The ridges leave a gap at either side of the row that doesn't make much sense to me. I'd prefer it if the ridges weren't there at all, or if at the very least they allowed for the box to be full. As it is, when my Cotman paints are all over and done with, I won't be able to fit the full professional range in the studio boxes. But then again, it's the Cotman studio set, and for that it is absolutely perfect. It's just a shame that it isn't perfect for graduating the student grade paints as well, because it's a very nice box and I like to have a full set of paints (just to be awkward).

Professional sets:

* Bamboo Box Set (12HP):

Original on the left, my additions on the right.

For professional paints, I only have three sets. I bought the bamboo box set when it was being sold off at a fraction of the price due to damaged boxes and missing pieces, etc. I didn't know what state it was going to be in when it arrived and I didn't much care because it would still have professional paints in it, but I ended up with one that was barely damaged at all (it's there, but it's really hard to find it) and everything that was supposed to be there was. I bought the oil and acrylic ones at the same time, as all three of them reduced was roughly the same price as one. My oil one has slight damage to the box and my acrylic one is missing the palette, but I have a stay-wet palette for acrylics anyway, as well as tear-off sheet palettes, so I didn't care.

The set comes with a pocket sketchers' box with 12 professional paints, a cloth, two sable brushes, an A5 pad, a sponge, a pencil and an eraser. Apart from the problem of water (which really isn't a problem at all, water bottles and collapsing containers are hardly rare), it's everything you need for painting outside (or inside too, I suppose). The box is spacious, so I've been able to add extra paintbrushes that I've bought and I also have the box with my 12 spare pans in it. I didn't include them in the photo, but I also store the 6 limited edition tubes in here and they fit just fine as well. The only problem I really have with it is that there's only the mixing space that the pocket sketchers' set has so when I start to use it, I'll probably have to use an external palette again. The compartments are built into the box, so they can't be moved around or removed to allow for more mixing space. If this set had just the space for the 12 pans, a brush, sponge and a palette (removable, so you could clean it), it would be heaven for me. Mixing space aside, I still can't wait to start using it. It's a very nice box.

* Metal Sketchers' Set (24HP):

The fold-over palette looks kinda useless, really. Not a fan of this box at all. I like my palettes to be level and because of the design of the box, these never are.

I got this for such a ridiculously low price that it felt like robbery (it's really the only time I can justify buying them, considering how much Cotman paint I have), so having any minor problem with it feels a bit cheeky, but the minor problems remain. The set as a whole is nice: I got a wide range of colours (though about half were substitutes according to the retailer's website), plenty of colours that I didn't already have, and the mixing space is good. You can also remove the metal piece that holds all the pans and underneath it, there's some more mixing space. This is also brilliant if you're like me and hate the mixing surface, as you can just remove the paints and use them with another palette without the palettes for the metal box getting in your way and on your nerves. The metal box then just acts as a case for when the paints aren't in use.

The set is quite small, if a little heavy because of the material, but it's a good size to take away somewhere. Unfortunately, the box scratches quite easily, including wear and tear on the lid's palette caused by just opening the tin. It has a metal thumb loop underneath it which means it never lies flat when it isn't being held (mine don't, anyway). There's a row in the middle for storing brushes, I assume, but it doesn't actually fit the Winsor and Newton professional brushes in it. The largest brush it will take is a size 3, and that's really pushing it. It's also without any kind of protection for the bristles, so if the box is being carried in a bag or something, the brush could easily be damaged. Also unfortunately, this row isn't quite wide enough for a full third row of pans, but you can fit more in if you put them in the other way around. I haven't opened the paints yet, so with their packaging it's a little hard to tell, but at the moment I would guess that I can fit 11 pans in the brush space and another 1 on each of the two rows, totalling 37 pans. Not bad for a box that size, so hopefully it does fit! Once I've opened them and started using them, it'll be easier for me to tell what I can squash into it. EDIT: Done and done. It does indeed fit 37 half pans in it, but it's quite a squish to get them all in there. I've since bought another box, however, and that isn't stuffed to the brim. The end result is that when I open up the box, I find that the paints have gone travelling while the box has been closed, and I have to rearrange the pans before I can do anything (and pick them up off the floor, if I wasn't careful when I opened it). So I think I prefer a stuffed box to that.

* Field Set (12HP):

Useless baby sponge. I still hate the new packaging.

I got this set at the same time as the above set and for the same reason. I have seen so many amazing artists using this set, so I was looking forward to it.

The sponge in my set takes the piss. There's no other way to describe that. The sponge shown on the box and the sponge shown in my box don't even look related. My sponge shares a lot more characteristics with sock fluff. It's scrap sponge. The water bottle doesn't look like it can handle much, but again, they're hardly difficult to come by if that's the case. The water bottle does affect the sizes of the fold-out palettes, though. They all have to fit on top of each other when the set is closed, so there's some wasted space. If you aren't using too much water I suppose you could use that space anyway. The set has three mixing wells, so it's roughly the same space as the pocket sketchers' box and if it's not enough then the problem can be solved in the same way with my folding palette. I love the little water pot. It's a great idea, a good size and it's nice and sturdy, too. The pocket brush seems to be a better quality than the ones that come with the Cotman sets, but as I haven't tried it, I'm not 100% sure. The ultimate question is whether I will use this box over the field plus box or not, and I honestly don't know the answer to that. They're both good for different reasons. I suppose I'll find out when I start using the professional paints. Looking at them both, and ignoring the paint quality because I can always swap them around, I'm probably leaning towards the field plus set.

That's my sets done! December's self-imposed watercolour thing is imminent, so it's nice for me to know what I'm starting out with. I'm hoping to use up at least a few half pans of Cotman paint by doing this. I have quite a few that are already on their way out, luckily. More than anything though, I'm hoping that this sets me on a routine of painting more often, even if it is just a tiny scribble, because everything I do helps me to improve. Cotman paints are perfect for things like that because I don't feel like I'm "wasting" anything by messing around with them. I have a lot of half pans, so I have a lot of messing around to do!