Local stores near me seem to have something against watercolorists. They never seem to stock watercolor paints and related materials, much less good quality ones, and when they do, they're gone too fast! The only way to get what you really want is to order them online, but since the postal service system where I live isn't very kind to people with anxiety (meaning: me), I long decided to stay off online shopping for the foreseeable future.

Pentel Aquash in small and medium.

Fortunately for me, a friend recently came over from Japan and she was kind enough to get me two waterbrushes! I've been wanting to try these for a while now.


Pentel Aquash waterbrushes come in three sizes. The barrel isn't round so it won't roll off the table and its nylon bristles hold its point, which is exactly what I wanted. The only drawback to this is that they're not ideal for filling very large spaces... although it's probably doable and I just haven't found the right way to do it. These brushes take a while to get used to, but that's what practice is for!

I asked if my mother could find an art store somewhere in her trip to Spain and pick up a watercolor sketchbook for me because I was running out of pages on my Berkeley pad. She got me a few, among which is the Moleskine Watercolor Album. These would be my first actual watercolor papers, and I'm kind of scared to use them, specially since the Canson pad only has ten pages!


My parents also got me Winsor & Newton Cotman Sketcher's Pocket Box! While my old watercolors are definitely going to last me a long time, it's not as easy to carry around than I was hoping it would be, so I was thinking of looking for something more portable. I think this set is just the right size for travel. I'm looking forward to playing with it soon!



The pans don't fit snugly in the wells so I think most people use Blu-tack or the paint itself to keep them in place. Since I couldn't find my Blu-tack, I used the plastic the pan was wrapped in to pad the wells and make them tight enough to securely hold the pan. Some of the paint also fell off the pan itself so I had to wet the bottom to stick them in.

I'll definitely replace the white with something more useful like Payne's Grey, or maybe a nice bright blue (I'm really interested in Holbein's Horizon Blue). Although very unlikely, I'm hoping to find an easily-accessible physical store where I can get paint by tubes to refill this palette with when I run out. The Fully Booked in Greenbelt has the most stuff I've seen ever, but it's really really far and too troublesome to go to.

The box comes with a teeny tiny brush. I'm not comfortable with the handle being metal, but I like tiny brushes so we'll see how it goes.

This is a blank freebie notebook that's NOT for watercolors at all.

With the Sketcher's Pocket Box and the waterbrushes, I'm hoping to decrease my surface area requirement for doing my art. I'm not a travel sketcher. I can't draw and paint on the spot. But having a smaller setup will make it easier for me to find a place where I can sit down and draw when I'm not at home on my own makeshift desk (which is also too small).

Anyway, that's all the new stuff I have! Though the quality of one's art isn't entirely dependent on how expensive the materials are, it sure feels good to have some really nice and pretty weapons at your disposal. I'm excited to play with them all!!