Arty Farty Stuff

My lovely mum bought me some watercolour stuff for my birthday, thought I'd share what she got me plus a few other bits and bobs.

This is my "old" watercolour set, its a 12 half pan which is great for painting on the move but I really wanted a larger selection of colours so I didn't spend half my time mixing to get the right colour. Excuse how messy it is (and one of my hairs that seems to have jumped into the paint).

This is my new set, which my mum bought be for my birthday, the little box at the bottom is my old one from the picture above.

Look at those colours! There are 40 different colours! Really pleased with it :D It wasn't very expensive as it was half price which is always good.

I did a swatch thingie, writing down the names in the order they are in the box so that when one runs out I know what colour to buy.

I have a few extra blocks (that came with it, didn't see the point in opening two of some of them), all are colours I will probably end up running out of first too.

I have some tubes of watercolour paint as well, these are years old but after playing around with them last night are still in perfect condition. I wouldn't mind building a collection of the tubes as well as the blocks as they are great for making large quantities of paint for things like washes.

Mum also got me a few other bits which I'll show you as well, first up my sponges -

The natural sponges are amazing - they smell like the sea! I gave one a sniff (yeah, I sniff new stuff lol) and oh my goodness! The SEA! In my nose! Was like I had dunked my head in the ocean.

This is my paint pot, something I wasn't completely sure I would like but knew even if I didn't I would use it - turns out I love it! It's great, I can store my brushes without bending the bristles at all and it has these ridges in one side that make it really easy to clean the brushes too. Excuse the colour of the water in the pics, I had just finished doing the swatch thingie.

Mum also got me some new brushes, a size 1 Round, size 2 Script Liner and a 1/2" Short Flat brush. I have a nice little collection of brushes now.

And last but not least, the very boring but ever so important gumstrip (for stretching paper).

Couple more arty farty things -

Paper, not all of it but my three "best" pads.

The board I use for stretching paper (plus a random bit of watercolour paper...), really need to get a few more of these!

All my stuff together, how it sits by my chair :D

Seeing as this is an arty post, here's a photograph of another mini painting I've done. Thank you all for the lovely comments about the little painting I showed you on my last post!