Cotman Watercolour Floral Pocket Set

On a breif visit to Shipley and Saltaire, plagued sadly by back problems, I was seduced by the art shop again and decided to buy some watercolours. This is something I have played with a little, though not for quite some time, though it is a medium I love.

I bought the rather cute Windsor and Newton Cotman Floral Pocket Set, as this had the most interesting colours. These sets (there are others for landscape, portrait, etc.) are quite good value, I paid about £16 for which I got 8 half pans (costing about £24 to buy) and a travel brush. What I like is that they include empty slots to add your own colours.

The basic floral set contains half pans in the following colours: Lemon Yellow Hue, Cadmium Yellow Hue, Cadmium Red Deep Hue, Permanent Rose, Dioxazine Purple, Ultramarine, Sap Green, Chinese White.

I added Viridian Hue, Prussian Blue, Burnt Umber, and Purple Lake – largely because they were nice colours.

This is just a little bit of experimentation – I took these from photos I have taken over time to get a feel for the coloursand how the paint performed.

I also picked up some Khadi Cotton Rag Paper. This is lovely deckle edged rough rag paper which gives a great effect with the paint. This is a study of a Monsera leaf from the plant in my dining room.

I thought it would be good to paint something coherent. We had these gourds from Hallowe’en – I am hoping to dry these out as they are so lovely. I set these three up as a still life. This is where the colours really excelled and I am very pleased with this peice.

All in all, this set, or one of the similar ones, is a great introductory set at a decent price. Cotman are considered at the better end of the student quality watercolours and great for moving up from cheap products.