My
watercolor sets collection has grown recently with the addition of the most compact set available from
Winsor & Newton: The
Bijou Box which is almost half the size of the
lightweight sketchers' box set that used to be my smallest half pan set. While not readily available in the USA, they seem to pop on E-bay and a couple of brick-and-mortar stores from time to time.
I had passed on the
Bijou box before, but at the Tampa
Pearl store their last two sets were priced at $54.44 and they had a 30% off in-store coupon promotion running. Thus even though I could hardly claim to need yet another
watercolor box, for $38.11+tax I just had to bring it home. This boxed set came with 8 artists' watercolor half pans and a collapsible brush, but it can actually hold 12 half pans.
Bijou box loaded to capacity with 12 half pans from my
lightweight sketchers' box. Since the metal box really doesn't grip the half pans securely, I have stuck some magnetic tape to the bottom of the pans to help them stay attached to the box interior.
Color chart of the 12 half pans loaded in the
Bijou box.
Initial field tests were done by coloring assorted sketches in a
Handbook journal during a recent trip to North Carolina.
Phoenix Keeper sketch colored with the 12 half pan palette and a
waterbrush.
Another coloring test.
Sample compact sketching kit tools:
Winsor & Newton Bijou box, foam eraser,
waterbrush, shop towel, and
Handbook journal.
Menagerie drawn with a waterproof gel pen and colored with Winsor & Newton Artists' watercolors.
Pencil doodle colored on the flight back to Florida with a
waterbrush. The
Bijou box's compact size makes it an ideal choice for field use in confined spaces like an airplane cabin and color sketching on-the-go. It works quite well for coloring smaller formats like postcards and field sketchbooks. Given its ultra compact size and the tight arrangement of its half pans, it is best to stay away from larger brushes to prevent pigments from polluting each other.
My watercolor sets collection has grown recently with the addition of the most compact set available from Winsor & Newton: The Bijou Box which is almost half the size of the lightweight sketchers' box set that used to be my smallest half pan set. While not readily available in the USA, they seem to pop on E-bay and a couple of brick-and-mortar stores from time to time.
I had passed on the Bijou box before, but at the Tampa Pearl store their last two sets were priced at $54.44 and they had a 30% off in-store coupon promotion running. Thus even though I could hardly claim to need yet another watercolor box, for $38.11+tax I just had to bring it home. This boxed set came with 8 artists' watercolor half pans and a collapsible brush, but it can actually hold 12 half pans.
Bijou box loaded to capacity with 12 half pans from my lightweight sketchers' box. Since the metal box really doesn't grip the half pans securely, I have stuck some magnetic tape to the bottom of the pans to help them stay attached to the box interior.
Color chart of the 12 half pans loaded in the Bijou box.
Phoenix Keeper sketch colored with the 12 half pan palette and a waterbrush.
Another coloring test.
Sample compact sketching kit tools: Winsor & Newton Bijou box, foam eraser, waterbrush, shop towel, and Handbook journal.
Menagerie drawn with a waterproof gel pen and colored with Winsor & Newton Artists' watercolors.
Pencil doodle colored on the flight back to Florida with a waterbrush. The Bijou box's compact size makes it an ideal choice for field use in confined spaces like an airplane cabin and color sketching on-the-go. It works quite well for coloring smaller formats like postcards and field sketchbooks. Given its ultra compact size and the tight arrangement of its half pans, it is best to stay away from larger brushes to prevent pigments from polluting each other.
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4 comments:
Welcome to the world of Bijou. I too had to have one and got mine at ebay UK.
Haven't played with her yet so many thanks for your review.
Thanks. Hopefully the portability of the Bijou set will help me practice my rusty watercolor skills more often. I have mostly been drawing lately.
Hopefully you will find the time to post some of your own Bijou watercolor tests during your travels.
For others who are hunting, you can pick up an empty bijou box at Natural Pigments.(http://naturalpigments.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=624-2083) for $25. I also bought some of the empty pans and filled them with Daniel Smith Primatek paints which are made from gems and minerals (which are great). So, my bijou box now holds bijou paints. Hah! (bijou=French for jewel).
Thanks for the tip on the empty Bijou box!
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