#scrawlerbox

The August Box showed up and I opened it to discover a little travel-sized watercolor set. Also provided was a water brush, an eraser, a pencil, a piece of candy, a sticker, two pieces of watercolor paper, and a print (The artist is @ Milkyrat on instagram). The box traveled well despite having to cross the ocean and the midwest ;)

My relationship with watercolors is a bit mixed. I haven’t had the greatest success with them because I am not patient enough. The interesting thing about these (Derwent Inktense) is they claim to be quick drying and more or less permanent, so re-wetting won’t activate them. This appears true, as after I swatched them out I pulled water over them in increasing pressure, and they didn’t lift at all.

This changes things a bit, because it’s more like working with dilute acrylic paints than watercolor. I can see the argument for why this would be good for travel – accidental spills or contact aren’t going to be as disastrous.

I have waterbrushes similar to the one provided in the Derwent box, though this one is slightly different. Rather than a cap for the brush itself, there is a stopper to place in the reservoir for travel.

I’m a bit mixed on it (top in the photo) – the short length and the weight once water is added makes it a little clumsy compared to a full sized brush (bottom in the photo) (appears to be the same manufacturer, I bought my set of 3 under the name ‘xpassion’ off amazon last year).

The MVP of the box turns out to be the (Faber-Castell Graphite Aquarelle 2B) pencil and the little sponge that was provided in the Derwent box.

I’m generally not a fan of traditional pencils because of the need to sharpen, but this one is interesting because it claims to ‘dissolve’ with water. If you’ve done work or even just had sweating hands while writing the idea that pencil will lift with water isn’t too novel, but when I tried a bit of swatching with it, sure enough, rather than smudging it lifts and acts like watercolor.

The sponge turned out to be the answer to making corrections. The pigments will not lift with water and even the soft eraser given ripped the rather fragile paper before lifting the color. But somehow the light abrasion of the sponge was just the answer for clearing away errors. It wouldn’t completely remove, but it does allow for paint-over, so hey, I learned something!

Now, where I’m getting a bit HMM is calling the Derwent colors ‘Inktense’ or ‘vivid’, as in the written material provided with the box. This is one reason I don’t have a watercolor set, I haven’t really found a set of colors that appeals to me. I started in on the second piece of paper with just a drawing (done with my own mechanical pencil lollll) and stopped about here, feeling blah.

And I want to believe ‘intense’ watercolor exists, because I follow some great artists who do very saturated paintings, though I suppose they could be digitally manipulated.

I kind of realize this might just be how watercolor IS, except…

I backed Vivia last year on Indegogo (they’re what I bought the water brushes for). They’re also optimized for travel (this booklet is the same length as the Derwent box), but a little more messy because just sneezing at them reactivates the color. Just holding the booklet tends to get magenta all over my hands :P

So the final photo is same image after a few minutes of attacking it with the vivia sheets. After this point the review goes off the rails and becomes entirely unfair because I disregard the subscription box entirely and pulled out my copics, microns, and signo pens and went all out.

After doing all that I was feeling pretty sour but a couple weeks of setting that aside has let me be a little more introspective. This morning I went out with both the Derwent and Vivia sheets, the Faber Castell pencil and my water brushes in my pocket, my mix media sketchbook in hand, and used it all in the spirit it was meant under the shade of a tree, rather than within the controlled environment of my studio space.

What I did isn’t finished but I’ll post a WIP next week. Generally, I think I’ve come back around and decided context matters. On it’s own as a watercolor set I’d give the box maybe a 7/10, it’s competent but not groundbreaking or essential. Within the space of needing something simple and light, it worked pretty well. Combined with materials I already had on hand that were also optimized for portability, I’d pull it up to maybe an 8 or 9 – the softer and more muted tones work well for planning and under-painting in preparation for other materials.

In any case while I was waffling on all this I got charged for the September box so we’ll see how that is when arrives later this month lol.