I wanted a tiny convenient paint set for taking with me anywhere. I keep seeing them on youtube and in artist’s blogs and they are so cool. I don’t need this, for two reasons. I have small travel palettes already. And I don’t take paints anywhere and paint. I do WANT to, though, and I wanted a really small one (for no reason that makes any sense. Just to see how small a set I could get, I think), so I made myself one last night.
I used a round little tin (about 3″ across) I found while cleaning out my studio. I was thinking I’d used 3 or 4 colors in a travel set, but I fit 8 windsor & newton cotman 1/2 pans in there. I cut down two of my cheapest paint brushes, a round and a flat, to 2 3/4 inches, and sanded the end I cut, (and plan to dip that cut end in acrylic paint or clear nail polish or something to keep it safe from water) You may notice the round brush is actually cut to a slanted end, the tip of which I think I can use for lines in the paintings. I also cut down a pencil, and included a tiny eraser from my electric eraser set. I’m not worried about using these very short tools if ever I’m out, and I also have a pencil extender in my watercolor pencil set, which will make them even easier to use, I think. Also, we are workshop challenged in our family (sad because dad was a workshop genius) and have no tools. So I used a safety jack o lantern cutter for the brushes and pencil (making me wonder, are they really that safe?), and a nail file to sand them dow. Perfect. I feel so self reliant.
(All that work… and there’s a little collapsible Da Vinci brush I’m DYING to buy. Several, actually.)
I added magnets to the backs of each 1/2 pan and they fit perfectly around the edge of the tin. I added magnets to three little metal pans from my new Artbin palette, placed one in the center of the paints, and two in the lid of the tin. These will be for mixing colors, which I can also do in the lid of the tin. OR i can use the tin lid or tin itself to hold water!
I put the brushes, pencil, eraser, and one folded up paper towel inside the tin, put the lid on, and added a tiny laminated swatch I’d made of the paints, which will help me remember what’s in there if I never use it.
(those brushes were white once)
I have a tiny bag that a friend on Swap-bot made for me a while back, which will hold my palette, pen, a tiny collapsible metal cup for water, a couple 2×3″ pieces of watercolor paper… to test paint colors… and my pencil extender. I know, I know… If I’m taking a little bag anyway, do I need such a small palette? Wouldn’t my slightly larger professional palettes work as well or better? uh… yeah, probably.
But, this will be fun. I think I will add another large flat magnet on the bottom of the tin, so I can attach the tin to my sketch book if I need to, and a clip to keep pages from blowing if I am outside.
And I’ll have no excuse not to go sit at Starbucks and paint. Sipping my chocolate frappuccino, nibbling on madeleines. Nice. Pocket sized painting fun, created with things I already had here and wasn’t using. And I get madeleines.
ThreeSixFiveArt 