With this box you can make your own watercolor paint
So instead of opening a tube and pretending you understand what is inside it, you actually get to make the paint yourself and see what is going on.
You take a bit of pigment, put it on the glass plate, add a few drops of binder, and then you start grinding it with the glass muller. In the beginning it feels slightly questionable, a bit dry, a bit uneven, and you might wonder if this was a good idea. Then it changes. It becomes smoother, heavier, more like something that wants to be paint instead of powder.
At that point you start adjusting it without overthinking. A little more binder if it feels too stubborn, a bit more pigment if it feels too polite. You move it around, work it in, and somewhere in the middle of that you realize you are not just mixing something, you are understanding it.
When it feels right, you move it into the pans and let it dry. After that it behaves like watercolor, except now you know exactly why it behaves the way it does.
The Sepia Box
This is where things get slightly serious in a good way.
Burnt umber, burnt sienna, and raw umber are not trying to impress anyone. They have been around for a very long time, and they already know what they are doing. The colors sit deeper in the paper, they move a bit slower, and they carry a kind of weight that brighter colors usually avoid.
If you have ever seen an old photograph that somehow feels more convincing than real life, that is the territory you are working in here. Everything looks a bit more grounded, a bit more believable, like it has already existed before you painted it.
Burnt sienna has been heated, which is why it turns more red, which is also a good reminder that even pigments have a past and sometimes come out of it slightly changed.
There is also an Italian mood hiding in these colors. Warm walls, dust in the air, espresso that is stronger than your current life decisions, and time that is not in a hurry.
Contents:
Glass muller
Glass grinding plate
Pigments (Burnt umber, Burnt sienna, Raw umber)
Glycerin
Gum arabic
Cloves
Stirring stick
Brush
Silicone scraper
Watercolor paper, 300 gsm
3 small glass jars with lids
Gloves
3 watercolor pans
Metal tin
Pipette
Dust masks
Watercolor recipe in Dutch
