It was just over two years ago that I picked up a pencil and thought “heck, I’m going to try drawing a self-portrait!” with rather mediocre results. However, the satisfaction and joy of creating something stuck and I began obsessively reading articles and watching drawing tutorials on youtube. I gradually improved as I invested more and more time into this newfound passion.

I’m hoping to expand the topics I post about here to reflect my diversifying hobbies offline. I want to post more about art and the process of learning to draw and paint. Don’t look for any art lessons here, though! I’m no where near at the stage of being able to offer advice to other budding art enthusiasts. However, I would like to share my successful sketches and botched scribbles with you, as well as interesting techniques I’ve discovered and review some of the art supplies I’ve purchased. You may also find the occasional post on places I’ve travelled to or tasty restaurants I’ve visited as a more general overview my life in general (not that I really expect great interest in my day to day activities! haha).

So without further ado, the first post in a new era of the Baking Medic is a review of the Cotman Watercolour Sketcher set. Nope, no one is paying me to write this review nor did I get the product for free. Below, I’ll outline what I like about this little watercolour set and show you a sample what I was able to achieve with it.

Price:

£7.19 on amazon.co.uk

What you get:

12 half pans of the Cotman range of watercolour by Winsor & Newton:

• Lemon yellow
• Cadium yellow
• Cadium red pale
• Alizarin crimson
• Ultramarine
• Phthalo blue
• Viridian
• Sap green
• Yellow ochre
• Burnt sienna
• Burnt umber
• White

This little watercolour sketching set fits almost in the size of your palm. It includes 12 little half pans of watercolour paint. The plastic container opens out so you have 3 mixing areas. A small round brush is also included, which actually in two parts so it can be disassembled and stored safely.

The Pros:

This little set is small but mighty. I was able to achieve a broader range of hues and values than I thought would be possible with such a small palette. Although it is the Cotman range and not the artist quality paints offered by Winsor & Newton, I was satisfied with the richness of these half pan colours. The little brush that is included actually works really well and is one of my favourites for doing little details on a painting. Also, priced on Amazon at under £10 this little set really good value for money. It was the first watercolour paints I bought as I’m still learning the medium and I didn’t want to invest too much if I decided I didn’t like watercolours.

I was impressed with the richness of the colours and the diversity of hues that I was able to get with this palette. The little brush was also great for all the details in these cushions.

The Cons:

The mixing area is a little small with only three shallow wells. However, I can see why it’s a bit sparse as it is meant to be portable and for sketching rather than doing full paintings. Initially I was disappointed that a dark neutral like Payne’s Grey wasn’t included in the set. However, I have since decided it is just as easy and much better to mix my own greys using browns and blues rather than rely completely on existing hues.

Overall Rating:

4.5/5 – excellent value for money, a great first set for beginners intrigued by watercolours, but I wish the wells were a little deeper for mixing colours.

All of these were painted using this watercolour set.