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Friday, April 06, 2007

Home Made Watercolour Bijou Box


Update:
It seems that the people at Home Depot rarely know what they have as products. I have received many emails saying that they don't carry shelf edging. NOT TRUE! The do. They are usually kept in black piping that is hug from the bottom of the wood section in the shelf isle. For your convenience, I stole a bar code so you can print it and take it with you and ask them to scan it and maybe that will alert them to the FACT that they have it!! Here it is:


For the watercolour sketchers, The Winsor an Newton Bijou Box has got to be on top of their wish lists. It is a beautifully compact and solid enamelled box that measures 79mm x 60mm x 16mm (or approximately 3" x 2.5" x 3/4"). I have always wanted to have one of these, but since I own two larger Winsor and Newton boxes and have made my own Altoids watercolour boxes before, I could not justify the cost of the Winsor and Newton Bijou Box.

This size box is excellent for carrying around in a pocket for sketching when you are out in the everyday world. It is the size of a Blackberry, and when coupled with a small size pocket sketchbook and a waterbrush, can turn into an instant pocket studio.

I love my Altoids box. It has been my companion for a while now, but over time it has become loose and clunky and with spring around the corner, it was time to retire it. I had been constantly on the look out for a metal box that approximates the dimensions of the Bijou Box. Call it an ideal, or just the fact that it is a classic and THE one to be imitated. I always look for boxes, mint boxes at convenience stores, metal boxes at garage sales. Anywhere I see a metal box, I try to envision it as a watercolour box.

A few months ago I was at a conference where they were giving away mints boxes. They called them "Manage-mints". Smart idea! I didn't care much for the mints, but the box? The dimensions of this small metal box were almost the same as the Winsor and Newton Bijou Box. They are exactly 80mm x 63mm x 17mm. It is professionally covered with white enamel, and I was able to easily remove all the marketing graphics off of the box by using a bit of my wife's Acetone. That left me with a very nice white enamelled box. Granted the Bijou Box is black, but hey! This was the home made version so white would be just fine by me.

In my earlier work on the Altoids box and in restoring one of my Winsor and Newton boxes, I used 3/4" shelf-edging to hold the pans in the boxes. These shelf edging strips work perfectly and allow you to change the pans and half pans easily, but hold them in place extremely well. For this box, I decided to use 5/8" shelf-edging. If you go to your local hardware store you will actually find three sizes of these shelf-edgings. 3/4", 5/8" and 1/2". The first two sizes will hold half pans very well in different directions, the third size is not useful for our purposes, but I am sure I will find a use for it soon. The reason I used the 5/8" edging is that three strips of that size, will fit perfectly in the box while only two of the 3/4" would fit in and I would be left with significant unused space in the box. Moreover with the two 3/4" strips, I would be able to hold 10 half pans, while with the 5/8" edging, I could fit 12 half pans into this box of 2.4" x 3.0" x 3/4".


Aside from the shelf edging, I needed a plain white vinyl tile, six 1/2" staples (The kind used with a staple gun), and a small piece of white adhesive shelf lining. I also needed the smallest drill bit in my tool box.

I started by measuring the inside of the box and cutting a piece of the vinyl tile to fit snugly in there. I also measured the inside of the cover and cut the shelf lining to size and stuck it there. The white shelf lining makes the inside of the box cover a perfect place mixing colours.

I then cut three strips of the 5/8" shelf edging to fit in the box and secured them to the vinyl tile by drilling holes in the edging and the tile and threading the 1/2" staples in these holes to hold the tile and edging together. The 1/2" staples hold the pieces together very well and you do not have to worry about them becoming unglued if you try to change the half pans. I fit the finished component in to the box, and filled the edging with 12 half pans.

I am ready for spring now. This blackberry-size paint box fits easily in my jacket pocket and with a couple of travel brushes and a small moleskin-like sketch book, I am ready and able to sketch any where, any time.

Watercolour artists fall into two groups: Those who use tube paint, and those who prefer pans and half-pans. Whether you are traveling near or far, you should consider using paint in pan and half-pans in boxes. There is a myth in North America, that you can't get rich colour out of pans. Not true. You can get colours that are just as rich from the pans as you can get from the tube. All you have to do is wet them before you use them. If you are still not convinced that you should give pans a try, maybe this will do the trick: With new carry-on travel restrictions on liquid and jells, tube paints are not likely to make it past the security counter at your local airport. So if you plan to travel with your paint, I hope that this article has given you an idea of how to make your own home made watercolour Bijou Box.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Pink Panther's Update

Events sometime have a way of falling in place in a surrealistic way. After I posted my nostalgia entry about our band a few days ago, and within the day, I was reconnected with Pierre Kerbage our gifted keyboard player. It seems he was living in Austin Texas all this time. The kicker is that I lived in Austin for 7 years and we never connected there!!
Now for nearly 32 years, we have not seen or heard from each other whatsoever. Over the years, I had tried hard to find my closest friend in High school, our lead guitarist Ralph Shami (AKA Chami) but without luck. My latest attempt, a few years back was an email I sent to an R. Shami who bluntly told me he was not the guy and warned me not to spam him!
Today while Pierre and I were on the phone chatting for the first time in 30 some years, we Googled Ralph and for some reason Pierre tried Chami instead of Shami. We found an email address, sent a ping and.... YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We found him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dr. Chami, a former professor at Notre Dame and now with the IMF no less. After a quick email exchange, Ralph called Pierre promptly and we had a three way conversation. It was surreal.
The day was spent in a flurry of emails and tonight I still can't believe that all this happened.
So here is the update on the Pink Panthers:
- Pierre Kerbage (Keyboard wizard) is now president and CEO of his company Managed IT Services in Austin Texas
- Ralph Chami (Lead Guitar Magician) is a Division Chief with the IMF Institute in Washington DC
- Fawzan Barrage (me Singer/Rhythm Guitarist) is a Financial Sales Executive in Toronto
- Emile Bustani (Drummer) Is still in Beirut Lebanon and a professional musician as well.
- Jamal Hamadeh (Yes Ralph remembered his name) Our Base player is still A-wall. We have an APB on him and WILL find him sooner or later.

Ralph and Pierre are still seriously into music, I dabble but nothing like these two. We plan to reunite at least for a weekend and jam for old times sake. 30 some years later it is simply unbelievable that we could find each other like this in a few days.

The day was a double surprise for my wife Rima who went to High School with us was also friends Pierre and Ralph. She walked in from the snow storm today while I was talking to Ralph and Pierre. I handed her the phone without saying a word. You should have seen her face when she realised who she was talking to.

Yes it is a small world after all.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Another Altoids Watercolour Box

The good folks at the Altoids company keep throwing challenging new boxes my way and I keep taking the bate! The last was this fabulous looking sour chewing gum box. It measures 8.5cm x 3.7cm x 2cm and is about half the size of the regular Altoids box. It also sports a lovely curved top that should serve well in holding water and colour mixes. (You can see my old, well worn, regular Altoids box on the right for comparison)

The smaller size was a real challenge. At these dimensions the box would not hold more than four standard half pans. Four pans would not really make a useful palette for me, so I looked for quarter pans. I know they used to sell those but I just can't find them anymore (If you know where I can find some please let me know). I finally decided to try using the FIMO clay that you can bake to a hard solid shape.

I placed the clay in the metal box, smoothed it and used a round flat felt pen end to press 10 holes in the clay. I then smoothed those and placed the whole thing in a toaster oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes. I took it out, let it cool down and placed colours in the holes.
I still need to enamel the inner cover to use as a mixing well, but I just had to share this one right away.

The box fits easily in a Jeans pocket and with a waterpen it should be enough for impromptu sketching. Not exactly what I would take with me for a plein-air trip, but for a lunch time break outdoors when spring come? It will work just right!






Monday, January 22, 2007

Winslow Homer's Pallete

Another great watercolor artist is, of course, Winslow Homer. Here is his pallete:

Antwerp Blue
Aureolin
Bone Black
Burnt Sienna
Burnt Umber
Cadmium Yellow
Chinese White
Chrome Orange
Crimson Lake
Green Earth
Hooker's Green
Indian Purple
Indian Red
Indian Yellow
Prussian Green (a mix or Prussian Blue and Gamboge)
Payne's Gray
Scarlet Lake
Sepia
Vandyke Brown
Vermilion
Warm Sapia

As you can see, Homer's Pallete, as opposed to Sargent's is decidedly cooler.

John Singer Sargent's Pallete

I am always interested in finding out the colors that great artists use. Not that duplicating them would give one their ability to use them, but just knowing the pallete is a great insight into the works.

So here is Sargent's Pallete:

Alizarin Carmine (Newman)
Brown Pink (Newman)
Burnt Sienna (Newman)
Cadmium Yellow Pale (Newman)
Cadmium Yellow #2 (Newman)
Chrome Yellow (Newman)
Cobalt Blue (Newman)
Gamboge (Weber)
Lamp Black (Winsor and Newton)
Rose Madder (Winsor and Newton)
Ultramarine (Schminke)
Vandyke Brown (Newman)
Scarlet Vermillion (Winsor and Newton)
Deep Vermillion (Hatfield)
Viridian (Winsor and Newton)

This is mostly a warm pallete with 3 or 4 cooler colors only (Alizarin Carmine, Cobalt Blue, Rose Madder, and Viridian) I am so glad to see Lamp Black there. I love the color and its effect. A much better choice than the other blacks out there. It has a lovely texture and granulates beautifully.