Melting White Nights Watercolour - a story of Cerulean Blue

I wasn't intending to write a review of St Petersburg White Night paints as I only have one, but I'm so dismayed by it that I simply had to tell you guys about it.

Picture the scene: it was a gorgeous summer's day, I had an errand or two to run and then I was free for a couple of hours. Great! I packed my watercolours, paper, waterpots and my new favourite sketching brush (a 5mm flat springy one stroke brush that seems to be able to do everything) and a lovely picnic of cheese, an amazing apple and ginger pickle sauce from my local church and some homemade slaw mmmmm. I stopped in town for less than an hour to do my chores, leaving everything in the car. The sun was shining but this is England right, the cheese will be fine.

After walking up and down the canal for a while I found a perfect spot at Burscough Wharf and set myself up by some empty moorings.

I often start a new sketch by establishing my lines with a yellow sharpie. YIKES I nearly lost half of them in the canal - it's a good job that they float!

Now to open those fabulous watercolours.

Hang on, what's happened, the lid is stuck!

Gently prise it open to find this...


Watercolour and masking tape - a mini review

I was recently sent a couple of different scotch masking tapes to try out so thought I'd put them through their paces with my watercolours.

The two tapes were 


  • Scotch 25 mm x 50 m Masking Tape for Delicate Surfaces - Beige
and
  • Scotch 24 mm x 50 m Greener Masking Tape - Beige

For my first comparison I used 2.5 x 3.5 inch 300gsm Daler Rowney NOT surfaced watercolour paper and my travel Artist watercolours from Cass Art. The colours I chose to use were cobalt blue, cadmium red and cadmium yellow.