Cakes or Tubes?

"La Rambla," watercolor, 2017

Watercolor artists have a lot of options when it comes to materials. Although the average person probably thinks of watercolors as those little solid cakes of color in a small tin box that are used in grade school, there are other forms too. The beautiful thing about watercolor is in its name: the color is thinned with water; there is no other medium. That makes the medium eminently portable and easy to use with minimal equipment.

Watercolor paint is made in a similar way to all paint. That is, it comprises a pigment and a binder, variably with other additives, all dissolve able in water. Most sold today uses gum arabic as the binder. Additives can include all sorts of water-soluble materials intended to alter the performance of the paint--honey, for example. Watercolor paint is now made with the same kinds of newer organic pigments encountered in other media as well as the old standby earth colors like ochres.

Tubed watercolors in plastic palette box

Tubes of watercolor paint in the "professional" grade is available from a number of manufacturers as are dry cakes in full pan and half-pan sizes. Paint sold as student grades contains extenders--unpigmented additions--diluting the pigment, or substitute pigments that mix or perform less well. So using somewhat more expensive professional grade is recommended.

Tubed watercolors can be had in very small, portable tubes of 5ml or so (left) or in larger sizes. Some companies sell an assortment in boxes that double as a palette and fits in a pocket, so all one has to do is carry a sketchbook or pad. On the other hand, small boxes of cakes that fit into a pocket are also available from a number of companies.

So the question arises, which is best, tubes or cakes? For me, it's the dry solid cakes in a small box. Mine holds the smaller half-pans, which are available in all of the standard colors. I can put one of these tiny boxes in my pocket or into a carry-on bag along with a small sketchbook and water pen and I'm ready to go. Tubes might be as handy put they also could leak and be altered by cabin pressure on airplanes or lower temperatures in cargo compartments.

In the studio I do use tubed watercolors and I always take both a pocket-sized box as well as a larger metal watercolor box that holds more colors in full-sized pans. Those sorts of watercolor boxes have more room for a waterbrush, a pen or two, and even perhaps a scrap or two of paper towelling.

"Waiting for food, Anna Marie Is," 2018