I decided today that I'll try my watercolour "Field Pocket Set" as Windsor & Newton like to call it. I've had it for a while and never gave it a go so I thought I'd see what I could achieve with it. As I was only ever going to use it for quick watercolour sketches potentially leading up to a full oil painting I set myself a time limit of an hour and give you my thoughts on it.
It looks nicely constructed and rather compact, as a pocket set should be, the water bottle doesn't hold as much as I would like so I recommend taking extra water (which I'm sure most would anyway). The brush is small which is great for small detail, not so great on a big wash, but this, for me, is only being used on quick sketches for future paintings or journal's for jotting down a nice moment to be caught in its pages. So it was quite adequate for what I needed. There is a handy ring on the back to slide a finger through, but if you get into the painting too much you may forget about it and end up throwing the water around with some expressive gesture.
The range of colours was quite good and strong and considering the size of the set, I can comfortably fit it into my trousers pocket (they are quite baggy though).
I did miss some of my other equipment, like some kind of easel to hold the pad in place, however, if I'm taking my easel, I'm then carrying my bigger kit bag and don't need the field pocket set. This is more for when you want to travel light or don't expect to do any painting (or don't want your partner to know that you are only going somewhere because you think there may be something worth sketching and they will have to entertain themselves for half an hour).
Will I use it again, definitely. Will it replace any of my other sets, no.... but then.. I can never have enough.



