The information provided is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See the full disclaimer.
I am part of affiliate program(s), and may receive a small commission from purchases you make through my links, at no additional cost to you. It’s a great way to support me, so thank you! See the full disclosure.
This was the first real art store I had ever been in and they couldn’t have been kinder! It was a great first art store tour!
Before this, all my art supplies were bought online; I started watercolor in 2021.
As a Blick affiliate, links may earn me a small commission, at no additional cost to you. It’s a great way to support me, so thank you!
Blick Art Materials in DC was easy to navigate with a wheelchair.
There’s a wheelchair lift right inside the front door.
Everyone in there was so kind; Mom and I had a grand old time looking around the entire store, specifically at every single watercolor paint and paper. 🙂
What would you have taken home with you?
The Sennelier aqua mini was my first travel watercolor set ever. It’s soo cute! They even have several all on one shelf.
This Gansai Tambi looked so glittery and sparkly; I’ve heard it’s a great really opaque set.
I also saw the Van Gogh pocket set of watercolors. Mom has it; it’s a good beginner’s set of watercolors. They also had the larger 18 color set of Van Gogh.
The Daniel Smith essential colors mixing set has the cool and warm of each of the primaries for learning color theory basics. Look how little and cute 5 ml tubes look.
Dot cards let you try out the watercolors from a brand. The 66 colors isn’t very expensive if you just want to try Daniel Smith, and their 238 colors dot card would save you money in the long run by allowing you to try out multiple colors without buying multiple tubes.
There’s also a Schminke 140 colors one if you want to try out Schminke watercolors.
Just wash your hands when you’re done, since dot cards include cadmium and cobalt colors to try.
It’s important to follow safe studio practices when handling colors like cadmium, cobalt, and nickel. You can read more on paint safety from Anthony; he wrote a great in depth article. As someone who drinks water while she paints, I choose not to have cadmium, cobalt, or nickel in my paints since I can’t get up and wash my hands before taking medicines.
I have the Caran d’Ache watercolor crayon set of 10, the neocolor II. They are fun but I haven’t quite learned how to use them best yet. 😀
I thought the blues set looked like fun, but it might be less expensive if you just picked out your own individual crayon colors.
I got to see the whole range of Princeton brushes, including my favorite Princeton Velvetouch 3/4 flat. I loove this brush.
The 3/4 Velvetouch is a great brush to start watercolor with if you have wrist strength issues.
It’s a large flat that holds it’s shape well while still holding a good amount of water, and it’s got a good sized, chunky handle. Smaller handles and detail work are harder on my wrist.
I thought the Aqua elite quill looked like a quill I have from somewhere else. Mom’s favorite watercolor brushes are Aqua elite.
They had a whole wheel display of pens and journals. They had the Pigma Micron Graphic Pens, which I’ve found to be great for tree branches instead of using a tiny watercolor brush.
I like the “Graphic” ones specifically instead of the brush pens, because they don’t change the shape the line makes, depending on how you use it.
That way I’m not using my wrist differently to accommodate the pen. I still don’t use pens much, but it helps that the pen just makes one type of line no matter how I hold it.
I thought the Blick pencil case looked like a camera lens pouch. That’s my photographer brain. 😀
I have been able to use watercolor pencils a little bit. I like that the Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle pencils are really soft. I tried other ones before and they weren’t soft enough for me to get the color onto the paper with wrist strength issues.
The Museum Aquarelle pencils don’t require a lot pressure to lay down the color. Because they are watercolor, it doesn’t require the same wrist action as coloring and shading with regular pencils would be.
I can’t actually do coloring pages with pencils because of wrist strength issues, but I can use these watercolor pencils to lay down the color, and then use water and a brush to activate them, and blend like watercolor.
I could also use them for the final stages of watercolor and not activate them, because they are soft and lay down well.
They have Giant watercolor paper. I like the strathmore 400, just in a smaller size lol. Just look at how big it is compared to my chair, and my hand.
I also found the Stranthmore 400 has a Landscape paper size.
The Fabriano fat pad is a great price for 25% cotton paper; there’s just so many pages in it.
I started on Canson xl paper, then got some Montval from Canson. I really love the Montval, I just don’t use it much since I convinced myself it was too precious to use up early on.
Mom has a Hahnemuhle book; it’s such a cute little book, and good paper too.
The Cavallini color wheel poster they had matches my Cavallini bag from my first month of painting. There were so many beautiful Cavallini things throughout the store.
And if you haven’t seen it yet, I filmed the whole thing:
It was so much fun to tour Blick with Mom, and to see all these art supplies in person.
Before this everything had been bought all online, since we started watercolor in 2021.
It’s such a cool thing to see the size of something before you buy it, and just to behold everything all in one place.
Now I need to start making a list of more art stores to visit. 😀
Megan
Ps. If you’re interested, It’s the Rollz I use: https://www.rollz.com/rollator-walkers/rollator-walker-wheelchair/
If you liked this, you might like to check out How I Began Watercolor with Wrist Strength Issues.
Megan Eileen 