Back in December I saw a video by HulloAlice where she showed a watercolor advent calendar by Schmincke. The advent calendar contained 23 Schmincke Akademie Aquarell half pans and 1 Shcmincke Horadam Aquarell full pan. For years I searched for an advent calendar with art supplies but never had any luck. Last year I didn’t even bother looking since they didn’t seem to exist. Once I saw the video I immediately went to purchase it. At the time the only site I could find that had it was the Society for All Artists which is in the UK. I figured I’d have to play catch up when it arrived since I’ve had items shipped from the UK before and they’ve only taken about a week to a week and a half. However I should have known that since it was the holiday season it would most likely not get here till around or after Christmas. It arrived after Christmas so rather than opening all the watercolors at once which wouldn’t have been any fun I decided instead to wait till February to open it.

I decided to have a Birthday Advent Challenge. Every Friday I would create a watercolor piece with all the colors I had opened up during the week. Since my birthday was the 22nd I would have 2 extra watercolors to open up on my birthday. It was fun opening up the day’s watercolor and at the end of the week creating something from all of that weeks color. If Schmincke came out with a new advent calendar for this year I think I will purchase it and create another challenge around it. I would just need to purchase it well before December.

Below are all the pieces I created during the challenge.

The first week only had 1 watercolor. The color was Naples Yellow. At first I wasn’t sure what I would create with just one color but I decided since the color was a little peachy I would create a naked mole rat.

The second week I had a full 7 colors to play with. The colors were Brilliant Green, Ultramarine, Indian Yellow, Permanent Green, Yellow Ochre, Prussian Blue & Burnt Brown. I had a much easier time coming up with something to create with the colors. I decided on a cat skull filled with flowers.

The third week the colors reminded me of Karla Magaña’s art so I created a piece inspired by her art. The colors were Indigo, Orange, May Green, Opaque White, Black, Carmine & Magenta.

For the last week I had 9 colors to work with. The colors were Cadmium Yellow Hue, Sepia, Cadmium Red Hue, Cyan, English Red, Violet, Olive Green Yellowish, Light Lemon Yellow & Yellow Gold (Special Edition). My husband said I should do a birthday cake since it was my birthday.