Before photography, the British military carried Winsor & Newton field boxes to sketch, map and record. Lightweight and fantastically compact (it fits in a shirt pocket), the ingenious Water Color Field Box folds out to reveal 12 half pans of water color (the finest quality and in shades, warm and cool, for maximum mixability) a water bottle, mixing well, three mixing areas, artists' sponge and a sable pocket brush. The whole kit, in its navy plastic box, with everything you need, weighs in at just five ounces. How cool is that? The company continues a 170-year-old tradition of producing the finest artist's materials. The 12 colors typically included are: winsor yellow, lemon yellow, winsor red, perm aliz crimson, French ultramarine, winsor blue (a greenish shade), winsor green (a yellowish shade), yellow ochre, burnt sienna, raw umber, ivory black, Chinese white.  (STF26, $129.00)