Watercolor of St. Patrick's Cross Handbook Watercolor Sketchbook 3.5 x 8.5 inches

All aboard for An Imaginary Trip to Ireland!! 'Tis wet, cold and windy in Ireland today,* but oh, the beauty of such a wind-swept land! Complete with ruins, leprechauns tales of old, and legends of giants, the Emerald Isle is destination not to be missed. 


Come and join me on a glorious imaginary trip through this wonderful country. We leave* on January 31st and return* on March 10th. We'll be sketching the gorgeous coast and castle ruins as well as in the modern city of Dublin. For more information about the trip, please visit here.


Let me know if I can answer any questions.


Thanks!


*We're not really in Ireland and we're not actually leaving as this is all "imaginary!!"

Go no further and do not watch this video if your favorite reason for not taking your sketch kit with you every where you go is something like "It weights too much," "It won't fit in my purse/pocket/bag" or "I don't want to be weighed down with too much stuff!"

Here are a few suggestions for creating sketch kits that are slim, trim and as easy to carry as a piece of paper!

Let me know what you think!

White birdhouse. Take 112!
Do you ever get hold of an image and you can't leave it alone, nor will it leave you alone?! This is one of those images. We have birdhouses all over our neighborhood. Many of them are ornamental as opposed to functional, but they provide me with great mental exercises as I'm doing my morning walk. I can't tell you how many different ways nor how many times I've painted this page - in my head! So I decided I had better get it down on paper so I could move on....to the blue one I saw yesterday!

If you're interested in creating journal pages like the one above, check out the Artful Journaling classes starting in June.

Working late at night, when I'm way too tired to be painting, can lead to thoughts of grandeur, illusions of prowess, imagined deftness of handling difficult passages, and a unrealistic satisfaction in a sketch that is short lived......



.....upon waking and viewing the same sketch in the brilliance of the morning light. Not only is this not what I saw when I went to bed, "someone" stuck an extra "i" in my geraniums! How inconsiderate!

The cool thing about all of this is that I can simply say, "Next!" and turn the page......

Continuing from yesterday's post, New Art Tools!.....

We're fortunate to also have a Michaels nearby to compete with JoAnn's and I decided to go and visit them once I found out about the brushes just to see if they might carry them also (forgot to mention this in the prior post) and they do! In different sizes though. (Thanks, Pam, for reminding me!)

The next fun thing I found was a VersaMarker Pen with dual tips–one for writing and one a brush! This is a watermark pen that is used a lot by stampers and scrapbookers. This tool allows for precise marks to be made on a stamp and then the stamped onto the paper. The "ink" is clear and creates a resist or it can be embossed with embossing powders. So what is a watercolor artist doing with this? Well, they say curiosity killed the cat, but what they don't add is that the cat died satisfied! It's a pen, right? I figured I could forgo the stamp and see what would happen when I added watercolor over the top!

The darker marks within the "bush" are from the VersaMarker. The ink absorbed the watercolor, making it darker in those areas. I had to create several samples before I find what would work. You have to let the ink dry completely (more than an hour) before watercoloring over it or it doesn't work well. I think this has future applications when creating designs, but is probably not going to be an "everyday" tool. I paid $3.99 for it at JoAnn's, and at this time, I can't recommend it. The VersaMark ink also comes in a pad usable with stamps.

Moving on, I found an Inkssentials Opaque White Gel Pen at Michaels. Yippee, I thought! My go-to white gel pen has always been the Uniball White Signo Gel Pen.....it still is:


(Please forgive the poor photography as it doesn't show the colors well.) The bloodstone is a light taupe and the heliotrope is a grayed purple. The pens are $1.99 at Michaels with a line of other unusual ink colors available. They are also available from other retailers online. Both of these colors lend themselves well to sketching and are not as harsh or obvious as black ink. Being fade-proof, the ink is also waterproof and I could easily watercolor over these. These are definitely recommended!

So how do these tools work for a watercolor artist? Take a look......

Below is an image of my “stealth” sketching kit. This is what travels with me wherever I may go. I have found that when I least expect it, I either have time or exciting subject matter to paint, and you know what they say about not planning and planning to fail! Gotta be prepared!!

If you look at the lower left corner of the image, you'll see my business card. That will give you a sense of scale for everything else in the photo. It all fits into the teal green bag. The palette is a lip gloss/make-up palette about the size of a credit card. It's approximately 3/16" thick.

Once empty, I cleaned the lipstick residue out with a Q-Tip and a LOT of soap and very hot water. I also had to use a degreaser. After it dried, I taped the top edges with masking tape and sprayed the top with white enamel gloss paint. Several coats later, I had a white mixing area where the mirror used to be. (Note: I did not remove the mirror. I painted it and the surrounding frame.)

I then put the colors that I use most frequently into the palette: azo yellow, indian yellow, scarlet pyrrol, quin. red, magenta, dioxazine purple, ultramarine blue, raw sienna, burnt umber, and sap green. These pigments are all from M. Graham. There is an eleventh color in the lower left corner. That is shadow violet by Daniel Smith. The small sketchbook is a moleskine. It will be my last as the paper is NOT my favorite to work on and life is waaaaaay too short to paint on lousy paper.

If you are inclined to make a palette similar to this one, check out your own make up drawer or the local dollar store. They often have lip and eye shadow palettes that are perfect for this type of retrofit. If you can, use or purchase a powdered eye shadow palette vs. the lipstick palette. The eye shadow is much easier to remove than the lipstick/gloss, and the lip palettes are a bear to get clean! You really want to make sure you get that glass out as it has oils and/or petroleum in it.

Make sure to use gloss enamel paint and use several coats. If your palette becomes stained or scratched, just repaint it. I have found that the size of the palette and sketchbook lend themselves nicely to painting people in food courts or mass transit systems without others being aware of what you're doing. So, toss the stealth palette, a sketchbook and a waterbrush in your pocket and you go sketch!

Since folks know I often sketch on location, it's not unusual to be asked "What does your kit look like?" And I thought it was about time to share this info here!




p.s. If you are interested in purchasing one of these boxes with the Imaginary Trips logo on it, let me know!