Yay, more travelly sketchbooks!
This one is Mexico, January 2011. There is such pleasure in doing a silly little sketch with my wee set of watercolours. It’s pressure free, as I don’t have to show it to anyone if I don’t want to (but I’ll show them to you!). It’s the act of sitting with my notebook and my Pina Colada and fiddling with paints. Sigh. It helps when the sun is warm and the palms are swaying. Happiness.
I am a lucky girl. The day after my delightful studio tour (thanks again, everyone), I jetted off to Morocco (via London) to celebrate life and birthdays with three lovely ladies, for two weeks. When I am away, I like to do a few sketches in my wee book. It brings me back to a quiet place, and when I get home I find I treasure these ‘moments’ recorded in my book. Of course, I took 686 photos, too! Those may be a coming attraction (though, not all, don’t worry), but in the mean time here are a few sketches done with my trusty watercolour set.
This last one has my name written in Arabic, by one of the gents at the place we were staying. What is it about seeing our names on things? At least it’s not on a grain of rice!
Some sketches from my New York sketchbooks 2005. Just for fun.
I bought a new sketchbook the other day. It was such fun to choose the right one, and to come back to the studio and open up the packaging and flip through all the perfect white pages that are for me alone to wreck. I was giddy all day. It really is the simple joys in life, and I think we tend to forget to revisit the things we loved as children.
I used to work at an art supply shop. The other staff members were the best comrades for geeking out over art supplies. When this travel-sized watercolour set came in, two of us snapped them up. I’m not a watercolourist, so I wondered if I’d just gotten jazzed about the packaging. It’s become one of my absolute treasures, and has been with me to New York, Dubai, Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong.
Here’s a tip for customising your watercolour set. Pull out the pans of colours you don’t use and squeeze in another colour from Daniel Smith, Holbein or Winsor Newton and let it dry. This also works for cheap & cheerful sets. Customising it gives you higher quality paint.
A note on pigments. If you’re working with a budget (who isn’t these days?), I recommend skimping on the earthy colours like:
Burnt/Raw Umber
Blacks
Vert de Terre, Sap Green
Burnt/Raw Sienna
White
And splurging on one of each of the primaries:
Magenta/Rose Madder
Cobalt Blue
Lemon Yellow
Teach yourself to mix these colours to make almost any other colour. There are many books on the subject of colour mixing, but what it comes down to is a whole lot of trial and error. And that’s half the fun, no?
~ By the way…~
Rose Madder is made from actual roses and smells wonderful. Next time you’re in an art shop, open a tube and have a sniff! You won’t regret it.