SusieG Studio

I’ve been spending quality time with my watercolor hobby. Besides sketching with graphite, watercolor was my main art medium that got me started and interested in producing colorful artwork. For the last 20 years, I had an on and off relationship with this medium. Never developing and maintaining the essential skills to paint. I do enjoy mixing colors and seeing what color I end up with. Applying paint to paper was less enjoyable.

Sometime last year, I decided to get back into painting with watercolors and try to stay with this medium for creating my artwork. Now, my first love is graphite so it makes sense that I start my sketches using a pencil. Depending on the subject or still life and the look/feel I’m trying to create, I might redraw my sketch using a permanent ink pen. This could be using my Micron, Copic, Uni-pin, or a fountain pen.

Remember my coloring book idea? Well, it’s been working brilliantly. There are days where I have 15 minutes to do a quick sketch in my watercolor journal. No erasing. No perfection. I move on.

On days where I have an hour or two, I can open my journal and start painting. I have found this process helps me maintain my creativity while not stressing over the need to finish my artwork. Sometimes you will see me post an unfinished piece. I am okay with sharing what I’m up to and the current creative state.

Most recently, I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of watercolor supplies in my studio. This has created a bit of chaos in my art world. I’ve decided to reduce the clutter on my studio desk and pack away some art supplies that I haven’t used in the last six months. Focus on a few tools to use for creating my artwork. If a tool doesn’t appeal to me or doesn’t work quite right, I can swap it out for another tool to use. I allow myself to do this.

The Brushes

I’ve been using the Pentel water brushes for many years to create my pen & ink wash sketches. The water brushes worked brilliantly for creating my artwork and using fountain pen inks. I found a way to create lovely watercolor-like art without using watercolor paints. I have had many zen-like creative moments.

When using watercolor paints, I found I disliked using my water brush. I tried to make adjustments on how I created my artwork and found the water brush was cumbersome to use and I did not like the results I was seeing on paper. There was no love with the water brush while I was using this medium. That’s more than likely what caused me to stop creating watercolor sketches. So I swapped out my water brush and started to use my travel paint brushes. All of a sudden my creativity received a much needed boost. My creative watercolor juices were flowing from brush to paper. I was almost getting my zen moments back.

Over the past several years, I have purchased a few travel brushes from various manufacturers. Lately, I’ve been using brushes from Rosemary & Co and there’s one in particular that has moved way up on my list of faves. I mention this brush (with picture) further along in this blog post.

The Half Pan Palettes

My Metal Palettes

I thought it was a great idea to have a large palette that can hold lots of colors. I have one that can hold at least 24 half pans of colors that I filled from my Daniel Smith tubes of paint. The following shows I can easily add more pans in the center of my palette tray. Which I have done.

This large palette added a bit of chaos to my world. Did I really need to have all those colors staring back at me? I found that using a water brush with this palette was a good combination for loose sketches. I can just pick up the paint color and apply it directly to my paper. There was no need to mix colors as there was bound to be a color that came close in my 24 collection of pans.

I found this large palette size to be a bit cumbersome to carry around and use outside. After a few years, I finally found a really good use for this palette. It holds/stores all of my half pans that I’ve filled with paint. Think of it as a “library” where I can pull out certain colors to put into a smaller metal palette. Colors I don’t use can be placed back in this larger palette. This palette sits in my bookcase.

Here’s a smaller metal palette that I used for some time. I was drawn to this smaller size and also the number of mixing areas I had access to.

I limited my self to using basic colors and started to really enjoy mixing my own colors. This brought back memories when I first learned many years ago to mix red and blue to get wonderful purples.

Though the footprint of this smaller metal palette was better to throw in my bag and paint outside, it still felt a bit cumbersome to use. The extra fold out mixing area still made the footprint big and most times I was tired of holding the palette in my hand.

In the next picture, I’ve maxed out my palette and it shows it completely filled with 20 pans of colors. Oh my! What was I thinking?!

I’m laughing every time I see this picture. Too many colors and too many mixing areas. This is a bit of chaos in a smaller palette. Hahaha!

My Plastic Palette

I happened to be going through my art supply bin when I came across a plastic Winsor & Newton palette.

I took my fave paint colors and filled this plastic palette with my half pans. Some of my pans did not fit properly and sits up a bit higher. Other pans fit nicely into the spaces.

I have a habit of sketching the current art tools I’m using. I decided to use my Micron PN and redraw my pencil lines.

Here is my fave brush from Rosemary & Co. It’s a number 8 round brush. Just look at the wonderful point at the tip of the brush. I can create fine lines when needed. The brush can hold a fair amount of water/paint and I can get a decent amount of paint coverage on paper. It also blends colors wonderfully on paper. I’m thankful the watercolor journal I’m using can handle lots of water and lots of blending on the paper.

I’m enjoying this plastic palette. It’s lightweight and easy to hold in my hand while I’m painting. The half pans don’t move around and the lid/cover closes without any issues.

The footprint is perfect. I have enough space to mix my colors. There was no beading of colors in the mixing area. No need to prime it before I used it. I could easily put this palette in the back pocket of my jeans, but that’s something I wouldn’t recommend doing. Just a thought.

I also like that I have to limit how many colors I can use. As time goes on, I can decide whether I will continue to use a particular color or swap it out for another.

Summary

For many years, I disliked being “stuck in a rut” with watercolors. I knew I had to make changes to the way I was using my tools to create watercolor art.

Every artist has different likes and dislikes. Every artist uses a tool that brings them joy when creating art. I’m sharing personal experiences in the tools I’ve used to help me grow as an artist.

I have been finding so much joy in my creativity by using this palette and brush combination. I’ve reduced the chaos and simplified my needs. I’m not feeling overwhelmed with the tools I have.

Paint: Daniel Smith Watercolors. Used my tubes of paint colors to fill the half pans.

Palette: Winsor & Newton. There is an empty palette with a small travel brush included and available on Amazon.

Brushes: Rosemary & Co. R26-Red Dot Pointed Round #4 and R13-Sable Blend Pointed #8. I’ve fallen in love with my R13-#8 sable blend brush. When the brush is wet, the brush tip is super pointed and great for detail work and fine lines. The brush also holds a decent amount of paint to paint larger areas. I have a good feeling that this might become my workhorse brush.

Journal: Funto Watercolor Journal. 100% cotton. 5″x7.5″ cold pressed. 22 sheets/44 pages. 300gsm/140lb paper. A combination of fine on one side and medium rough texture on the other side. Sold as a two pack. Can handle many layers of paint and water.