Artist's Journal Workshop

Artist's Journal Workshop, a group on Flickr.

Lots of lovely work in our Flickr group! If you keep an artist's journal--or want to!--please feel free to join us!

Just look at how many new pieces have shown up there in just a couple of days.  I'm working on a slideshow to put on the blog, too...

Artist's Journal Workshop

Artist's Journal Workshop, a group on Flickr.

Looking at ways to share our Flickr group...

New Video up on YouTube

I did this one to go in Lesson One in my upcoming Ink and Watercolor Mini-class--thought you might like a sneak peek!

Playing with ballpoint and watercolor...who says you have to have a fancy pen? I picked these up at my local discount store.

Current Tools - and New Travel Palette

I've been using a new palette lately and now like it enough to show and tell a bit about it :)


I'm always looking for a way to make my palette lighter, smaller and more flexible plus I enjoy playing with different set-ups of colors. After my Alaska adventure my friend mentioned an interesting artist and avid outdoor sketcher - Maria Coryell-Martin whose work is entwined with Alaska. I looked through her we-site and blog and really liked her palette shown on one of the photos and thought that I should write and ask a few question.


A few days later I realized that it would be very useful to have watercolor pans attached with magnets as I'd like to try changing colors and their position in my watercolor kit. I googled magnetic watercolor pans and... I was back at Maria's web-site!

Impatient me probably was looking at pictures, reading every other line in the best case - but now I noticed that she is selling these palettes :)

Below are some photos of my new set-up in action. In short - it's working great for me!



What I like most?
First - it's tiny! (photo above compares size of this credit card holder with my trusty Cotman Sketcher's Pocket Box.

Second - it clips very nicely to my sketchbook (this is 8.5 x 11 Alpha series Stillman&Birn - love them!). The cover of the kit and kit itself are so thin that I can close a book if I need to move or rush somewhere and have no time to pack.


Third - I can move my colors and add/exchange on the go. I like that pans are rather shallow so I can add fresh colors often.


Last but not least - pans are large enough for my flat brush to get in. I am showing flat Niji waterbrush on the photo below because many of you are familiar with it's size but I've been using my 1" with this kit happily!


And palette came with a nice little towel - which soaks up incredible amounts of water.

Sometimes things don't work out...

For years, I avoided keeping a journal of my drawings and paintings because I feared the "failed page". Then I heard you could rip out pages that are totally embarrassing, and plunged in!
I painted these orchids at a local nursery and what a disaster! The yellow orchid was very pale and the purple orchid colors just looked muddy. 

When I got home, I set about "reclaiming" the page, since it's the backside of another journal page and I no longer feel I have to hide my mistakes.
First, I drew an ink border on the page - instant balance! Then I intensified the colors on the yellow orchid. Since the purple orchid was already muddy, I didn't want to wade back in with color, but I wrote orchid facts all over the petals with a white gel pen. I especially like the texture the writing created on the orchid leaves….quite life-like.
I still don't like this page, but it's less awful now, and I learned a bit about how to save things.