This is a tiny little watercolor painting I did on New Year’s Eve morning, while drinking my coffee and looking out the back studio window. It measures a mere 2.5 x 3.5″. You can see below a photo I took while working, but I put the tin down to take the photo. I painted it while standing and holding this little set-up in my left hand. It’s a pencil case that I stick my “Altoids” watercolor kit in using blue tack or sticky tack, and the same for the tiny watercup. I also use the tack to hold two brushes at the ready on the side; I use the metal area under the paint kit to mix colors. This set up works well for small paintings and studies.
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 Me painting with sketchbook and watercolor palette in one hand. I decided to put that little travel watercolor palette to test. I picked up a gorgeous iris and lily yesterday, sketched it out and started the first stages of painting. My objective here was really to test out the palette, watercup arrangement and holding the light board all in one hand. I want to see if I can use it like this in the field without an easel for little studies. You can click on any picture to see enlarged views.  My travel watercolor palette with watercups attached I show a close up of the arrangement so you can see the watercups; they are actually for holding mediums for oil painting, designed to hold the liquid even when tipped slightly on a hand held palette. They worked fantastic! I had to get over the habit of looking for my watercup on the table! You can see the ‘sticky tack’ or ‘blue tack’ in my palette. Yesterdays blog explained that better, so they get tested today and it worked wonderfully! Yay..two experiments that worked.My hand got a bit tired from holding the board and palette but this set up is supposed to be for quick studies, I worked on it longer than I would in the field.  Iris pencil sketch  starting to lay in some colors  Putting on the blues, make sure yellow is dry first  Adding more details now, layering on more blues  Adding final details and darker values  Finished! Click here to see Note Cards of this painting, and Click here for magnets in my shop! Yesterday I had fun playing around with my watercolors, “can we say Avoidance Behavior?!” haha…well I should have been working on a painting but I wanted to test out some colors and tried an experiment with my field kit.  It might seem silly, but I think I can write a book for a hundred and one uses for ‘sticky tack’ or ‘blue tack’! I wanted to add more colors to my field kit but there are no more places, so I made some! Where the brush should go, I put three little blobs of sticky tack and smooshed them down. I then put just a bit of wet paint into the divided areas and let it dry. Then the little removable water pan (I mean LITTLE!) I’ve been using for black paint, so I added a little wall to that and added Naples yellow, I thought it would be good for grasses, people etc. I will let you know if it works, the stuff is amazing, really!  This is a page from a little sketchbook where I tested the colors out. I was comparing reds as you can see, which ones were similar so I didn’t have to order new paints. (it’s not cheap you know!) The colors at the bottom are tube colors I put into a plastic travel palette, (see it at the bottom of the photo of my ‘mess’) they’re like a repeat of the colors in my large studio palette. I want to see if they’ll stay put or will they flake off all over the place? The drawing of the beetle I did from a field guide. I always try to grab something to draw when I know I’ll be sitting, wasting time in a waiting room. I have a vinyl ‘bible’ cover that I picked up at Barnes and Noble that fits a 6″x8″ sketchbook and across from it a field guide or other book. I’ll post pictures of that sometime, it makes a great little travel kit when outfitted with my ‘travel art supplies’.
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