Do you enjoy the anticipation of an upcoming vacation or trip? Do you practice packing your suitcase with your favorite clothes? To me the journey begins way before walking out the door, suitcase in hand. I love preparing my art supplies for my travels. Planning for my upcoming trip, Painting Poppies in Provence, France, I decided to take two watercolor journals. (Two spots just opened up on this trip to Provence, so let me know if you want to join us!) One is a
14 x 10 Arches Watercolor Book with 140 pound Arches paper. The other smaller one is a
Strathmore 400 Field Watercolor Sketchbook. For years I have had a love/hate relationship with the Strathmore field book. Every other piece of (crappy) watercolor page alternates with a piece of drawing paper. This drawing paper is where my mixed-media imagination soars and I have probably filled at least 10 of these journals with art from my travels.
 |
| Pages in my journal prepared for the trip |
 |
| First page in my new journal with inspiring quote. |
Well, this year I decided to quit complaining about the (crappy) watercolor paper and tore my Strathmore Sketchbook apart. I kept the metal coil and the black hard covers. I filled it with Arches 140 paper alternating with Strathmore 400 series drawing paper. I prepared the drawing papers with colorful backgrounds and finished the first page with an inspiring quote for my upcoming trip: “To Paint…. to travel…. the combine the two is to celebrate life” (Jack Brouwer).
 |
| The cover of my new “Strathmore” journal now filled with Arches watercolor paper! |
|
Stay tuned for my upcoming article in Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine’s special edition, PAGES, on how to prepare these your jouranl pages with mixed-media and watercolor.
How do you prepare for your upcoming journeys? I would love to hear what special techniques and ideas you have!
