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Watercolor Journeys Travel Tips

Watercolor Journeys Travel Tips

Watercolor Journeys Travel Tips

Once in a while, I like to share travel tips for the traveling artist. I call these Watercolor Journeys Travel Tips. I always take a watercolor journal with me when I travel.  I am always looking for some smart, fun travel ideas for my supplies.

This Watercolor Journeys Travel Tips is the Nomad Box Pen Case.  Here is a great zippered bag to hold a lot of art supplies such as pens, pencils, tubes of paint, erasers, small ruler or small scissors.  You can get them at one of my favorite online stores, JetPens for pens and such.  It is a Nomad Box Pen Case.

This stylish, large-capacity pen case opens wide.  It stays open so that you can easily pick out the pens you need.

Features:

  • Wide-opening main compartment that stays open on its own and holds approximately 30 pens.
  • Three pockets inside the main compartment for organizing small items like erasers, lead, and sticky notes.  There is one large mesh pocket and two small fabric pockets.
  • One large outside pocket for frequently-accessed items.
  • A loop on one end for fastening the case to a clip, hanging it from a hook, or for using as a handle.

Artist Jacqueline Newbold enjoys painting life in color!  Her color-filled watercolor paintings capture a moment in time – sunlight on red poppies, the glow of a Tuscan village perched on a mountaintop, or the brilliance of a dramatic Oregon Cascade Mountain sunset.  Jacqueline loves to share her passion for watercolor painting and mixed-media art journaling by teaching in her Art in My Heart private studio, the Art Unraveled Art Retreats in Phoenix, the Art & Soul Retreats in Portland, Oregon, France, and Italy.  She teaches private watercolor lessons, classes and workshops in her private art studio in Bend, Oregon.  Stay tuned for more Watercolor Journeys Travel Tips!

 

Watercolor Journaling, Part 2

Watercolor Journaling, Part 2

In my last post, Watercolor Journaling, Part 1, I wrote, “It is all about timing and developing a feel for how much water is in the paint, on the brush, and on the paper.  The water on the paper is continually drying as you are painting unless you are adding more and more water.  Don’t do that!  Try to add less and less water as the paint dries.  See what happens!”  I am hoping that you practiced this and are beginning to see how the relationship between the paper drying, the amount of water in your brush, and the amount of water in your watercolor paint.  It is all so fun to play and discover the subtleties of watercolors! 

More tips for watercolor journaling:
1.      Continue to build up layers and layers of watercolor paint, letting each layer dry before painting the next.  Another word for this is glazing.  Applying a glaze on top of the same color darkens the value. The more glazes you add, the darker the value will become. 
2.     You can also glaze with a different color than what you started with.  Play with glazing the same colors over each other or choose a different color.
3.     Continue painting with glazes until you are done. 
Example of glazing colors on top of each other

 Hint:  Don’t spend a lot of time fussing over the part you are glazing.  This will start to dissolve the dried layers underneath and will cause the layers to mix, creating mud, instead of laying on top of each other.  

Stocking Stuffers for the Artist

Stocking Stuffers for the Artist

Hi there!
I wanted to share some  stocking stuffer ideas for the artist in your life.  My first suggest is a very beautiful, luscious red color called French Vermilion.  I use the one made by Sennelier and absolutely love it! It is a great color to use when painting red flowers.

Windsor Newton has an interesting article about the history and manufacturing of French Vermilion.  It is considered an opaque color with excellent light fastness so it will not fade with time.
  
Here is a close up of how I used it in this watercolor painting of poppies:  
I have just recently added French Vermilion to my palette. 

Mixing Fun with Fun

Mixing Fun with Fun

Helen and I traveled to France, Spain and Portugal to paint and do a bike tour.  We took our watercolor art journals along with us and found fun places to relax and paint.  One of our first stops was Saint Jean-du-Luz, a cute fishing village in the southwestern part of France.  This area is known for it’s Basque influence, sea food and beautiful, sandy beaches.  We painted postcards to send home to family and friends.

Postcards from Saint Jean-du-Luz
Helen’s postcard of boats in the port.
Keeping a Watercolor Travel Journal

Keeping a Watercolor Travel Journal

 Part of the joy of traveling to new places is to take some time to paint in my watercolor art journal.  This is my first time visiting Lisbon, Portugal.  I am enjoying walking around this colorful city  Here is a page in my journal of the cute trolley car.  This is what I love to do – paint plein air!

Fun Ideas for your Watercolor ART Journal, Part 3

Fun Ideas for your Watercolor ART Journal, Part 3

I am always looking for fun, unique ways to add to my watercolor art journals.  While I travel, I always pick up brochures, free maps, coasters, wine labels…  Then I add them to my journal pages.  I also paint little paintings of what I see along my journey.  These all create a lasting memory more precious than any photo album.

Try these ideas!
· Doodle or create Zentangles.
· Connect your writing and glued items with lines, dots and squiggles.
· Collect and add business cards, tickets, postages stamps, cut out words and photos from brochures, wine labels, paper money and postcards from your travels.
Fun Ideas for your Watercolor ART Journal, Part 2

Fun Ideas for your Watercolor ART Journal, Part 2

Here are some more ideas for how to add interest, color and creativity to your watercolor art journal.  These are some of the things that I will do to the back of the page in my journal.

· Pre-paint with a light watercolor wash of cobalt blue, permanent rose and transparent
       yellow watercolor paints for a colorful journaling background.
· Journal your thoughts and about the area you are visiting.  Be sure to include the date.
· Journal about the area, weather, new friends and events.
· Using an archival glue stick or matte medium, glue collected vacation ephemera to your journal pages.  Overlap and connect object.
· Paint the page with black gesso before adding things.  Use white gel pens on this page.
Paint a collection – here I did a study of barns and buildings 

Happy Colorful New Year – It’s a Beautiful Day!

Happy Colorful New Year – It’s a Beautiful Day!

“Your success and happiness lies in you.  Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.”  Helen Keller

Today is my birthday and the beginning of a new year!  I feel blessed in many ways.  I am so happy that I made the decision 14 years ago to quit my secure job as a lab technician to stay at home and pursue art.  I was scared, lonely and I had no idea what I was doing but I just knew that I had to draw, paint, mix gooey colorful messes and create.   I have made so many wonderful new friends.  Artists are the best!

Painting in our Journals – Inspiration from Local Tradition

Painting in our Journals – Inspiration from Local Tradition

One of the most exciting things about traveling with a group of painters is that we can immerse ourselves in the local traditions.  During our recent painting trip to Provence, France, we were lucky enough to be in St. Remy for La Fête de la Transhumance.  This happens once a year, 50 days after Easter.  This moving festival is dear to the hearts of the Provençal people and is without a doubt the most famous festival in the south of France.   This is the day that celebrates the flocks of sheep being herded to their summer pastures. Historically, this journey could take up to 10 days by foot. 

Over 3,500 sheep, lambs, goats and donkeys filled the streets of St. Remy on Monday, May 20, 2013.  The whole event was made even more colorful by the local shepherds tending the sheep in their traditional costume with the help of their well trained dogs.  As they passed by the sheep were stepping on my toes, parting their path in confusion and running through the crowds of people.  The shepherds did not seem to mind as I reached out and petted their silky wool.

I made this short video to show you how marvelous this day was.  Then look below to see how some of my students used this inspiration to paint some fabulous pages in their watercolor journals. 



Thank you all for a great Create!

Thank you all for a great Create!

I had such an amazingly fun and creative time at CREATE 2012
I just wanted to send out a huge colorful hug to all the students that attended my classes.  How fun to have Sally & Lori attend my watercolor classes again after meeting them in my class at Art & Soul Retreat several years ago!  Jeannine – I love my new Hello Kitty tin!  It is a welcome addition to my traveling watercolor palette collection.  Cindy and the other ladies from Texas you have a way of keeping us all smiling.  Rosanne & Shelly it was fun to be a part of your new watercolor journey.
Over all I wanted to share with everyone that CREATE, Irvine proved to be a friendly, colorful and creative place.  For those of you that asked me to come back next year – you will have to wait for 2 years as I will be teaching in Provence next May.  
I do love all your suggestions and encouragement for me to teach online art classes.  Thank you Pam Carriker for giving me advice on how to set up an online class.  I will be exploring my options and let you know what happens!
I was lucky enough to treat myself to a class with the fabulous and colorful Joanne Sharpe in her fun Magical Marker Mystery Tour.  I feel rejuvenated and exhausted all bundled together. 
I hope our paths will cross again!
Colorful hugs! 

Jacqueline