Spring has sprung in Quebec City and I’m happy as a clam. Walking in the sunshine, watching the snow rapidly disappear, makes this Arizona boy VERY happy. To celebrate, starting today and continuing through Friday, March 23rd, my mystery novel, Her Book of Shadows, will be free on Amazon in Kindle format. I think you’ll like it and you can’t beat the price (grin). To download the book, click on the appropriate outlet for your region:
Those of us who want to sketch outdoors using pen and watercolor have a basic problem. How do you carry water without it becoming a burden. On its face, the problem is pretty easy. You can always use a waterbrush, but painting with these is not as nice as with actual watercolor brushes. But lots of people carry water bottles with them, even while running, hiking, etc. What’s the big deal?
Cathy Johnson's nested bottle set up
And when you think about it, it’s not the water that’s the problem. It’s that what we watercolor types want is a, in addition to water, we need a place to dip/rinse brushes and a way to spray the water we carry.
Cathy Johnson, author of Artist’s Journal Workshop came up with a great solution by nesting a small spray bottle in a slightly larger container such that the two nest for travel.
The only problem with this idea is that it’s hard to find bottles that will nest. Even Cathy has said that she can’t find another set and many of us have been searching for just the right combination to replicate her system.
The three bottles on the left are the travel set; the right shows an art store spray bottle
The other day I was wandering through a dollar store, looking for things I could repurpose into art goodies., and I found a ‘travel’ set of bottles. Contained within it was a small spray bottle. The best news is that since then I’ve found other travel sets containing the same small bottle so I don’t think this was a once in a lifetime find. And, to make a long story short, this smaller spray bottle is just enough smaller in diameter that it will nest in the bottom of the ‘standard’ size spray bottle that’s available in any art store.
Once obtained, it’s a simple matter of cutting the bottom off the larger bottle. I then turned it upside down on some sandpaper and sanded the edge smooth. I do wish I’d cut a bit higher on the bottle you see in the photo. It would provide more water volume for rinsing a brush.
In the end, I have a great little travel reservoir and spray bottle and, if I like, a couple extra bottles to carry more water. Hope this helps others who, like me, were trying to replicate Cathy’s system.
I’m new to sketching, but I’ve been doing it nearly six months and I am a paper and pen freak. I just love them and in spite of hammering away on a computer all the time, I have at least a dozen pens inked up and various waterbrushes, brush pens, pencils, nib pens, and paint brushes in use regularly. It’s nuts, I know, as my abilities with these tools are limited but, for me, playing with the tools is just as important as doing art.
My approach to paper has been different. I’ve spent the last bunch of decades as a fountain pen user – almost exclusively. Fountain pens require high-quality papers if you’re going to enjoy them to their fullest. So while I’ve tried the ever-popular Moleskine journals, my requirement for a paper had been reduced to “Is it made by Clairefontaine/Rhodia?” If it was, I was happy.
This didn’t work for sketching, principally because I needed a more absorbant, and thicker, paper so I could play in the watercolor pond. So I started a quest for sketchbook/journals. I just counted and I have NINE of them (remember, I’ve only been doing this for six months). When the dust settled, I had fallen in love with the Stillman & Birn Alpha series sketchbooks. The binding is bulletproof and the paper far exceeds expectations when it comes to handling lots of water while doing watercolor washes. I reviewed the Alpha here, comparing it to my Fabiano Venezia sketchbook. Here are a couple of the sketches I’ve done in it to give you some idea of how the paper responds.
And so I was like a kid at Christmas when the postman arrived with my order of new Stillman & Birn sketchbooks. I wanted to a spiral-bound book for field sketching and while my pack can’t handle 9x12s, I bought the 7×10 Alpha for that purpose. I like the idea of sketching without having a double-page spread to contend with, mostly because I’ve watched other artists working with spiral-bound journals in videos.
I also picked up a twin of my current 5.5×8.5 Alpha hardcover journal, though it’s not an identical twin. Instead, this one is from the Stillman & Birn Epsilon series and while paper thickness (100lb) is the same, it has a smoother ‘plate’ finish. The Alphas are quite smooth but, being curious, I thought I’d give an Epsilon a try because a couple artists I admire are using them with good results. Of course, they could create great art on the bottom of a cafeteria table. They say that watercolor tends to puddle a bit (the effect on all smooth surfaced papers) but that they actually like the results. I’m excited to try the Epsilon. You can find more info about these journals on the Stillman & Birn website. Oh…and no, I don’t work for them. I just like their journals.
It’s said that the scariest thing for writers and artists is the blank page. In my experience, there’s some truth to that. Somehow, though, I’m really excited about having a couple hundred blank pages to fill. What are your favorite journal/sketchbooks?