I didn’t get much done again today. I did make a couple of charts of colors from 2 sets of watercolors I have. I hadn’t used either of them in a long time, and wanted to see what the colors were like. the first set I did was my Yarka pan set. I love the colors in this and they are very nice to work with. just a little water and they get nice and “juicy” hehehe. I think this is partly due to the fact that they are made with honey and also they are poured into the pans, so they stay semi-moist. The colors are nice and rich as well. I will definitely use these in the future. the downside is that these sets are large. they have 24 full pans of watercolor, so it is kind of heavy and too big to fit in your pocket. The other set I used was a Van Gogh set I got on a trip to Portland OR. It is compact with 15 half pans. They are hard though and not as easy to get nice and moist for large washes. They are good for sketches though. These are student quality paints as well. I wouldn’t want to use them for anything other than quick sketches. But the colors are really quite good and a good range as well. This set comes with a small synthetic travel brush too. All you need is some paper and a little water and you are good to go.

I plan to be out in nature more this year doing some sketching as well as some full size paintings. Most likely the full size paintings will be in pastel. I did get my French easel and my “artcomber cart” The cart has a bag attached to the back that fits a French easel, and when it is set up it has a decent chair. The wheels are large, so should be able to handle just about any terrain. The one thing that is kind of a bummer is that my pastel box is too big and heavy to lay out on the easel drawer. It weighs as much as the easel just about! So, I will either need to lay the box out on the ground or get something to lay it on. The other alternative is to find something smaller that would work with fewer pastels when painting “en plein air”. In the meantime, I may try to line the easel drawer with foam and place the pastels in there with more foam on top so they don’t roll around. I should have enough foam from the boxes that the pastels came in for this to work. And it will solve the problem for now. The downside of this is that every time I want to go out to paint, I will have to put enough pastels in the drawer to do a full landscape. I guess maybe I would just end up leaving them there, instead of going back and forth from the big box to the drawer. Too much wasted time!

I’m still not feeling the best, but today was definitely better than yesterday. I just have to remember to be kind to myself.