Idyll Sketching – Page 38 – Beautiful Landscapes, Idly Painted

Do I want a convenience palette or a mixing palette?

June 2, 2022 by Logan

This is the crossroads I have reached when trying to optimize my color selection for everyday painting. What is a mixing palette? My strategy so far has been to gravitate toward a mixing palette: choosing colors based on their ability to be used as the building blocks for other colors in mixes. This means … Read more

Artist Palette Profiles: Liz Steel

December 11, 2022May 31, 2022 by Logan

My palette from Liz Steel’s Watercolour course

Liz Steel is an inspiring contemporary watercolor artist known for landscapes and urban sketches, perfect for this series because she has written a lot on color and has shared her 17-color palette. Let’s take a look!

8 Artist Grade Watercolor Starter Sets for Under $50

May 23, 2025May 26, 2022 by Logan

Let’s say you have no more than $50 to spend on your first artist grade watercolors. What’s a good set to begin with? Here are some recommendations, based on my assessment of whether the colors included give you a good set of mixers to start with. I have not tried any of these products. The … Read more

Artists’ Palette Profiles: John Muir Laws

January 27, 2025May 24, 2022 by Logan

John Muir Laws wrote the book on nature journaling, literally; I really enjoyed The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling. It was especially mind-blowing to me when it came to describing the nature journaler’s mindset: a sort of zen place of observation and curiosity. My partner and I often use his framework when outside observing nature (I notice… I wonder… It reminds me of…)

Laws devotes some time to the how of nature journaling, including the use of drawing supplies and watercolor, and recommendations for which colors to use. You know I love a peek in people’s palettes!

The “Warm” and “Cool” Color Binary Doesn’t Make Sense

July 2, 2024May 19, 2022 by Logan

I’m just going to say it!

Dividing colors into “warm” and “cool” categories is a common way to organize them and think about color theory. (It’s a scheme I use to organize my dot card swatches, for example.) But it never really made a lot of sense to me, and now I know why. It’s inherently confusing!

Artists’ Palette Profiles: Jeanne Dobie

December 12, 2024May 17, 2022 by Logan

I love Jeanne Dobie’s book Making Color Sing, which helps me think about color in new ways and has taught me lots of mind-bending lessons about using color effectively in watercolor. She shares her most commonly used palette colors in the book, so let’s dive into this color expert’s colors!

Add-ons to the TL;DR Watercolor Starter Kit

May 12, 2022 by Logan

You have, or have in your cart, the items from the TL;DR watercolor starter kit, and you have a little more money burning a hole in your pocket. Or maybe you’re gift shopping for a watercolor student or hobbyist who already has the basics. What other optional items might not be bare minimum necessary for starting with watercolor, but might make the hobby a little more fun, convenient, or luxurious? Here are my recommendations.

Where do you get cute binder clips?

May 10, 2022 by Logan

It’s important to me that all my watercolor supplies be cute, even the most mundane. So when I adopted Kolbie Blume’s method of holding sketchbook sheets taut with binder clips, I didn’t want to just get plain old ugly black binder clips. I wanted something cute! But this most boring and common of office supplies … Read more

Doing the Thing When You Think You Suck At the Thing

May 5, 2022 by Logan

Sometimes you just have to paint cats on it and live to fight another day. A galaxy night sky I was disappointed in, November 2021.

Being a beginner is hard work. Old hands take a lot of things for granted: They know their equipment. They have the basic equipment. They’ve built up muscle memory. They know what style they do. They have a style. They can reliably produce at least a few types of images. They don’t have to look absolutely everything up.

Why can’t I skip to the step where I’m good at things?

Here’s what I’m beginning to wonder, though. Is there a point where you feel you are good at things?

Do you have to be able to draw to do watercolor?

May 3, 2022 by Logan

I drew a lot of magic anime girls when I was a teenager so the idea of drawing doesn’t bother me in theory, but I went into watercover very nervous about my ability to draw landscapes – things like mountains and trees – which I had never practiced before. Tutorials that started with drawing made me nervous. How can I paint something if I can’t draw it?

After working at watercolor drawing and painting for the last year, I believe that they are different, but related skills. It’s definitely possible to learn to paint something without knowing the techniques for effectively drawing the same thing. So if you can’t draw, or don’t really want to learn because paint interests you more, don’t worry. But you may learn more than you think about drawing through the process of watercolor.