In today’s post I’d like to share some tutorials to help you take your art outside Now the nights are getting lighter and hopefully by the time this post goes live, the weather starts to warm up, how about sketching in the garden or out and about. It’s a lot of fun and doesn’t have to attract an audience Here’s some tips to make your field trips more comfortable.
In this tutorial there are more tips about what I take with me on field trips and why.
It’s a lot of fun to sketch outside in good weather, if you are well prepared and have your kit together it doesn’t need to be hard. The less you take with you the more options you have about location and the less attention your drawing will attract. I hope you give this a try or let this inspire you to get your kit together for the warmer weather.
A quick n easy tutorial today, but one I’ll hope you’ll find useful. When you start painting with watercolour paints, it can be a little tricky remembering which colour is where on your pallet just by sight alone. Once the colours dry, some of the darker ones look identical. Here’s how to make a paint chart, so you will know where your colours live and what they look like painted up.
Colour cards for watercolour paint
You Will Need
A piece of card, just smaller than the paint box you want it to live in. Use the cardstock that you paint on most regularly.
A pen, that will not be affected by moisture, but will write on your cardstock of choice.
Ruler and pencil
Paint box of your choice
Brush and water
Method
Start by ruling your cardstock into squares to match the layout of the paint box, you need a smaller square for the paint patch and a larger one next to it to write the colour. My paint box has three rows of paint so I need six rows of squares.
Paint one square on your card, for each of your paint colours
Next to each painted square, write the name of the colour that was painted there.
If you travel with your paint box, you might also want to write your contact details on the back of the card, so that if you were to loose your box, it could be returned to you
Colour cards for watercolour paint; in use
Options
Help, I don’t know the names of the colours in my paint box! Now What?
If you have a Winsor and Newton paint box and your paints are in removable pans, carefully remove the pan from the paint box and look at the side of the little pan. In more recent years, the names of the colours have been scanned onto the pans.Handy eh!
If your paints are older or from another brand, try checking the manufacturers websites for their colour charts, they are often available as PDFs. Compare your painted squares to the colours on the charts and you should have a good idea of which colours you have.
Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and will give it a go, call me sad but I do have a paint chart in each of my paint boxes. I never remember the names of the darker colours or the exact locations of colours, even though they are in the same places in the box. It’s really helpful to have a little card, so when you need to add a little dash of a particular colour you have a quick and easy reference point to check back to.
Links
Check out the Art tab at the top of the blog, beneath it you will find listings of the main manufacturers of art supplies.
The practice sheets that come with Sheena’s Paint Fusion stamps are great, but sometimes you want a few more images to practice on. Repeats of shapes you struggle with or just more of an image that’s new to you. Had a think and came up with a quick and simple way to create your own practice sheet, to your own choice of image.
Make your own Paint Fusion Practice sheets
You Will Need
Make your own Paint Fusion Practice sheets
Mat board or other stiff cardboard
Piece of acetate
Piece of card to stamp onto
Clips
Paint Fusion stamps of your choice
Versafine Onyx black ink or other pigment or permanent ink pad
Method
Cut your piece of paper to the size you wish to stamp onto.
Stamp your Paint Fusion or other stamp images on to the sheet
Cut your piece of acetate to the same size as your stamped piece of card or a little larger
Cut your mat board or strong card to slightly larger than the acetate
Assembly
Place your acetate over your stamped sheet
Place your stamped sheet onto the mat board
Place your clips at the top of the page to hold the pages in place
To Use
Simply paint over your designs. Acrylic paint will not permanently attach to plastic, so even after it has dried (don’t leave it for weeks though). It will still be possible to wipe or scrub the paint from the acetate to reuse your practice sheets time and again.
You can now choose the images you want to practice and have pages of them to work with, it’s also a great way to practice painting layouts. Stamp your design onto a sheet of card/paper, place it under the acetate and you can now work out what to paint in what order
Options/Added Extras
If you have a lamination machine at home, stamp your designs onto a sheet of thin card (220 gsm) and then run that through a laminator. Trim your card before laminating to ensure you have a generous clear border, this will give the plastic more room to adhere to itself and make it more robust. If you want to store your laminated sheets in a ring-binder, look out for the sheets that have pre-punched holes in the edges. This will stop any paint leaking into the card, that may happen if you just hole punch plain laminated sheets.
If you don’t have your own laminator, often the photo shops have a laminating service, where for a small charge they will laminate card you take in.
Once you have your laminated sheet, simply paint over as you did with the original design.
Sara’s Bon Bon Box As demonstrated by Sara from Crafters companion on Create and craft.
Origami Box Featuring Clarity Stamps, includes video. As demonstrated by Barbara from Clarity Stamps on Create and Craft.
My Origami Gift Box. Decorated using Clarity Stamps
Dig out your favorite cardstock or make your own with rubber stamps or printed paper from CDs. Some of these projects are also suitable for children to try too. Hand made gift boxes don’t have to be time-consuming and are simple to make. Have fun, and I’d love to see your results.
Do you have lots of craft CDs or photographs on your computer? Would you like to make hand-made gifts for the special people in your life? Read on for Tutorials and tips for making your own handmade calendars. They are quick and simple to make and if you have youngsters at home they can help to make them too.
You will Need
12 x 12″ Cardstock Patterned or plain if you wish to stamp your own designs on.
Decorative papers, main images I used Joanna Sheen’s Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady CD
Basic Calendar – Elegant Style Font. This is a classic style font, it suits the Edwardian Lady themes and would work well with Anna Griffin styles too.
Why not ‘collect’ all three. These templates are for personal use, you are welcome to create projects using them for gifts or as completed projects to sell. If you use these templates for projects you publish in print or online, please link back to me here.
Would love to hear what you think of these, and to see your finished calendars
This month I’ve been showing you around my favorite painting items and why I love them. Have you been wanting to try painting and sketching away from home, in the big outdoors? Here are a few tips for making your field trip more fun and less of a chore.
You Will Need
Travelling sketching kit
Something to sit on.
Clothing suitable to the weather conditions
Food & water
Planning your location
Staying safe
Travelling Sketching kit
Method
During my limited experience of sketching outdoors I found a few things that made a big difference to making the experience more comfortable.
Sketching kit; I covered this in an earlier post, both what I use and things to consider. Modify yours to suit your creative style. Keep it simple to avoid having something too heavy and bulky to carry
Something to sit on. A folding chair is great and doesn’t have to be heavy. If you have a good back, you can get away with just a folding mat.
Clothing suitable to weather conditions; Bear in mind you are likely to be sitting/standing outdoors all day. Choose clothing suitable to the weather conditions. Wrap up warm on cool, windy days. On hot/sunny days go for something with long sleeves and a collar, don’t want to get sun-cream on your art work A hat is a good idea too, which ever way the weather goes
Food & Water: Will you be sketching all day? If you aren’t sketching near somewhere you can easily get food and drink do take some with you. It’s easy to loose all track of time and get dehydrated, especially in hot weather. A flask of your favorite beverage and a sandwich or two won’t take up much room, but you’ll be glad of them later on
Location; Choose carefully, try not to set up in the middle of a walkway/path. Its better to take a photograph of a superb scene than set up somewhere very precarious! Choose somewhere you will be comfortable, and safe for a pleasant day. Under a shady tree on hot sunny days can be great!
Staying safe; Take a phone with you, they take up so little space, just think of it as insurance. You can keep it turned off, but it might be useful if you run into unexpected difficulties.
If you are painting near tidal water, make sure you know the tide times and keep an eye on the clock!
If you are painting somewhere remote, make sure someone knows when you expect to be back.
Options/Added Extras
Do you hate people standing behind you when you paint, or too much attention? Here’s how to minimise the possible audience participation
Pick your location; If you can sit with a wall/hedge or building behind you, people can’t stand behind you. Try to sit somewhere out of the way-rather than in the middle of a path and most people will either ignore you or pause only briefly.
Minimise your Equipment; I found if you don’t have too much kit out, you are less obvious I use a small bag with painting kit on and a little sketchbook on my lap, at this point you look more like you are having a picnic ;) so attract less attention. It also depends on weather the area is known for artists. If you are somewhere picturesque, where there are lots of people painting regularly, then as long as you aren’t in the way, no one will take much notice
Most people will show little more than a passing interest and walk on. If you don’t want to chat, just focus on your sketching. If you hate drawing when someone is watching and they stand right by you (Which is rare) just measure things for a while, without putting down any marks. If nothing is happening they soon get board and wander on.
Thanks to Dymphie for telling me about the following video:
This video was not made by me but has some great tips in there. Have fun
If all my talk of painting has inspired you to want to try painting, not just at home but on day trips and more, here are some essentials for how to put your own travelling sketching and painting kit together;
Travelling Sketching kit
You Will Need
Surface to create onto
Pencil, sharpener, eraser
Pens
Watercolours
Brushes
Something to sit on
Something to carry it in
Compact camera
Method
precisely what you put in your kit will depend upon your style of work. My kit below works for sketching, wather colour and pen and wash. Feel free to modify the contents to your own artistic style. This is a core kit to get you started.
Surface to work on; I use a ring bound sketch book. This means I can fold back the pages I’m not using and the hard covers mean I don’t need a board.
Pencil; I use a couple of Staedtler Mars 780 lead holders. One with B and the other a 2B grade of lead. The advantage of these is that there is a sharpener incorporated within the barrel, so one less piece of kit to carry.
Eraser; I have a small tin with a putty eraser in it. This creates no mess and does less damage to the paper surface than other kinds of erasers. Mine is a Faber Castel one.
Pens; Fine liners in 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7. I use a set in black and also a set in sepia depending on the style of subject/time of year. This range of nib sizes allows for fine detail up to quite dark shading. I do love the Faber Castel ones, but other brands are available
Watercolours: The colour pallet you use will depend upon your choice of subject and time of year, If you can keep to a minimal pallet of 12-14 colours I highly recommend the Winsor and Newton Field Box. It has fold out pallets, the end cap turns into a water holder and there is a mini water bottle in there too. It also has its own (very small) brush. Perfect size to pop in your pocket and not too heavy. I love to use mine with water brushes for quick sketches, but the water pot on the end means you don’t have to carry excess kit.
Brushes; Depends on your style, but for minimal fuss and quick sketches I’ve found the water brushes by Pentel to be superb, they hold water within the barrel, so no need to carry extra water pot. These come in small, medium and large brush points. Kuretake also make a similar product and include a flat within their range. Have just invested in a set of retractable sable brushes, that I will review at a later point. These are handy if you like a traditional brush but don’t want it to get damaged. I work small, A5 ish and found the most useful sizes of brush to be No; 2,4,6 and a flat. This gives me everything from fine detail to a wash brush
Pentel Water Brush set; Fine, medium and large brushes
Something to sit on; If you are going out especially to paint, let’s get comfy and take a chair. Those folding directors chairs are great, as they have pockets on one side to put stuff in and on the other a fold up table, ideal for putting your paints on If you are going out for a day trip and want the option of painting, folding foam mats available from camping shops are ideal. The mats fold up small and weigh almost nothing but are great for keeping you off the damp grass or cold concrete of a stone wall etc.
Camera; It’s really useful to take a small compact camera with you on sketching trips. If the light or weather change its handy to have taken a photo to refer back to if you have to cut your trip short.
Options/Added Extras
You will now need something to put all this kit into. First gather your supplies, so you know how much you want to take with you then select what you will store it in.
DIY stores are a great place to find empty tool boxes, these are divided and can be really useful kit holders, being plastic they are also less likely to damage if stood on damp grass for longer trips.
Sturdy Bag; something reasonably weather proof is a good idea, it will keep the contents more protected if the weather turn on you.
Top tips are to keep it simple, and comfortable. If something is too bulky, heavy or uncomfortable to use or carry you won’t want to use it. At a pinch..if pushed.. I could get away with a pencil, eraser, a 0.1 pen (either colour) W&N Field box, sketch book and the three water brushes. They are all in there, so if I want the option of sketching I can just pick those and drop them in my pocket.
Winsor and Newton Travelling Sketching kit. (To be reviewed next week, I’ll add a link here after that).
Here’s my earlier post which details the items I’ve put into my kit
The biggest advantage of putting together a travel kit, even if you don’t intend to travel with it! Is that it makes it so much quicker and easier to locate your favorite and essential items when you want to sketch. Don’t loose precious sketching time rummaging round the house for your sketching pens or brushes. Gather your favorite items together in a small box, you notice I say small box! If its going to leave the house with it, it doesn’t want to be the size of a car!!! Remember you’ll be carrying it to your chosen painting spot!
New projects have been added to the tabs across the top of the blog.
Check out the 'About' tab, listing of The Virtual Crafting Challenge themes and downloadable calendar pages are now on there too. Now you can access these all year long.
Have fun
Billie :)
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Now the nights are getting lighter and hopefully by the time this post goes live, the weather starts to warm up, how about sketching in the garden or out and about. It’s a lot of fun and doesn’t have to attract an audience 
Here’s some tips to make your field trips more comfortable.
