I Call It “The Unicycle “ of Watercolor

The unicycle of watercolor 

I call it the unicycle of watercolor because you can make ONE entire color WHEEL from a SINGLE  primary triad. It's minimal, takes a little skill to become expert with it but it will get you around any landscape or urban sketch with a minimum of extraneous baggage. And I RE-CYCLED my empty eyeshadow case!

Materials:

1 empty eyeshadow case, washed and dried 

A sponge cut to fit the applicator tray*

Three primary watercolors:

1. Phthalo Blue (RS) Daler-Rowney 
2. Quinacridone Rose (M Graham)
3. Permanent Lemon Deep (Holbein)

Mix your colors in the lid when travel sketching.

*Use the dampened sponge to clean your waterbrush between colors

I surprised my watercolor class this morning  by giving this away in a drawing. Congratulations to Joan for winning the drawing!

How to Remove Rust from Altoids Travel Palette, A quick, easy and nontoxic solution

I have a new YouTube tutorial for travel sketchers! Here are my top tips on keeping your Altoids Mini travel palette virtually rust free. No worries about using toxic chemicals. The ingredients are right from your kitchen pantry! Follow this link to watch the tutorial on YouTube now!

In the spirit of sketching versus formal painting, don't be too obsessive about every tiny dot of rust. Conscientious daily maintenance prevents most rust problems and this easy method lets you save your energy for sketching on location.