"Group photos" from Class

Here are some of the handmade mini palettes that my students made.

Many of them have been used already en plein aire.

It's been great fun seeing the individuality and creativity that has gone into these travel palettes as well as the paintings that came from them.

Zip up Outdoor Watercolor Kit

Now for medium size portable painting kits that have their own case or can fit in a backpack or messenger bag. They come with a variety of supplies. You can add some of your own like I did here.

This entire kit zips up into its own case. It even has its own wrist strap. See it in use here with a description of contents. It's still small enough to use comfortably in the car.

Additional materials shown: small plastic mixing palette, 4"x6" watercolor sketch block and tiny Altoids mini kit. I can use the Altoids kit for quick field sketches in the small sketchbook. For larger field studies, I squeeze out fresh paint on the plastic palette and use my 9x12" Kilimanjaro Paintbook, a 10x14" watercolor block or 1/4 sheet 200# Saunders Waterford paper.

Sucrets Compact Pocket Palette

This compact travel set will fit in your pocket, fanny pack or handbag. It's about the size of a digital camera case.
It consists of:

• Small plastic accordion folder, like the ones used for coupons or index cards
• It holds a dozen pieces of watercolor paper cut to fit

On the far right, from top to bottom:

• I have a clip to hold loose papers together while painting
• A travel bottle that allows you to use a little or a lot of water at a time
• The Sucrets box is deeper than the Altoids one, so it can hold a travel brush, bottle cap for water, sponge, pencil, eraser, etc.
• A business card size diagram of the colors and their names. Fits in an inside card pocket.
• Use Sculpey or watercolor pans to arrange colors in the Sucrets tin as you would in the Altoids tin. See here or here for description
  

Altoids tin pocket palette next size up

The regular size Altoids tin can be used to carry your tiny one, plus a sponge, additional color half-pans, travel brushes and bottle caps for water.

Peel and stick magnetic strips can be used to make sure the contents don't shift around as you paint or carry the tin in your pocket.

If you prefer, you can mold palette wells out of Sculpey or Fimo. This tin would hold 8-10 colors.

The whole idea is to be as inconspicuous, portable and compact as possible while taking advantage of incidental sketching opportunities.

Pocket Palette Possibilities

Here are just three possibilities for reusing items you already have to make your own pocket travel palette.

• Some eyeshadow and makeup compacts even have removable sections that can be filled with your choice of watercolors from tubes. The mirror works fine as a mixing area. There's even a slot for your travel brush.
  
• You can purchase empty or filled pans and half pans of watercolor. Attach a peel and stick magnetic strip under the bottom of each one and arrange as desired in your regular size Altoids tin. This has the advantage of repositioning and removal for cleaning. Spray the entire inside of the box with white enamel for waterproofing.
  
• As seen in previous posts, there is the Altoids mini with pans made from Sculpey.

Pencil Box Kit for your tiny Altoids palette

This little slide pencil box from Staples will hold an entire mini painting kit, including a full size #8 round brush, pencil, sponge, paper towel, Altoids mini palette, extra tubes or pans, etc.

Add a small watercolor sketchbook or block and a water bottle and the whole kit fits into a handbag or small waist bag or fanny pack.

Here's another way to Travel Light with Plein Air Watercolor.

Tiny Travel Palette DIY with Altoids Mini

For the next week, I will post my array of mini, compact and travel plein air set ups, from the tiniest to the biggest.

Make a mini pocket palette with

• a tiny Altoids smalls tin,
• Sculpey Oven Bake Clay
• Wisp
• plastic deli lid
• self stick magnetic strips.

Cover the interior of the box with a thin (about 3mm or 1/4") layer of Sculpey or Fimo. Once you've covered the interior of the box with Sculpey, split it in 6 equal parts using strips of Sculpey. I started by laying a strip lengthwise in the middle of the tin, separating the interior in 2 long compartments. Then, I put four equally-spaced squares of clay to split each half-tray in 3.

Once you're done, you should have 6 compartments of roughly equal size. Use the Wisp to carve and smooth out any sections too small for your fingers. A crochet hook can be used as well. I baked this in the oven at 275 degrees F for 17 minutes. Thinner clay takes a little less time.

After it cooled off, I cut a thick plastic deli lid to fit inside the Altoids lid. I attached it with self-stick magnetic strips. It makes a nice mixing area for my paint and is removable for cleaning or replacement. (You could spray the inside of the lid with white enamel for a similar effect.)

Fill each of the empty sections from tubes of artist's quality watercolor. I used a warm and cool of each of the three primary colors.

Top Row: Permanent Yellow Deep, Vermilion, Manganese Blue

Second Row: Winsor Yellow, Crimson Red Lake, Ultramarine Blue Deep

Tip: Stir freshly squeezed color with a toothpick to make sure it is evenly distributed. Fill each well in two stages, halfway to start. Allow paints to dry with the lid open overnight before topping up and/or transporting.

You can use empty or purchased half pans with self adhesive magnet tape attached on the bottom to hold them in place. However, I prefer the extra width the Sculpey provides so that the adjacent colors don't mix together so easily.
Update: Scroll down my list of broadcasts for a replay of my live demonstration on Periscope.tv/michelecoopart

Michele's South Pacific Studio

Short list of "studio supplies" for painting in Hawaii:

Sunshine, tropical breezes, palms, swimming pool, beach one block away, sunscreen, hat, camera, watercolor paper, paints, travel kit with brushes, pencil, eraser, water, sponge, Starbucks coffee and blueberry scone.

Have I forgotten anything?

Travel Palette

I came across this great little travel palette while randomly browsing art supplies today.
It's only 1/2" x 2 3/8" x 3 3/16". You can fill it with your own choice of 12 colors and it has a thumb ring on the bottom. This would easily slip into a zip-loc bag to make it travel proof. I think it would work great with Daniel Smith's new Grab & Go Watercolor Travel Set.

Get it at Wet Paint online and be ready to paint outdoors this spring! (or in your car if you live in the great wet Pacific NW--we still count that as being outdoors.)

Outdoor Kit Contents

1. Windbreaker, portable easel and "healthy back" bag. The Anderson Easel is portable and has its own case. My "yoga" bag carries everything else and has a single strap. The windbreaker can be stuffed into its own pocket, making a small 5"x5" zipped up packet, which fits inside the bag, too.


2. Front pockets of my bag hold: sunscreen & insect repellent, bottled water, hand sanitizer, travel size band-aids, facial tissues.

I wear a hat and sunglasses and carry my car keys, ID and cell phone in my jeans pockets or jacket. My camera is either in my hand, on its strap on my other shoulder or inside the bag.

3. Inside bag main compartment: Spiral bound Cheap Joe's Kilimanjaro 9x12" Paintbook (every other page is 70# watercolor paper and sketch paper) A large bulldog clip keeps the wind from opening the pages.

Ziplock bag containing Daniel Smith collapsible water container/sponges, Yarka St Petersburg original set of 24 colors (holds a pencil, rigger, #8 round wc. brush and 1" flat aquarel brush inside), two blue paper towels/folded, X-acto blades, and old credit card for scraping.

Five Star stand up pencil case containing: kneaded eraser, set of drawing pencils, pencil sharpener, business cards, Berol Prismacolor pens for sketching and pen/small sticky note pad for leaving messages on the car for fellow painters.

Field Kit Lite

This is the "lite" version of my field kit for painting watercolors. Click image for larger picture. I used this almost exclusively this summer from August-September.

The easel is an Anderson Travel Easel that has its own quiver-style carrier case. It has quick release, telescoping legs, and adjustable tray-support with little hinged arms that hold your brushes (see the right side) and painting knives. (I use the easel left arm to hold my Yarka palette if I'm not holding the palette on my arm.) The Velcro strap is permanently attached, so it holds my water container.

The board is gator board (16x22") and I stack two or three half sheets of watercolor paper on it, then clamp all together with four large Boston clips (Bulldog clips)

The water container is from Daniel Smith, Inc. It collapses down to a flat disc for easy transport when empty and has a ridged handle to keep it from sliding sideways on the holding strap. I squeeze out my sponges and store them in the flattened container.

The black bag on the ground is a waterproof rain gear "yoga bag" with one shoulder strap, a top zipper and a long back zipper. It has two small zip pockets and a long elasticized pocket on the front.

I will take a photo of the bag and its contents for the next post, so you can see how it all fits easily. Please let me know if there is anything else I should add to this description.