Month: March 2020

Quarantine Art Journaling 3/24/2020

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Over halfway through our self-quarantining in Virginia, and the Governor has added another 30 days. I’m ok with being home 30 days… but not happy about the businesses and individuals who will be losing huge sums of money. And the kids lost school year. My niece’s high school graduation!! (sigh) Anyway, it’s a great time to catch up on things! So, I’ve nearly finished cleaning and decluttering my studio! And I’m catching up on a few art projects I’ve promised out. We’ve also been recording some virtual Storytime sessions for Chick-fil-A Virginia Beach Blvd’s facebook page, that’s kinda fun. More work than I’d imagined because I don’t have the right equipment AND kinda stink at it. But… it’s still fun. And I hope to start my youtube channel soon… watch for it!

Meanwhile… the urban sketching group has set a daily sketching challenge… which I have ALREADY FAILED haha… but I’m going to participate on some days anyway. Day 1’s prompt was Hello, I am… (and sketch a selfie) So… here you go!

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I’m not sure how I managed to sketch myself looking both older AND FATTER than I am, plus SADDER. But, good enough, challenge accomplished.

Days 2-5 I skipped. Oops. I may go back for a couple. Fun journal prompts are always in demand. Day 6: “Do It Yourself”.

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Just a hammer I have in my studio. I also sat outside a while and reveled in the quiet beauty of our cherry trees in full bloom, the blossoms blowing all around me like snow. I didn’t capture the wonder and quiet, but it was nice taking the time to try:

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You can’t see the blossoms falling, which is too bad. Each quiet breeze brought a fluttering bouquet all around. I should probably try again tomorrow and see what I can improve.

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I want to be sure to mention my friend’s new youtube channel,Linked HERE, (Mandy Lewis-Houston) with a fun simple painting tutorial the kids will all enjoy (and grown ups, too, actually, as I proved myself with a tiny sketch in today’s journal entry!) You CAN’T do it wrong… give it a try. Plus… she’s both talented and funny, and there’s no telling where her art videos will lead.  (I might even cameo in one or two, if invited 😉 (subtle hints…)

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This was my entry for last Wednesday. Mandy-of-above-mentioned-channel and I decided to do a little Bible journaling. I didn’t do it in a Bible, though. I will tell you it DID lower my anxiety level, as I kept turning this verse and what it means over and over in my mind as I created my page.

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Some pretty cherry blossoms, too. Unlike today’s attempt! Definitely need a redo before they are all gone. (It happens so quickly!)

How is your self-quarantining going? I’d love to hear (or see) what you’ve been working on (or relaxing with) I hope you are all well!!

Roman Szmal watercolor paints

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It is hard for me to resist a new-to-me brand of quality watercolors (or crap ones, even, as far as that goes!) so when I started seeing artists I follow (particularly Dr. Oto Kano  on youtube) trying them out, then saw how affordable they are through Jackson’s Art (this is the US link) , I felt I NEEEEEEDED a few. And I’m glad I did. Prices currently range from under $3 to just over $5 for a full pan, a really nice deal, for artist quality watercolors. (They paint beautifully, so far, and have quite a few single pigment colors, (117 out of 140 colors are single pigment), with mostly excellent and good  lightfast ratings)

(edited: if you go through Dr Oto Kano’s link to Jackson’s site, it will help her out a little!)

I ordered a set of 5, and 7 other colors I thought I may enjoy. The “starter set of five” each came individually wrapped, in a box, but without labels. It cost me $13.14. The individual colors have a watercolor paper wrapped around them with color name, pigment information, and a painted stripe of color, which is nice for seeing the actual color. I used a tint tip sharpie to write all paint info on each pan. If you know me at all, you know choosing TWELVE out of ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY was massively difficult for me, and writing this post is only making me want more More, MORE.

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The colors I ordered:

Buff Titanium PW6:1

Lemon Yellow PY61

Flesh Tint PW4, PY42, PR 264

Aquarius Red PR 214

Quinacridone Red PV19

Mineral Violet PB 29, PV19

Ultramarine Light PB29

Cobalt Coelin Blue PB35

Ocean Blue PBr 24, PB15:3

Aquarius Green PY150, PBr25, PB29

Quinacridone Gold PY150, PO 48

Caput Mortuum PR 102 (always one of my favorites!!)

Please ignore the Schmincke logo there. I had an awesome Schmincke palette EMPTY, so… filled it with these twelve full pans.

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I think I need a brighter blue, and a brighter pink. And I really like sap green, too… I think the ultramarine light is a little TOO light, so may try the French Ultramarine. So… I feel another LITTLE order coming on. At LEAST the pink and blue, for now.

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I do love me some granulating colors!

I used  my large porcelain palette (which has daniel smith, schmincke, kremer, davinci paints) and the roman szmal together for a little play time…. They all work effectively together. No problems at all!

This one is just roman szmal watercolor:

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I like the palette I came up with, but will try replacing the Quin Red with Quin Pink, and Ultramarine Light with French Ultramarine (eventually), plus will be adding a Phthalo Blue. ($2.96 for phthalo blue green shade!! and the phthalo turquoise, PB16, for $4.60,  looks lovely, too!) And to be honest, I wouldn’t purchase “Flesh Tint” if I were doing it again. That one may go, to give me room for one of these others.

To sum up… I have limited time painting with them, but so far find them bright and vivid. They rewet nicely and are affordable. They work fine with other brands, too. And you can’t find them (yet) on Amazon. Try Jackson’s Art!

Have you tried this brand? What do you think of them? WILL you try them? Do you have another brand you’d like to see me test, or you just want to recommend because you love it? Let us know!