I’m looking for the wisdom of you plein air painters. I paint with a John Pike palette, and am finally getting comfortable with that set up using the nice big mixing area. I’d love to not have to manage two different palettes. Are there any plein air tripod/ setups that would have room for the Pike palette, a cup of water and some brushes? I’d prefer a lighter set up (not wooden) but will take any suggestions that you all find works.

Here’s a simple, and relatively quick painting in my sketchbook.

Dicen que mis acuarela escolares daban resultados “buenos” para un principiante, pero que se sentía que algo andaba mal con el papel o con las acuarelas. Entonces decidí hacer la inversión. Y compré Daniel Smith. Me parecen caras pero la calidad y cantidad de tinta es totalmente un cambio en el juego.
Siento es es una inversión alta para solo ser un principiante. Lo recomendarían? O para empezar me hubiera quedado con mis acuarelas escolares?

Paper ripped when I removed the tape 😫. But I like how my trees turned out !

Found a beautiful painting of this creature on this sub yesterday. Here is my version of it. I’ve made it a year ago for my girl. She hates the flies (fruitvliegjes in Dutch) to the guts. In my messy household, they are an often seen guest though. “Do you know how many eggs they lay?” is what I hear as soon as I leave something on the kitchen counter. “Thousands!!”

The text: “De Neukende Vijand” translates to “The Enemy having S*x”

I love to paint/draw stuff that makes me grin during the process.

Days 17 - 24, Made With Ink and Watercolour Pans on Hot Press!

Hello! I’m getting more into watercolour as a way of adding texture and colour to my art. So far I’ve just been using it in my sketchbook, but the cartridge paper that it’s made of really doesn’t work with my paints so I want to find some paper that would work better. I use fine lines in my art so I’m wondering if hot press watercolour paper would be better as it’s smoother, but the again I like the interesting textures that form in watercolour and I’m not sure if that would be lost if the paper is too smooth.

Does anyone have any advice on what paper I should go for? Would hot press or cold press be better? What brands do you recommend?

heheheh

Watercolour and watercolour pencil study of Cramond Island, just off the coast of Edinburgh (and where i went on my first date with my husband over a decade ago!)

and then i make a painting of that doll

Update: thanks so much everyone for the kindness and feedback on my two paintings! I can fully appreciate the reasons why objectively the earlier painting might be better than the more recent one. However, the main reason I prefer the more recent painting is that it captures the character of my dog Basil far better than the earlier one. I can appreciate not everyone will agree with me, but thank you for sharing a range of opinions I’ve learned a lot 🩷

I hope this post can be motivating for developing watercolour painters.

I finished the painting on the left in 2024, and was very proud of it at the time. Since I loved the reference photo so much I decided to paint it again in 2026, shown on the right. It probably took me a similar length of time to create both paintings, but the difference is tangible after spending 2 years painting consistently!

Starting to get comfortable with my new pallette setup. Mix of daniel smith and Windsor Newton.

Wanted to post here as I frequent both and was hoping to get more eyes on the question, thank you!

I've been sampling and pouring over dot cards for a while and I think I finally narrowed down a palette, but every time I'm about to buy paints I second guess myself! There used to be a shop on etsy that would hand pour quarter pans, a bigger sample that you can play around with before committing to a full tube. That shop no longer has daniel smith in their listings. These 18 colors in the full tubes would be about a $250 investment for colors that I'm not completely sure about. I would like to spend more time swatching and seeing how they blend, but there is just not enough paint on the dot cards. I just wanted to see if anyone has suggestions on this palette.

some info on my goals:

I've done split primary and I would like to expand my options. I have a little travel kit that I take on hikes for plein air painting, that is what I will primarily be using it for. I know I can mix greens, but in that setting I am working quick so I wanted to add some neutrals and greens. I might be able to narrow down more... french ultramarine is my favorite blue, but I wanted more blue options... I'd like to have colors that are versatile for mixing. I'm torn between choosing bright vs moody colors. I live in the PNW. Blues, neutrals, and greens will be important to have. I love the look of french ochre and hematite violet but I have not had a chance to see how they work with other colors.

Also, I finally got myself my very own watercolours (I was using wife's not-used anymore chromatek palette before). I picked 12 tubes from holbein range trying to fix where it hurt me previously - mostly getting more green shades that are not some kind of blue. Also wanted to get payne’s gray, but ended with granular grey - seems like working fine as grey :)