Portable, Disposable Watercolor Palette
Need a smaller, portable, even disposable watercolor palette for sketching in your Nature Journal? Here’s an easy way to create a custom one of your own.
When I’m out and about creating Nature Journal pages, I use a small half-pan watercolor palette that holds 12 colors. It’s portable enough for most field sketches, but sometimes I want something even smaller and easier to balance. So I created this little system for those times.
Creating a Watercolor Pencil Palette: Gather Supplies
Say hello to my easy, peasy and disposable watercolor palette. It’s flat, weighs almost nothing, and clips right to your sketchbook.
Supplies needed to create your own:
- Index cards
- Watercolor pencils
- Binder clip or paper clip
- Access to a laminator (many libraries and copy shops have one)
Watercolor pencils are so versatile! Did you know that you can color with them dry, then use a watercolor brush to pick up paint just like it was a pan watercolor set? That’s how this system works. Choosing artist grade pencils can make a big difference in the intensity of the colors. For that reason, I use Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils.
Premier Watercolor Pencils (Set of 24)Create Your Personal Palette
Just like working with fill-able half-pans, you get to create your own custom palette of colors. Because this is temporary and disposable, you can make as many different palettes as you need!
- Choose the colors you want to take along on your sketching adventure. This might vary from trip to trip depending on season and ecosystem. For instance, if you’re traveling to the beach, you’ll probably want a selection of blues; greens if you’re headed to the mountains.
- When choosing your colors, remember that you can mix them just like pan colors. You don’t need every color that you own! The more colors you choose, the more index cards you’ll need to get enough pigment to be usable.
- Don’t have all the pencil colors you’d like? You can certainly mix the dry colors right on your index card — nothing says that you have to use only pure, 1-pencil color to create your palette! (create an index card with mixed pencil colors)
- Color large swatches of your chosen colors onto your index card. Make sure to really saturate the card with plenty of pigment. I usually keep it to 6 colors plus a strip of black on one index card.
- Leave space between your swatches, otherwise you’ll end up with mud when you begin grabbing your color.
- Take 2 blank index cards, place them back to back and have them laminated. I use 2 back to back to make the mixing palette sturdier. You’ll use this over and over. This becomes your mixing palette. Pro tip: you can usually get more than one card on a sheet of lamination — use all of that space! You can give extras to friends or carry them in more than one sketchbook.
Using Your Portable Palette in the Field
When I use this system, it’s generally because I’m hiking and don’t have a lot of time to sit and paint. This is a great system for standing and sketching. I tend to use this more for creating color swatches on my page and not so much for coloring a whole image, although with a tiny sketch you could certainly use this palette for the entire image!
On the far left is the laminated card-mixing palette. The watercolor cards and mixing palette are clipped to my 4″ X 5″ mixed media sketchbook. Using your binder clip, or even a paperclip, attach your palette and mixing palette to your sketchbook (they might blow away otherwise!). Take your water-brush and grab a bit of your chosen color from the corner of a swatch. Just like in a regular pan palette, your colors will muddy over time — if you use the corners first, there’s less accidental mixing. You can now go straight to your sketch or over to the laminated card to do some mixing — it works just like your half-pan palette!
This disposable watercolor palette system works great for me because I can carry just a tiny sketchbook with everything I need all in my jacket pocket. I also keep one in my glovebox for those unexpected adventures as I go about my day. I hope you’ll give this a try! Let me know what you think in the comments.
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Field-Bag for Nature Journaling
Backpack vs. field-bag; here’s why I think the field-bag is a big win over a backpack if you’re on a nature journaling adventure.
Wait, What is a Field-Bag?
Technically, any bag that you carry your work or hobby-related items in, is a field bag. That means that a plastic bag from the grocery could be your field-bag. (I actually used that idea for the grandkids on a spur of the moment trip. It works, though it doesn’t last for more than one trip!) That means that your backpack could be called a field bag if you’re out hiking and nature sketching. And that is a perfectly acceptable bag for toting your hiking supplies and your nature journaling supplies all in one convenient spot, leaving you hands free to explore and draw.
Why a Cross-Body Bag is Better
For a long time, I simply tossed all my supplies into my backpack and took off for the nearest trail. It worked pretty well and I didn’t have to purchase another bag. If that’s what you have, by all means use it! However, I found myself more and more often, frustrated with my backpack solution. Every time I wanted to snap a quick photo or stop and do a quick sketch, I had to take my backpack all the way off and root around trying to find the supplies I wanted. It can be disruptive and take enough time that your subject flies, walks, or runs away!
A much better solution is a cross-body bag. If you wear your bag at hip level, on the side of your drawing hand, you’ll have quick access to your sketchbook. It works kind of like a holster, but for your sketchbook! Gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘quick-draw’!
Not everyone has the desire to make their own bag! A great option is a waterproof laptop bag. Most have plenty of pockets for your supplies, an adjustable over the shoulder strap, and are a great size for most sketchbooks. They come in all price ranges.
What to Carry in Your Field-Bag
Ultimately the choice is up to you, of course; but here are the things that I find essential to carry in my field-bag:
Make sure to visit My Favorite Supplies page for links to my specific favorites!
- My favorite sketchbook — This is a very personal choice and one you’ll need to make depending upon what types of tools you prefer to sketch with. I have settled on a spiral-bound pad of 98 lb. mixed media paper. There is just enough tooth to the paper to hold on to my media of choice — graphite — with very little smearing. It’s also thick enough to take a light watercolor wash so that I can capture accurate colors in the field.
- A mechanical graphite pencil — I prefer a mechanical pencil in the field — no need to worry about stopping to sharpen a pencil in the middle of sketching! I always have a container of graphite refills also.
- A small, portable watercolor set — I have a 12 color half-pan set. That’s more than enough colors for me to mix whatever I need.
- A water brush — This is a watercolor brush that holds water in the brush handle. I prefer a small round brush.
- An old bar-mop towel (or old tube sock) for cleaning out the waterbrush.
- Colored pencils — I carry a non-photo blue for quick, light under-sketches and a white or cream that I use under watercolors to keep lighter areas light. (ie: white or light colored veining in a leaf.) I also carry a small pencil sharpener for these.
- A permanent ink pen — I carry an 02 or an 03 size pen for detail. Permanent ink allows me to draw both under and over watercolors without smearing.
- Insect Repellent — OK, so this is not technically a sketching supply, . . . or is it? I keep a small spray bottle of DIY insect repellent in my kit also. It’s tough to sketch when you’re being eaten alive!
There are tons of insect repellent recipes out there, but here’s a quick run-down on my recipe for safe DIY insect repellent: start with a small spray bottle. Fill it about 3/4 full with 1 part water and 1 part witch hazel. Add in a TOTAL of 20 – 30 drops of at least 2 of these essential oils: lavender, rosemary, eucalyptus, and tea tree. Shake well before spritzing, and apply as needed. **Disclaimer — ALWAYS do your own research on essential oils. Although usually safe, occasionally people are allergic to certain oils and a few can cause sensitivities in pets and children.
What Type of Bag?
The tools and supplies you carry with you when journaling will dictate what type of field-bag you need. I hunted around for a couple of months and couldn’t quite find one that fit the bill for me; well, at least one within my budget! So I scouted around on Pinterest looking at patterns for messenger bags and cross-body bags and every other type of bag you can imagine. OK, I admit it, I’m a Pinterest junkie! I felt like Goldilocks. One was too big, the next one too small. One didn’t have any pockets. Another required a zipper — to hard to get quick access. I was ready to give up. I figured I was just being too picky.
Then one day as I was wandering through clothing racks at my local thrift store, I got an idea! I bought a pair of men’s cargo pants with tons of pockets! Then, I created the bag and the flap out of the pocket areas and used a plain part of the leg for the back of the bag. I pieced together random scraps of the pants for the strap. Then I lined the whole thing with fabric I had left over from another project. An old laptop bag (also purchased at the thrift store years ago) supplied the buckles and hardware. Voila! A custom-made field bag that I created for about $5.00 U.S.!
Me cheesing with my NEW custom made bag! (I may be a little too excited about this) Now, making your own bag may not be your thing. I get it! There are tons of great field-bags and messenger bags available out there. There is one for every budget. The point? Find something that works for you — and get busy exploring and sketching!
If you’d like to have a go at making your own field bag, the instructions and YouTube tutorial can be found HERE.
New to nature journaling? Check out ‘Keeping A Nature Journal’ on the blog. Also grab a FREE copy of my Quick Start Guide to Nature Journaling from the Freebie Library.
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