2.5 months worth of paint?

May 8, 2018 | 13 Comments


So the big plan coming up is to be in Europe for approx. 2.5 months. Wow – what a long time to be travel sketching!

As I find it very inconvenient to fill up pans while I’m travelling (Daniel Smith paint takes days to dry) I have to make a guess as to how much paint I need and prepare extra pans. This is the collection this year.

LizSteel-Europe16-watercolour-palette
In 2016 I was away for 8 weeks and this is the collection I took. Sadly I can’t find an record of how much paint I had left on my return. (Hmm. This doesn’t look much different from this year’s amount, however I do remember running out of Potters Pink and Sap Green in recent trips.)

LizSteel-review-of-sketching-kit-B
I did however, record my palette at the end of 2017 Trip No. 2 (there were four trips last year). This really shows how much paint I used – super helpful, hey? So I just have to make sure that I have 2.5x this amount.


Will this be enough? I think so.

I’m more concerned about my sketchbook strategy – my guess is 8 x A4 moleskine and I will have to ship some home. But I still need to work out this in detail.


Other articles to check out:
My watercolour section – with lots of things to consider when choosing your colours
Recommended minimum palette of 6 colours
A basic 12 colour palette
Putting together my palette for a big trip

Plus:
Brenda Swenson on filling a palette
Jane Blundell on filling half pans
Jane Blundell on ‘ramp’ filling pansĀ 


 

13 Comments

  • Susan says:

    Um, I think they have watercolor paint in Europe…and it’s probably cheaper there than Australia.
    \
    Have a lovely time!

    • pbass wil says:

      Susan, you missed the part about her hating to fill pans on the road; it’s much less messy to have it the pans dry and solid, when you’re moving hotels every night.
      Liz, it’s interesting to see how much materials you can go thru during a focused art blitz!

    • Liz Steel says:

      Yes Susan… there is paint in Europe but sometimes hard to find exactly what I want…plus the hassle, time to dry and extra weight of the tubes

  • Probably not! I am going through my paints very quickly and I have only been away two weeks! I have two palettes, similar number of pans plus a back up tin of spare pans. Expect to be running short before I get to Porto. ?

  • Alison Murray says:

    Happy to help you arrange ordering Moleskine books while youā€™re in Italy Liz! Also while DS paints not so easy to come by here (have found a good shop in Bologna but not exactly local to Veneto) Iā€™m sure I could provide you an emergency top up of the core colours if required from my own stash ? !!

  • Lisa Holt says:

    Are you taking the same colors at 2017 (the ones listed in your “MY 2017 WATERCOLOUR PALETTE” blog)? Are you taking your “new” sap green? Just curious!

    • Liz Steel says:

      Hi Lisa. Yes Iā€™m sticking to the 2017 palette. I didnā€™t have time to fully test my new green/s so sticking with what I know!

  • Grace says:

    Hi I just wanted to thank you for your class in the SBSKOOL Revival and the printouts the class was excellent and apart from one other session you were the only one who truely gave everyone else required one to sign up for the free offer. So thanks it was my first time watching a lesson and if I ever do a class I will remember your skill and integrity

  • Anne Lyle says:

    I confess that for my Palladian Odyssey palette I was going to do the sloping fill that Jane Blundell blogged about, then chickened out at the empty-looking pans and filled them up to the top instead. I’m sure it’s more than enough for a week, but I seemed to use up an awful lot of some colours whilst doing Foundations, and that was barely a dozen paintings (light colours are the worst, as they get dirty so easily and cleaning them up wastes a bit each time).

    Fingers crossed you have enough – but if not, you could always get creative with the colours you have left!

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