Watercolor vacation.

My son is turning 8 tomorrow and we're going away for a few days to celebrate. Ordinarily, I paint with acrylics, but they don't travel well. The tubes are bulky, the set up takes a lot of space, canvas is easy to tear, and they require a lot of focus and dedicated time set aside since they dry so quickly. However, there was a year in my life where I painted with nothing but watercolors, and I still have a great collection of professional watercolors. Watercolors do travel well, especially if you have them set up in a pallet. They don't make a mess, and all you need is some paper, a few brushes, a little travel container of watercolors, and you're good to go. An added bonus is that you can paint for a couple minutes, walk away, and return to the painting with no harm done. The dried paints re-wet easily on your pallet. I love being able to switch mediums, as each one teaches me something different about paints and colors in general. So when I'm traveling, I'll be bringing my watercolors with me. What do you like to bring on your vacations?

All of my original watercolor paintings and original watercolor artist trading cards can be found in my Etsy store. Here's a recent 5x7 painting, "Windy Swing", done in Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolors.

And below, I will share a video on some ideas for creating your very own DIY travel watercolor pallets.
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