Product Review: Watercolor Journals Aren’t All Alike

Yesterday, I reviewed Daniel Smith’s watercolor sticks. I had tried them on a sheet of Canson 90-lb cold-pressed watercolor paper with excellent results. Today, I tried them in a new journal and was surprised that the watercolor paper didn’t react anything like the Canson. Not all watercolor paper, even if it is 140-lb cold-pressed, is alike. And just because it’s 140-lb. doesn’t mean it’s the best.

The Canson sheet (below, left) did a good job of mixing the color on the paper. At 90-lb. it is a good, hardworking, bright-white sheet that stands up to a lot of use. You can see real green between the blue and yellow and a real purple between the blue and the red. The color is smooth and mixes well, but doesn’t soak into the sheet and doesn’t buckle. It’s sold in pads of 50 sheets in a “Biggie, Jr.” pad at art supply stores.

Canson on left, "Art of Watercolor Journal" on right.

The new journal I bought today (shown above, right) is called simply “The Art of Watercolor Journal” and is available at Hobby Lobby, for about $13.00. It has a rubbery cover with an elastic band and a ribbon place marker. The paper is bright white, heavy (130 gsm) watercolor paper.  It doesn’t warp when used for whole-page watercoloring. I think it’s made specifically for Hobby Lobby because there is no other marking on it.  It looks like a Moleskine knockoff, but for me and the work I do, I like this one better. (I know, I know, Moleskine is the Holy Grail of journalers and art journalers. I used them for a long while. But I’m one of those people who experiences slipping watercolor paints–the Moleksine paper is highly calendered–and I have to scrub in my watercolors. For a different opinion of the Art of Watercolor Journal, see the excellent review by Jessical Wesolek of Cre8It.

Pen & Ink journal on left, Arches Text Wove on right.

Pen & Ink Journals (above on left) is a brand I thought I’d like. They have  one just for watercolors, and the paper is perforated so you can take out the pages.  Rubbery cover and elastic closings always delight me. I can drop it in my bag and not worry. I like writing on watercolor paper and it stands up to the fun I have with my journals. So I was surprised to see the color sticks go on grainy and the color not work itself into the paper until I soaked the sticks and applied them directly to the paper (the three color dots). The paper is heavier than the Hand Book journals I’ve tried, (not reviewed here) but neither one really stands up to heavy use and watercolor. The paper is absorbent and not heavy enough to use with watercolor.

On the right above is a test on Arches Text Wove, a paper I love without exception. I once made an accordion journal out of ATW, put it in my pants pocket and forgot it. It went through the washer and dryer, and when it came out, all it was wrinkled. I ironed it and the accordion journal was fine. I’d used Pitt pens, and the color didn’t run. It was jut clean.

Robert Bateman Sketchbook showing watercolor, watercolor pencils, and Pitt pens.

Robert Bateman  Artist Quality Sketchbooks (above) have a book with 110-lb paper, and while it takes inks and watercolor pencils, the stick watercolors don’t absorb and don’t mix that well. They go on a lot more transparent than I’d like. Using a brush swept against the sticks and then applied to the paper leaves the same color as using a watercolor pencil, something I would not expect and didn’t like. To be fair, they are labeled as sketchbooks, and for that they are wonderful–including a heavy back cover for support while sketching.  They take inks without bleeding or feathering and stand up to erasures. But all journals I buy go through the watercolor test because I use watercolors a lot.

When you are choosing a journal, decide what it is you are going to us it for, then choose carefully. You don’t want to discover the journal isn’t right in the middle of precious studio time.

–Quinn McDonald is a writer and artist, as well as a certified creativity coach. She is teaching at Art Unraveled this year, and is writing a book on Raw Art Journaling.j

Product Review: Daniel Smith Watercolor Sticks

Daniel Smith Watercolor sticks. Image © Daniel Smith.

Daniel Smith, the art supply company, has introduced a set of watercolor sticks. Almost pure watercolor, these sticks have multiple uses. They are a bit spendy at $12.49 each, so I took advantage of the two-for-one Indanthrone Blue and New Gamboge, a warm yellow. I added a Quinadcrinone Red so I could mix my own colors.

If you travel or take classes, having stick watercolors is a big advantage. The flip-top tubes pop open in flight or in a bag, and while you can control damage, it still makes a mess and you lose paint. The sticks are clean, compact, and easy to carry.

The Daniel Smith watercolor sticks put down a lot of color very well. Below is the result on Canson

Daniel Smith watercolor sticks applied dry, then wet with a brush. 3 colors used: red, blue, yellow

Cold-Pressed 90-lb. watercolor paper. I rubbed the sticks over the paper, then used a wet brush to blend the colors together. The colors went down rich and the water made blending easy and color-true. The yellow is transparent, but the red was more opaque.

After I applied the colors directly to the paper, I dipped the sticks in water and used them wet. As expected, the color went down even more intensely. Because the ends are blunt, control was a little shaky. No worries, you can buy a pencil sharpener for these sticks. Don’t waste the shavings, put them into your palette, spritz with distilled water, and you have more watercolor. (Distilled water is especially necessary if you live in a hard-water area and want to keep the excess calcium carbonate from leaching into your images.

There are 40 colors available. Image from Daniel Smith's website.

The sticks are made with almost no binder, and are almost entirely watercolor. This means there is no waxy residue and longer life. That makes the price a bit easier to take. It also makes it easy to use a wet brush, wipe it against the sticks, and paint directly onto your paper. Want to blend colors? Sure, just transfer the color from your brush to palette, mix colors on the palette, and paint from there.

These colors are rich and apply well. For travelers or art journalers, they are worth the extra price.

FTC-required Full disclosure: I purchased 3 watercolor sticks and the Canson paper from Daniel Smith.

–Quinn McDonald is a writer, artist and life- and creativity coach. She is writing a book for art journalers who can’t draw. The book will be published in June of 2011 by North Light Craft Books.

Adding White Space in Your Life

White space. If it’s not in your life you are missing something. You may feel overbooked, understaffed, and exhausted. Yep, white space. What is white space, exactly? If you’ve ever done design work, you consider both the space where there are words and images (message space) and the space that is empty–called “white space.”

White space is important. Too much copy and illustratrion, and you feel exhausted looking at the page. You often don’t read any of it. Too little white space and you feel lost and disconnected, not sure you understand what you are looking at.

From Larisa Thomason's article on using white space in design. Link is in article, below

If you know this already, you might explore “passive white space”–margins and spaces between paragraphs, and “active” white space, the space purposely designed to give your eyes and mind a rest.

If you are interested in how to use white space in design, read Larisa Thomason’s excellent article “The Use of White Space.” The image on the left is from that article.

I worked in ad agencies and book design, so I value the good use of white space.

So yesterday, when I was having a  terrible, no-good, horrible, really bad day (Judith Viorst knows about those days). I felt jammed up by 7 a.m., when the tree trimmer didn’t show up. The day got worse, and I was exhausted, angry, and useless by 10 a.m.

I made a choice that changed the day. Here’s how I did it:

1. I stopped doing my work. Put the phone down, signed out of email. I needed to distance myself and my anger from my clients.

2. I took a break. I got a glass of ice tea, looked out the window  and did some deep breathing.

3. I re-set priorities. This is the hard part. I had to call clients, work on projects,  sort out the muses for a blog post. But I knew if I forced myself ahead with the considerable self-discipline I am capable of, I would do more damage than good. I’d make mistakes because I was frustrated; I’d miss correcting those mistakes because I was rushed. I’d create more mistakes and less forward motion.

4. I added white space to my day. I cut out some items I thought I had to do. I added a few administrative tasks that were more noodly, didn’t require a lot of brain power, but needed to be done. I added a half-hour of reading a magazine between tasks. Another spot of white space. I ran some errands. At the end of the day, I had accomplished some necessary items, hadn’t ruined client relationships and felt less harrassed and frustrated.  I need to be clear here: I chose not to do some important things because the risk of doing them and failing was more probable than being able to push through them successfully. This is the key to success–put off the thing that has to be done, in order to save it. It is a hard decision to make, and exactly why adding white space is a life saver.

I now have a name for deliberately putting off work because I am emotionally incapable of doing it. This is very different from avoiding work, creating excuses, or not meeting a deadline because you didn’t get up early enough. You know the difference. My day was saved and ended well because I added white space. Try it.

–Quinn McDonald is a communication trainer. She develops and teaches workshops to help people communicate more clearly.

Be Authentic, Be Yourself

"Authentic" linotype typeface by Linotype.com

“What does it mean to be ‘authentic’”? Anne asked. She was sitting on the couch in my studio; we’d been talking about the muse swap I wanted to run.

“Authenticity means being yourself–who you are, warts and all,” I said.

Anne looked at me carefully. “People don’t like warts, not mine. They might like Lady Gaga’s. If she has any. But not my warts.”

“Tell me more. What happened?” I asked.

“Well,” Anne said thoughtfully, “Last week I went to dinner at a friend’s house. She served something disgusting, and I told her I wouldn’t eat anything that looked like a body part. She got angry. But I was being authentic. Should I have eaten that disgusting thing? That wouldn’t be authentic.”

Authentic Isn’t Blurting Out Every Thought
“Authentic and saying what you are thinking without any ‘polite filter’ on are two different things. That’s why, in court, they make a distinction between ‘the truth’ and ‘the whole truth.’”

“OK,” Anne said, “So what IS authentic and how do I do it?”

“Authentic is acting on your values. You have a value for not hurting others feelings, and a value for not eating food that looks like body parts. Authentic behavior would be a way of covering both values.”

” So I could have taken a small piece and eaten around it, or simply said ‘No, thanks’ when she offered me the disgusting meat” Anne said. I was careful not to ask what the meat was. I wanted to stay on track.

“Yep.” I said.

“Do you have trouble with being authentic?” Anne asked.

Authentic Won’t Buy You a Place at the Cool Kids’ Table
“Sure. Often. In school, people always asked me to get involved with what the ‘cool kids’ were doing. I wasn’t cool, but I badly wanted to be. Often I took dares, or did what others did, even if I didn’t honor my values, just so I could be cool. And often I was the one who got caught. And just as often, the people who had encouraged me and promised the label of ‘cool kid’ turned their backs on me and laughed. It made me feel foolish and angry.” I said.

“Later, I choose to do things–protest injustice–and I knew that I might get caught, even punished. But I choose that consequence when I made the choice, and could explain my reasons to myself and others. They might not agree, but I felt OK with myself,” I added.

Anne grinned. “You’ve told me about those days. You are still that same person. Oh, I get it! Your values are the same now!” she said.

Values Don’t Change, How You Handle Them Does
“They are. In many ways, I’m the same person.” I agreed. “In fact, something happened recently that made me see that my values haven’t changed, but my way of handling them has,” I said.

“Like my disgusting meat story?” Anne asked.

Sort Out Your Own Authenticity, Then Act
“Sort of. Someone challenged me to do something I would have felt uncomfortable doing. It wasn’t anything bad. To many people, it would be fun. But not to me—it was dressing up in a wild costume and dancing. In public.” I explained.

“Do you think dancing in a costume in public is wrong?” Anne asked.

“Not at all. If it were a costume party, with lots of others dressed up,  I might do it. But this person asked me to be the ONLY one to put on a costume and dance—to get attention. And that’s just not me. It’s not how I like to get attention. I like to get attention in different ways—telling stories and finding solutions for problems, and being humorous. I’m more bookish than dance-ish,” I said.

“Oh, I heard about that challenge. It would be funny. Why not do it?” Anne asked.

Knowing Who You Are, Accepting It, Acting on It
“Other people might be able to carry it off. Other people might feel comfortable and funny wearing a costume and dancing in public, all alone. But it’s not authentic me. If I went against my own authentic self, other people would sense it, and they would feel uncomfortable, too. So even though the other person is kind of challenging me, I’m not doing it. It’s not authentic me, ” I said.

“Just like saying the dish my friend was sharing with me was disgusting. That wasn’t really me, either,” Anne said.

“Yep, just like that. Being authentic means being the ‘you’ that shows your values, your beliefs, your ideas. People might like you or they

Lentil salad from health.com

might not like you, but as long as you are authentic, both sides will be clear about why. Now, I’m going to have some lentil salad. Would you like some?”

“Ummm, maybe a small helping. Or, on second thought, I”m good,” Anne answered.

“How about a PBJ?”

“Now you’re talking,” she smiled as we left the studio and went to the kitchen.

–Quinn McDonald is a life and creativity coach who is teaching two classes at Art Unraveled, an art retreat in Phoenix, August 3 – 10, 2010.

Hand-Made Journal: Mutant 2

This gallery contains 4 photos.

Making your own journal gives you exactly what you want. It’s also fun, keeps you really busy for a while, and gives you a sense of accomplishment. Today I’m starting a series of journals I’m calling Mutants. A few weeks … Continue reading →

Muse Swap–It Starts Here

My muse as part of my landscape, in a kind and generous moment.

My muse is yammering today. She doesn’t like how much white space I leave on a page. She kicked my favorite Arches Text Wove off the table and demanded a new paper. For a second, I thought it was my gremlin (also known as Lizard Brain), but it is not. My muse is quite encouraging and creative, she just won’t let me settle down and create. She keeps tossing ideas into my mind and then not finishing them. I find it annoying.

So I did what I normally do when I get distracted, I jumped into the interwebs and noticed that other people are having trouble with their muses as well. Well, what bothers some people is another person’s dream.

I wanted to swap my muse, but I did NOT want to start a complicated swap that involves mailing stuff to other people. I’m pretty terrible at that. But how about this–If you want to swap your muse, post a comment to this post by midnight West Coast Time July 12, 2010–close enough to the new moon for this month. You just post what your muse is doing that annoys you. If you don’t do it now, you won’t do it.

On the 14th, I’ll assign you a randomly swapped muse. You’ll play, work, listen, and live with someone else’s muse for a while. See what happens.

On the full moon, July 26 (or earlier), tell me what happened with your muse swap. You’ll do this via email to Quinn.Classes[at]gmail.com Did your new muse inspire you? Kvetch? Force you to eat chocolate? We want to know.  Your answer can be a video,  a poem, a story, a drawing–anything at all creative. I’ll compile them and report back by the 29th as a blog post.  I’ll post what I can here (with full credit, of course).  If there is overwhelming response, I’ll create a Flickr set. If there is a long, complicated story, you can post the result on your blog or website, and simply send me a link and permission to use the image.

Encourage others. Let’s swap some muses!

UPDATE: 7/15/10: Muses have been swapped. Each person received a short description of the swapped muse and instructions. I’ll be waiting for the exciting report of what happened. . .let me know by July 27, 2010.

Update: 7/31/10: You can read about the muse-swap results.

–Quinn McDonald is a writer and raw-art-journaler who is writing a book to be published by North Light Books in June of 2011.

Paper Journal, Computer Mind: Art Journaling as Art

When I teach art journaling classes, I am often asked, “Aren’t pen and paper obsolete?” That opens the door to an interesting discussion of journaling by handwriting, keyboarding, painting, singing and using a computer.

This video is a wonderful addition to that discussion. It’s not only well done, but the artist, Evelien Lohbeck  , has a wry sense of humor, an incredible imagination, and the persistence to draw it all out.  Lobeck’s website tells you about her as an artist, (many of the links no longer work) but her Youtube channel all well-worth watching.

more about “Noteboek on Vimeo“, posted with vodpod

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I loved the toast sequence best. Or maybe the photocopy sequence. No, no, the mirror was great. Well, OK, the entire idea of journal as part of all five senses is the whole idea of journaling in one great vision.

–QQuinn McDonald is a writer and creativity coach. She teaches business writing, journal-keeping and raw-art-journaling.

What’s This and Why Do I Keep Drawing It?

Mysterious stick designs puzzle me.

For the past few days, I keep drawing this figure. I don’t know why. I don’t even know what it is–a stylized human? A sword? A stopper of some kind? I don’t know, but it keeps coming up in my morning art journaling (like morning pages, but with sketches). I’m fascinated by not knowing. I’m comfortable with not knowing what it is or why it keeps appearing in my sketches.

If you want to make any guesses, you are welcome to take a whack at it.

--Quinn McDonald spend a lot of her time not knowing about life, and waiting for the answer.

Practice, Not Perfect

Practice designs on an index card. Random now, but they'll show up again later.

Practice is not writ large in our world today. Practice takes time. Practice does not give immediate perfect results or personal satisfaction. Our journal pages can’t be practice, they have to be complete. No wonder some of them are half an inch thick with painted-over gesso to cover mistakes. We hate mistakes. We want that first-time perfect.

I am older than you. I have made more mistakes than you. I have discovered the secret to beautiful journal pages and it is called “practice.” OK, painting over with gesso works, too. But there is an easier way. And that is to draw something a few times before you put it in your journal. Even designs, even abstract ideas benefit from practice. You can dedicate a few journal pages to practice, too. It will help remind you that it wasn’t great the first time, although by time three it was improving.

Practice isn’t hard and it isn’t punitive. Practice is writing or drawing (or building or stitching) on a piece of paper until your hand understands what its doing. The proportions come together and your fingers get a chance to think. Grabbing a journal and expecting a perfect page without practice is asking for disappointment.

Still doubting the value of practice? Move the idea you have about yourself to someone else. Want a dentist who has never done a root canal to start with you because he’s passionate about root canals? How about your surgeon? Moving away from medicine, how about your pilot? Want the first-timer in your plane. Suddenly practice makes a lot more sense.

I grab my ever-present index cards and fountain pen I use for taking notes and do my practice. I jot down ideas and patterns, try to work them out, and make an effort to figure out what I’m doing, all before I get close to the journal. Using a fountain pen doesn’t allow me to erase, but it allows me to start over again several times with no penalty.

Practice is an old trick. Try it. It will help you work on your perfectionism. Promise.

--Quinn McDonald is a writer and artist. Her book, “Raw Art Journaling: Making Meaning, Making Art” will be published in June of 2011 by North Light Books.

Art Changes Us: David Dawangyumptewa

Daniel Dawangyumptewa's art, deliberately left slightly out of focus to avoid copying.

David Dawangyumptewa has a story to tell about his art. He tells his story with no regret and no sorrow, but hearing it is hard on the listener. Dawangyumptewa has been an artist all his life, but he has also done other things–he’s been a lighting roadie for Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt and a stonemason. He is best known for his work in high-profile arts advocacy throughout the state of Arizona.

But I’m getting away from the story. I was at the Flagstaff Hopi Festival yesterday. Held at the Museum of Northern Arizona, the festival includes demonstrations of katsina doll carving, weaving, basket making.

Back to David’s story. David’s background is with the Water Clan. His detailed work focuses on water images–frogs, dragonflies, water colors. They almost always contain figures interacting with animals. Then, he had a stroke. Not a mild warning stroke, but one that sent him into a coma and damaged his right side. He could not hold a brush, a pen, or pencil. His thoughts were muddled. He survived his coma. He woke up to the burning clear realization that his life would never be the same. And all he wanted was his life back. He began to work on putting together the same life he had. And despite his best efforts, his old life was gone. It had vanished with the stroke. The more he told people he was going to put his old life back together, the more people agreed it was what he should do, the further away the goal slipped.

Here is the part of David’s story that amazed me. He decided that he was still an artist, but a different artist. And after being right-handed all his life, he picked up his pen in his left hand and began to teach himself how to do his careful, detailed, precise art with his left hand. “I wanted my old life back,” he told me, “but I couldn’t have it, so I created a new life.”

His new life is amazing to me. The piece I purchased, above, done in gouache, pen and ink, is from his new life. It looks perfect to me. He smiled and thanked me, but I know behind that kindness is the sadness for what was. And still, David Dawangyumptewa’s story is one of reinvention, one that proves that we can choose our art, even as it chooses us, and that we can be someone new, made of the someone old, and hard work and practice can win over giving up. David could have had a comfortable life as a show promoter, or as a consultant, but David is an artist and wanted to stay and artist. And so he did.

—Quinn McDonald is a writer and artist, whose book on raw art journaling will be publishes in June of 2011 by North Light Books.