It’s crazy what a little change of location can do for creativity. Suddenly there are so many possibilities… one of them is a local Urban Sketchers group, that I joined a few weeks ago.
Chapters
The Group
Since last year I’ve been telling, that a move is coming and now that it’s finally done I am open to new things in the new city. Here, in a bigger city than the one I lived before, I don’t only gained a room that I can use as a studio now, but also the possibility to have an Urban Sketchers group close, that I can join. Which I did in March! It was a cool Saturday when I met the group and painted.
On the way to the location I was already hyped and tried to see if someone was another painter. I looked for hints like sketching bags, foldable chairs or tripods that would peek out of bags or backpacks. Once I arrived I saw the group forming slowly and nervously introduced myself simply as “the new one”.
We had a nice walk together to a place close and sat down in small groups to paint whatever was catching our eye. I chose a little fast food restaurant with a row of intriguing colorful trash cans in the middle of the gray tristesse.
My first quick sketch on location including the inspiration. The colors of the trash cans were just magically calling to me.
But there is beauty in simplicity of every day objects, undeniably.
The Setup
This creative outing also gave me the chance to try my new tiny palette and color combination.
First of all, I love it to get along with a minimal setup, which really showed in what I took with me on the go. I kept in mind, what I really need for watercolors when I built this set. It’s small and mobile.
My full set for painting on the go… most of it I didn’t even need still.
What I added to my mobile watercolor set:
- pencil and eraser (which I didn’t use)
- Liner (didn’t use it either)
- Uni Ball Air (or a fountain pen with waterproof ink)
- Portable Painter Micro with 6 colors from MaimeriBlu
- Sketchbook by Khadi (I should have taken one with a hard cover)
- Arteza water brushes (Where did my travel brushes go?)
The set clearly can be optimized still. I wish I knew where my travel brushes are, so I could take them on the go with me. But the water brushes performed ok. They’re a bit more tricky when it comes to water control and the tip is not as fine. The sketchbook also turned out not to be ideal. While the paper is 100% cotton and performed well, it was tricky to hold due to the soft cover, which is paintable though. It wasn’t too bad though. In the end I’m very happy with the sketch I was able to create.
The Palette
The palette is new for me. The physical thing as well as the colors inside. It’s inspired by an artist friend, who filled her own palette just before and shared it with me. The exciting thing is, that it doesn’t contain a yellow in a sense. The chosen pigments can mix a yellow though, a muted one, but a yellow!
In her blog she writes about the setup and color choices she made. Mine differ from it slightly and are a bit more suited to me and my favorite mixes. But the idea behind it is the same. That’s why I call it Daenas Extreme Split Yellow Palette.
Colors in my set are
- Green Gold PY129
- Permanent Orange PO64
- Permanent Carmine PR176
- Phthalo Turquoise PB15:4
- Faience Blue PB60
- Dragons Blood PBr25
All of them are by MaimeriBlu and I test not only the color combinations, but also the brand and the palette itself. The small setup is new to me and I’m curious to find out, what is possible.
To get a feeling for the palette I created a mixing chart to see how it mixes. All colors are mixed with each other once. In the mixing charts I can see the harmony of the palette on one glance.
The palette has a few vibrant primary colors but no vibrant primary yellow, which makes the mixes slightly muted. To paint outside and nature themes, it’s perfect.
The Event
All in all I enjoyed the adventure of meeting new artsy people in real life and paint together. We had wonderful conversations and I had another chance to get to know the new to me city. After moving I had just a few day where I went exploring and it was a completely new part of town, that I’ve never been before. I’m still looking for my new favorite places and some that I’ve found so far are definitely worth visiting again.
This time I even went with the goal to paint and meeting the Urban Sketchers. In just a few weeks another event is planned, which I will also join. On their site you can learn more about it. If a reader strays far enough and will visit there, let me know and say hi!
The finished pages. The Bosporus Imbiss and the row of very inspiring colorful trash cans created the perfect urban feeling for this cool day in March.
If there is a urban sketchers group in your area, I’d recommend to go and join it at least once to try and paint on location. It feels so different to paint with other people around you and outside too. I’m excited to paint more outside.
Just in time I’ve also been told about the PleinApril challenge on social media. We talked about it on discord and some of my art friends want to join too and paint as much as we can outside in April to enjoy nature and art at the same time.
I’ll gladly tell you more about it soon and wish you a wonderful and creative day until then!
Lana