Watercolor Wanderlust

Here is something I've been doing lately that is not in the normal vein of my crafty outpouring: watercolor painting. It is so relaxing for me, and it's a great creative exercise to get my brain ready for whatever I decide to do next. You know, like knit. Or crochet. Or walk the dog. Like working out your body, it's a good plan to warm up before you work out your creative muscles.

Plus, I feel really fancy with my watercolors all spread on the table. Colors are the most inspiring thing for me, and a box of colors is just the thing to glace at when you get depressed about the fact that it's April and it snowed again last week.

I've had my plastic pallet since high school. My benevolent art teacher preached quality of materials and scorned the dreaded Prang watercolor pallet. We got to use real-deal, from a tube, watercolors in her class. Let me tell you, it makes you feel like a real grown up to use them. Right before I went off to college, she let me load up my pallet with any colors I wanted to take with my to school. A little paint goes a long way!

It has been a few years since then, so some of my colors were beginning to run out. I was lucky enough to score a ton of new tubes of color from a local model/train/hobby shop. They were clearing out their fine arts inventory and all paint tubes were marked down to $2/tube. TWO DOLLARS A TUBE. These Windsor Newton watercolors usually sell for $5-8/tube. What a deal!!

I love Micron pens. So much.

Just for fun. Nothing fancy. Just a little way to push myself to be more creative in different ways than I normally do. An artsy challenge, if you will. I may never be able to push myself to run a mile, but by golly I'll push myself to paint more.