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The Very Best Watercolour Travel Journal

A journal I fell in love with, and if you travel with a little tin of paints with you, you will love it too.

By Faline Kay FrostPublished 5 years ago 4 min read
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If you know me, you might know that I love to travel. I have also always been a very artistic person. Something about drawing, doodling or painting just pulls you in. It slows you down, relaxes your mind, it's even recommended as a type of therapy. This particular hobby has always presented a challenge for me when I traveled because I like to pack light…very light. If I can manage to fit all the things in one backpack and live like that for months, I’ll do it. Unfortunately you can hardly fit several canvases and a bunch of paint tubes into a backpack. You’ve also got brushes, blending palettes, and your paint can pop and spill all over your clothes. I once got to my destination with some very colourful luggage…exhausting.

To remedy this, for many years I have taken only a pencil and a notebook along to doodle in. However, after a while I wanted more variety than just my number two pencil, I have always adored black and white art, but I just wanted something less serious, more spontaneous, more bold. I went to Michael’s looking for alcohol markers since I like the way they blend, but the first thing I fell in love with was a portable watercolour paint palette. It was tiny!! It had 10 colours, one tiny brush, and a little blending dip where you could put a little bit of water to mix with some colour. I took it EVERYWHERE, but my new problem was that my paper couldn’t take it. My regular journal just had simple paper and my colours would bleed through and make all the paper wavy and annoying. I went to several arts stores looking for water colour paper journals but they were all quite large. I wanted something compact enough to fit into a purse. You know, just in case you’re at your third cousin’s fifth relative’s birthday party and you get bored.

Anyway, I finally found this journal on Amazon:

It is THE BEST travel art journal I have EVER had. It’s hard cover, comes in a few different colours, holds up to light water colouring, has tons of pages, and I find the square dimensions to be great when wanting to utilize the whole space. The equal sides of the page just make it easier to draw centre and help in the even distribution of the piece, you come out with these great tiny projects, almost like postcards. Not to mention the vintage feel this little book has, it's like the journal itself inspires you to create.

The other thing you might want to be mindful of when you travel is the medium you use. This post is of course more so about watercolours, but even those have a few different ways they can be put on paper. Watercolours, as far as I know can come in soft paint, paint blocks, markers, and even pencils. In my opinion you will have the most fun and easiest time with water-colour pencils while traveling. This is my new favourite to bring along because it makes significantly less mess. I usually sketch, fill it in with the pencils, and then use a water colour brush that you can fill with water to blend. The water release on those brushes is MUCH more controlled than the water release from a regular paint brush and water in a cup. I’ve even reached for the filler brushes when I’m painting at home.

Pro tip: Bring along very fine felt tip markers, or gel pens. These items are not watercolour specific, any pens or markers you like will do. I usually travel with one of those 12 colour sets. These are AMAZING for any outlines or accents in your work. They make the picture pop, they’re clear, they’re crisp, they bring the whole thing to a new level. Just make sure you’re using these last and that your paper is completely dry so they don’t bleed. Unless of course fuzzy lines are your art goal, that’s cool too, fuzz it up.

Last thing… Everybody is wildly different, especially when it comes to creativity and creative tools. You might prefer traveling with paint rather than pencils, or canvas rather than paper. I suggest you experiment with it all before you decide because I didn’t figure I’d love watercolour pencils so much before I tried them. I’ve also been drawing for years, so if this is something new to you and you’re still figuring things out, give yourself more time and leeway. Maybe if you’re just starting to bring art supplies on trips with you, bring a bigger bag so you can fit more! You can eliminate things later as you go.

Let me know what your favourite art medium is and send me your doodles!!

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