A miscellaneous collection of resources you might find interesting. This list is sort of quirky and idiosyncratic. I add to this page when I have time or when I’m working on something that might be a good addition, and have time to include it. It’s not intended to be a “best of” or comprehensive survey. (For books, please use the title and author information to search at your library or favorite bookseller. I prefer not to point you to particular book vendors.)

About Color: 

Color: A Natural History of the Palette, Victoria Finlay. Fascinating collection of “stories and anecdotes, histories and adventures inspired by the human quest for color”. Chapters arranged by color

Bright Earth, Phillip Ball. Ball is a physicist with an undergraduate degree in chemistry, and a masterly writer. This books traces the intertwining of art, commerce, and the technology of pigments and dyes. (It will definitely make you appreciate the wealth of non-toxic and lightfast colors we have!)

A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire, Amy Butler Greenfield. The story of cochineal. From the cover blurb: “A Perfect Red evokes with style and verve this history of a grand obsession , of intrigue, empire and adventure in pursuit of the most desirable color on earth.” Reads as fast as any novel.

The Secret Lives of Color, Kassia St. Clair. Stories/histories of 75 different pigments/colors, arranged in rainbow order. Wonderful to dip into here and there for inspiration.

Color Choices: Making Sense Out of Color Theory, Stephen Quiller. The title says it all. This is the book that made color theory finally “click” for me so that I could actually use it. (Plus, Quiller’s paintings and drawings illustrating the book are drool-worthy.)

Making Color Sing, Jean Dobie. More extremely practical advice on creating glowing, jewel-like color in watercolor. And, although it’s not the topic of the book, directly, studying the paintings is a wonderful education in the power of simplifying shapes and strong design arrangements to create impact and showcase the luminosity of watercolor.

The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone and Sky, Ellen Meloy. Essays on natural history and human relationship to the landscape, revolving around turquoise (the color, and the stone). So of course, I loved it!

About Design, Composition and Planning:

Creative Discoveries in Watermedia, Pat Dews. Watercolor, acrylic, inks and collage, but even if you just want to work in watercolor, the info on design is great.

The Mind of Watercolor (Steve Mitchell). Hundreds of excellent videos on every aspect of watercolor technique. Steve Mitchell comes from a professional illustration background. We don’t agree on every teeny detail, but where we do things differently, it is mostly due to my preference for a lot of wet-into-wet effects and a bit looser style (not that his style is super-tight, he just maintains a bit more control over the water and paint–I’m messier!) Check the “Playlists” tab to easily find your way around the wealth of information on his channel.

Cafe Watercolor (Eric Yi Lin) – Gentle speech and an emphasis on painting the people and things that matter most in your life make this channel soothing and uplifting. Unhurried demonstrations, so you can really follow what’s going on, and wonderful openness about his thinking process as he paints.

Angela Fehr – A looser style, using more water. Lots of great information, very encouraging and really communicates the unique beauty of watercolor’s wet-in-wet effects.

makoccino – mako has a ton of simple exercises and projects that feel very doable, even if you are just starting out. Some people have told me they find it difficult to understand her accent. I think she’s quite clear, but then, my hearing is still pretty good. 🙂 If you find it a strain, she does have closed-captions enabled on her videos, so you can always turn that on.

Watercolor by Shibasaki – Shibasaki-sensei is known as the “Japanese Bob Ross of watercolor”. Joyful, calm and inspiring. In Japanese, with English subtitles, but he’s so good at demonstrating, you almost don’t have to look at the subtitles to understand what he’s doing.

Rick Surowizc – Excellent series on the fundamental skills and behavior of watercolor. Many demonstration paintings, done at actual speed, with narration explaining what he is doing.

Birgit O’Conner – Bold and dramatic florals, but lots of her tips and techniques apply to other subjects, too. Upbeat, encouraging instructor, and very knowledgable.

Paul Clark Watercolour – recommended by one of your fellow students

ArtistsNetwork – ArtistsNetworkTV is a paid subscription service that gives you access to hundreds of professionally-produced courses with well-known artists and many types of media. But they also have a ton of free videos on YouTube.

Independent art supply stores are a treasure for artists. Online prices might be lower, but the staff at most independent art supply stores are working artists and a wonderful source of help, advice and inspiration. Let’s support them!

I’d love to add your favorite to the list. Please contact me using the link in the footer and let me know the name, location and a word or two about what makes them special, if you want.

Wet Paint, 1684 Grand Ave., St. Paul, MN 55105, 651-698-6431, wetpaintart.com

My favorite art supply store on the planet! Huge variety of items, and an enormous selection of specialty papers from all over the world. A million enticing things you never knew existed for making all sorts of art. Lots of working artists on the staff. 

If you need to find the right product to solve a creative problem, or learn the right way to use a product they carry, ask! Chances are good there is someone on duty who uses it in their own work and can answer all your questions. 

If you can’t figure out what you need when ordering online, they will happily assist you over the phone. When we can spend hours and hours in a store again, this one is a great place to blow an entire day (and your budget, if you’re not careful!)

Please tell them hello from me!

Recommendations for suitable sketchbooks or journals for a Studio Notebook or Creative Energy Journaling

First, I should say that you don’t have to  keep an actual journal.  If you find a journal confining, feel free to use a folder, portfolio, scrapbook, drawer or box to save your work.

If you do want to use a journal or sketchbook, I recommend a spiral, hardbound or softcover journal with paper suitable for mixed media. There is a trade-off between having lovely, large pages and having a book portable enough to carry around. Something in the 5.5×8.5″ to 9×12″ range would be a good place to start, but see what appeals to you as far as size. Some of the ones mentioned below come in some interesting square formats (e.g. 9×9″, 12×12″), too.

If you choose a hardbound book, look for one that will lay flat (Smyth bound or flat bound) when open. All of the hardbound ones mentioned here are like that. Almost all watercolor sketchbooks have more of a “student-grade” paper, which many people find okay for sketching and brainstorming. If you want 100% cotton paper, the last two in this list (Kilimanjaro and Etchr Labs) are two good choices.

 Some good ones to try:

  •  Bee Paper Watercolor sketchbook (spiral bound)
  • American Journey Watercolor Sketchbook (Cheap Joe’s, spiral bound)
  • Stillman & Birn mixed media journals (the Beta, Delta, and Zeta series are suitable for watermedia; difference is paper color and smooth vs. cold-pressed finish–choose what appeals to you)
  • Handbook Watercolor Journal or Handbook Travelogue hardbound journal
  • Stonehenge spiral-bound pad (they call it a pad, but it’s got enough pages to seem like a mixed media sketchbook)
  • Strathmore Visual Journal, Mixed-Media or Watercolor(there are several types, be sure you get the mixed media or watercolor paper; the others are too lightweight)
  • Cheap Joe’s Kilimanjaro Watercolor Sketchbook (140 lb, 100% cotton Kilimanjaro paper)
  • Etchr Labs Watercolor Journal (100% cotton paper, just under 140-lb, but behaves like 140-lb)

Art Materials for Getting Started with Creative Energy Journaling

You don’t need to start with a lot of artist-quality art materials (although you certainly can).  Kids’ materials and supplies made for office use and scrapbooking are fine for journaling.

They may not have the same intensity of color or lovely handling as artist-quality materials and the colors may fade over time if exposed to light, but journal pages are not exposed to light for years at a time the way art on your wall would be.

So start simple with your materials. There’s something liberating about working with kid’s art materials, anyway. I’m a working artist will all sorts of pricey artist-grade materials, but I still get jazzed about a new box of crayons!

Tap into that adventurous, free, creative spirit you were in kindergarten, before the schedules, carpools, and to-do lists squashed your creative self into a corner. What better way to coax some creative energy back into your life than to give yourself a little taste of kindergarten again?

Of course, you may choose to buy some lovely artist-quality materials as an affirmation of your decision to value and live a more creative life! Or just because you’re worth it! If something is calling to you, go for it!

Supplies you might want to try for Creative Energy Journaling:

Some watercolors

A kids’ set (e.g. Crayola) is just fine to start with (except buy a decent brush to go with it—see below). You can find these at discount stores (Target, Walmart) as well as hobby and craft stores (Michael’s, JoAnn). Often, art supply stores will have them, too. They are very inexpensive ($1-$5) and portable.

A decent watercolor brush.

The ones in the kids’ sets are usually too small and don’t come to a decent point.  Look for a #10 or #12 round white or gold synthetic watercolor brush. You can usually find these in hobby stores or art supply stores for under $5.

Or, for portability, try a waterbrush. These have a reservoir you can fill with water, so you don’t even need to take a water container along.

Some crayons, colored pencils, markers or gel pens.

Again, feel free to start with kids’ materials or stuff intended for office use or scrapbooking. You can find multicolor sets in discount stores in the school supplies, office supplies or scrapbooking areas.  You don’t need all of them. Choose whichever you enjoy working with.

A permanent black pen.

Some to try: Pigma Micron, Staedtler, ultrafine Sharpie. This is useful when you want to draw something and then brush some watercolor over it without smearing.

Some acrylic paints and/or inks

You probably won’t find these in the school supplies, and they are a bit more expensive than the other materials we’ve talked about so far. But you can buy relatively inexpensive tubes or sets in hobby and craft stores. Look for the little bottles of fluid acrylics (Apple Barrel, DecoArt, Folk Art). These are more like watercolor. Easier to use and cheaper than tube acrylics.

This is one place where the artist-quality stuff really is much nicer to work with, though. If you want to economize, consider buying just your favorite color (or an iridescent or metallic color) of good quality paint, instead of a cheap set. Golden is my favorite brand in acrylic paints. I’ve had good luck with pretty much all brands of acrylic ink I’ve tried.  You can also use Golden High-Flow Acrylics as ink.

If you’re trying to get started with minimal expense, or if you expect you’ll mostly be journaling where you don’t want to make a mess, skip these until you run across an activity where you really want to use them.

Pencils, a sharpener, a kneaded eraser, and (maybe) fixative.

The main thing I use pencil for is making my own transfer paper. (See the post about transferring images.  For that, you’ll want either a soft art pencil (4B, 6B or 8B) or a jar of powdered graphite.

For actually drawing or writing in your journal, you might be perfectly happy with a #2 office pencil or a mechanical pencil.  I don’t like the way pencil smears, so I don’t use it much in journaling, except for making some light guidelines occasionally, so any old pencil works for me.

But some people really love the feel of graphite on paper, and really love the soft, silvery look. If that’s you, then consider buying a few art pencils in different hardnesses. A good selection would be a 2H (for light, fine lines), an HB or B, and a 4B (soft enough to get nice darks).

If you work in pencil, a kneaded eraser will help you lift out graphite to lighten areas, and doesn’t leave a whole lot of eraser bits all over your work surface and floor.

Art pencils are often slightly thicker than an office pencil, so you may need to buy a sharpener.

Pencil smears, so you may want to buy fixative to spray on your drawings to keep the graphite from smearing or transferring to adjacent pages. Or, misting the page with water will also help (not quite as much, but no smelly solvents!)