Maybe you don’t know, but I’m organizing a local Urban Sketchers group in Bielefeld for 6 years. We meet regularly and draw and paint together.

And that’s how I met your mother,
– I’d say if you were my child.

As a birthday present, I got a Portable Painter Micro palette from my wife (she’s the best). It’s a watercolor palette holding 6 half-pans, and she picked colors to match Teoh Yi Chie’s 2021 palette, who historically very vibrant and fun paintings!

This is the first painting – made with dreaded water brushes (affiliate link). Dreaded, because I usually don’t like to paint with them since water either never comes out at all, or all the time, so flow control is tricky.

I do use water brushes with watercolor pencil for single-color fills in simple sketches though. That’s what this palette is going to replace: my 4 watercolor pencils that don’t mix that well, with the ugly reddish blue.

I like the palette and the colors for a couple of reasons!

The blue is granulating. You can see that it doesn’t look even, but like I mixed in dust particles or something. I didn’t care for this 5 years ago, but here, I notice that it provides a very interesting texture.

The yellow is so vibrant! I’m red-green color deficient, so I’m a sucker for intense colors when I do perceive them. It’s just that these colors are almost never red or green, but yellow will do! Tasty.

The size is reaaaaally great. I can hold this in my hand all day. It’s, well, micro.

I can mix intense violets. At least I believe it’s a violet hue. Anyway, I can mix the warm red with the intense blue, and it’s such a great color, especially when put next to the yellow. (I do need to practice my greens, though.)

Guess what I’ve been using before?

The Classic Portable Painter, which I also got as a birthday present from my now-wife, then-girlfriend, but 4 years ago. It sits nicely on my leg, and I can also attach it to a tight belt if needed. I’ve been envied for having this for ages. But it requires some setup, and it’s designed to be used with the water tanks, so it’s more for serious watercolor paintings. The micro palette is great for quick water brush work, but the selection of colors is also very nice for mixing. (I need to check this out with my huge-ass watercolor brush, like thicker-than-a-male-thumb size, that carries a lot of water; will report back.)

I’m happy with the first experiment!

The location I painted at is Café Altes Pfarrhaus in Halle (Westf.), an old chapel nestled in the woods, very cute. Check it out on Apple Maps.