It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

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The other day, perhaps because the temperatures were warming, I decided it would be a good idea to take fluid acrylics into the park and sketch the geese. Big laugh. Other painters may have great success traveling out and about with fluid acrylics, but I found that it was a lot more equipment to lug around. (I needed to carry a water bottle and two former yogurt containers to hold my rinse water; several brushes; paper towels; a flat plastic tray for a mixing palette; plastic jars to hold some paint; and my collapsible chair.)

The good news is that I knew I'd be sketching geese so I only took three small jars of paint (blue, orange, and white). (The small plastic jars have lids and they fit into a palette—which I didn't have at this time, but now do. Art Alternatives makes them. They are pretty spiffy.) So essentially it was as if I were painting with inks, holding little bottles.

You can see the original sketching brush strokes in the unfinished portions of the goose on the right. Frankly, it wasn't that warm after all. And the wind was causing a skin to form on my paints when the jar lids were off.

Definitely not a well-thought out plan. Thank heavens for gouache! But it was great fun to see the geese back in the park. Eight pairs so far.