Untangle your mind with watercolor tangles

It’s impossible-to-get-wrong colorful fun this week on BETTER WITH ART! Grab your watercolors and join me and Nora for this week’s creative self-care art-making.

Welcome to BETTER WITH ART. I’m Melinda and I’m here to encourage you to reclaim your creativity and practice creative self-care with weekly small-art prompts that can be done in the privacy of an art journal or on paper if you don’t have one. Cardstock would be best for this week’s watercolor art.

If you’re interested in purchasing an ideal art journal for the wet, dry, and layered applications we use on BETTER WITH ART, the paper is important. It needs to be heavy-weight and smooth. Hot-press if it’s watercolor or some heavier mixed-media paper, because although I love the texture of cold-press it’s really hard on markers and pens. I aim for 140lb/300gsm. As mentioned in the video, the art journal I recommended from the beginning and used for art journaling groups at the library where I work is no longer available in the size I used. I’m looking for a new best value. Scroll below the video for details and links.

GREAT paper, and at just 4”x6”, a nice travel option:
Arrtx Watercolor Sketchbook 2-Pack

I’ve started testing these, and so far so good:
LIGHTWISH Watercolor Sketchbook
Double the paper or refill or bind with something as simple as yarn or small metal rings:
LIGHTWISH Watercolor Paper 2-Pack

Another HOT PRESS heavyweight watercolor journal, currently in my Amazon cart:
MAIMOUFIN Watercolor Journal

Also in my cart, a different type of lay-flat LIGHTWISH journal

What I can say about this paper I haven’t yet had time to test, is SMOOTH:
Speedball Fluid 100

I’ve been experimenting with these Dylusions creative journals to modify for Muse packs to spark your creativity. So far, so good, at least with collage-type pages. The pages are more ivory or like a pale manila folder than white, and like a heavy cardstock

The inexpensive watercolor set I usually use in my videos is the Prang oval pan basic 8 (currently on sale for $3.89)

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