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This is how I started watercolor. You can paint anywhere using plein air travel supplies: in the car, at the dr, on the sofa, or even in bed.
I ended up in bed with a migraine my second day ever of painting. I learned very quickly out of necessity how to paint anywhere. I am at the core a Plein Air painter. Plein Air is the European term for painting outside; it’s where you get some travel supplies and go somewhere and paint. There are a lot of similarities between that and traveling to your bed to paint.
Check out the new video: You Can Paint Anywhere.
I usually end up with a minimal setup: a small palette, a little book, and a travel water container.
If you have health challenges look up: travel supplies and how people Plein Air watercolor. It can give you ideas on how to paint from bed, or in a car, or in a dr’s office, or while traveling.
It’s only recently that I started using a desk. I tried attaching the phone mount to a lap desk to film painting and it created the most wobbly shaky footage. So now I’m at a desk in the corner of the living room; I’ve taken my Plein Air mindset with me.
You’ll notice I paint a lot with my travel brush. It’s probably the brush I use the most. If you stick with mostly one brush for months, you will learn it really well.
You can use regular size brushes in a brush roll and just set it next to your bed.
Another thing that could be challenging about painting from bed, is water. Just hold the water container in your hand. I started with an old Juice Plus container for the water. Apparently it holds water. Now I use a Nalgene bottle.
I used to set up on a lap desk. I got tired of setting up the lap desk. You won’t spill the water if you hold it in your hand. I only ever spilled water once; all over the lap desk, and my lap, and the sofa. It was cold.
At least it was fresh water and not dirty painting water. Poor sofa.
After that, I always hold the water in my hand. I still paint like this in bed most mornings or before bed.
I have started using the 4oz Nalgene instead of the 2oz since it’s easier to get the brush in and rinse it. I used to use the 2oz Nalgene for painting for a long time and it worked just fine. I got them on Amazon.
I know it doesn’t leak.
I’ve done some things with it.
I kind of packed it in my suitcase full of water. It’ll be fine. I wasn’t gonna get up and go empty it while I was in the middle of packing. That takes energy.
It didn’t leak. It was fine.
When you are using it to paint in bed, only fill it half full. That makes it easier so that you don’t have the water too close to the top of the container. It also makes it lighter to hold for a longer period of time.
Ok, so back to brushes for a second. I’ve only had a problem with water when I’m trying to use a one inch brush or a giant quill. If your cloth gets soaked really quickly, the brush is probably a bit too big for painting in bed.
A 3/4 inch brush fits in this 4oz Nalgene. A larger flat brush with chunky handle works well for wrist strength issues.
You want to avoid tiny brushes with tiny handles that can do detail work because that’s harder on your wrists.
I love using the Casaneo, the brush that I’m using in the video, because of the grippy handle and the half inch brush size. I think it’s a size 10.
It’s got a good size chunky handle because it folds around and closes up on the the brush head because it’s a travel brush. That makes the handle a lot larger than you would get on a normal half inch brush.
Over on the left side of the paper, you can see I have a clothes pin. I use that to keep the paper from closing on me and keep that side of the paper out of the way. On the other side there’s usually the band that holds the book closed. That I’ll use on the other side of the paper.
I like to use clothespins instead of buying Binder Clips or something because they’re much easier to get open and use with wrist strength issues.
You can see I have the lid of the paint palette slid under the edge of the book here, the palette here’s here in the front, and then I have the book set there. Then there’s my travel brush and water container.
Those are all the things that you need in order to be able to paint in bed. I want you to know you can do this.
Hopefully you found this helpful, and you’ll go out and get yourself some paint supplies.
That way next time you are stuck in bed with health challenges, or a migraine or whatever, you will be able to paint from bed.
Megan 🙂
Things:
Neither of these have ever leaked: Nalgene 4oz Water Container and the 2oz Nalgene.
DaVinci Casaneo Flat Travel Brush: Amazon or Jackson’s Art. Travel brushes are usually less on Jackson’s because they do more Plein Air stuff in the UK than here (in the US). You can also find unique shapes of travel brushes in the UK, and we usually don’t have anything more than rounds.
Flat Bottom PandaHall Watercolor Palette, Full Pans and Magnets with 3M Sticky. Or just use the Aqua Mini: Amazon or Jackson’s Art.
The Tumuarta Watercolor Book is the same 5×5 size, or the Paul Rubens 3×5 is also a great travel book. I love both of these books; the Tumuarta is pretty affordable for 25% cotton.
And the lap desk I have.
🙂
If you liked this, you might like to see my travel watercolor supplies video, or read about how I started watercolor with a juice plus container.
Megan Eileen 