Chromatek Water Brush Pens

These water brush pens are a fun and easy way to create watercolors from pigment or from watercolor pencil linework.

The pens unscrew the opposite way that machines and screws usually twist on and twist off, they’re lefty-tighty righty-loosy, if that makes any sense. I’m not sure why they are this way but it’s pretty funny.

The brushes work pretty easily:

1. Unscrew the water container end (lefty-tighty righty-loosy)

2. Fill with water

3. Screw the water container back onto the pen

4. Squeeze the sizes to get the water into the pen reservoir

5. Draw with water!

For this drawing, I made an ink drawing using a Kuretake pen, the double-sided no.55 Kuretake. I gently ran one of the water brushes on the edges of the drawn lines, which were already dry for about an hour, to create the effect around the flowers,

For this drawing, I made a drawing with watercolor pencil, and then ran the water pens over the pencil. This is on Traveler’s Notebook Watercolor paper.

Another way to use these is to put them in pigment and then draw with them until the pigment is cleared from the brush. I thought this was the best way to get large areas of color. The broader brushes seem to be made for this especially, because finer lines can be made with watercolor pencils, but I like the finer brushes in pigment for this too. In this case, the pigment I used was Himi Gouache. Gouache could be put on a brush and applied on it’s own without water, but I often leverage the watercolor-like aspects of gouache, so I gave it a try with these brush pens.

Lastly, I found these were pretty easy to clean, or they were self-cleaning. Unless there’s very aggressive pigment loading, pigment doesn’t get into the reservoir of these pens, so the water cleans out any pigment on it’s own. Instead of dipping a brush in water to clean it, if I needed a new pigment on a similar brush, i could either just dab the brush on a paper towel for a bit, or let the color run out on it’s own. I squeezed the pens to remove more of any color that was still on the brush. Despite what I thought was pretty hard squeezing, the water didn’t run out in the pens very fast.

I think these pens would be great for plein air painting, or maybe it could be called a combination of painting and drawing. They’re lightweight, they don’t run out of water easily, and they are fun and easy to use on paper with pencils or paint. I haven’t tried it, but they’d probably also be very fun with acrylic ink or india ink.

To summarize

• Chromatek Water Brush Pens are a fun and easy tool for creating watercolors from pigments or watercolor pencil linework. They can be used with gouache and ink too.

• The pens have a unique unscrewing mechanism, once you get the hang of it, it is straightforward, but the first time opening them can be a bit tricky. (righty-loosy)

• The pens are easy to pack and clean. The water doesn’t run out quickly.
  
  

My Magic Paper Menagerie

As it gets cold out and I take care of my little baby, I’ve used my small scraps of time to create animals out of small scraps of paper.

I created three mountain dragons on three 2 x 2 canvases:

What I enjoyed most about these was making little environments for the dragons - rolling green hills and spiky mountains, along with the occasional cloud and a yellow sun when possible.

These were fun to make, and, I knew I needed some way to ‘seal’ them or to protect the delicate paper from the world. I ended up mounting each canvas on a single board and enclosing the pieces in this frame:

In a way, this is why I started making paper animals in bookmarks, too. I needed some way to protect the tiny collages from the world, and enclosing each piece in a plastic sleeve worked well.

I’ve made so many cat bookmarks I have lost count, and I love it.

I’ve made so many bookmarks I’ve lost count. It’s somewhere in the hundreds, maybe approaching one thousand these days.

To make my paper animals, I paint on either yupo, watercolor paper, handmade recycled fabric paper, or duralar, and I cut the paper out and create an animal from it.

The paint I utilize is either gouache, iulie watercolors, Emily Grace Palettes watercolors, Coliro watercolors, and the occasional swatch of pure acrylic. Sometimes, I will also paint in oil on yupo paper and clip out the oil painting. This is a bit more rare, but I have made animals from it.

Above is my setup with some Himi gouache, iulie watercolors, Emily Grace Palettes, and Coliro watercolors, and some cats that I created from each set of paint.

I’ve also been making large dragons in addition to the tiny dragons.

The large dragons are made from recycled paper made of t-shirts from Two Hands Paperie in Boulder. I love the super-textured feel of this paper and it’s great that it comes from something that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

The dragon pieces are fun because they change colors in different lights. That’s the beauty of using iridescent watercolors - there are delightful color shifts to be found in every corner.

That’s all I got for now! It’s been fun to work on these paper animals throughout all of 2022. Catch you next time!

Wonderland Lake September 2023

Here I am with Baby Jewell, my 1.5 month old, getting some painting in! A kind passerby took this photo and sent it to us.

When I think of painting, I think of relaxing. It’s great to get out and just let go. However, I will say that plein air painting is an exercise in chaos management: everything is fine and dandy until the wind comes up and blows dust on the canvas, or when several bees get attracted to the paint colors, or when, suddenly, it rains.

Sometimes I run into animals, or Baby Jewell burps up on my clean shirt, or he needs an impromptu diaper change on the trail. I never know what will happen next! That goes for the artwork, and for the act of getting to a nice painting spot.

There’s so much to prepare regarding bringing the right supplies, and planning for anything and everything. If I plan well and consider tools carefully, almost any kind of chaos can be under control. If I forget a crucial paintbrush or leave behind an outfit change for Baby Jewell, I have an opportunity to learn and do better next time.

Maybe the most important thing I’ve learned in painting plein air with a newborn so far is that the messy process is just as much of a treasure as the painting is once it’s done. The outcome or the painting is (usually) cool, but simply getting outside and going on the journey is an accomplishment. Even if I get dirt in my carefully arranged paints or if I’m only walking for 5 minutes before getting rained on, everything good is in the art of the trip. Each day that I decide to get off my butt and go outside is a good day, and now I get to do this with my best buddy! <3

Like most new parents, I was a little worried about what would happen to my life once I had a baby. Would I still be able to do art? What about my career?

Luckily all of these anxieties have gone away - through taking action, careful planning, and creative thinking, we’ve been able to find harmony together.

I made several paintings I am happy with while at the lake lately, a couple are above. I’ve been using gouache in the Traveler’s Notebook and it’s been going well. While the Traveler’s Notebook paper that I am utilizing right now is meant more for writing than painting, what I do after painting is I flatten the entire book under a couple other books to get any ripples out of each page. If a piece is really good, I consider removing it from the journal to make as it’s own framed piece.

Above is my exciting Art Mom Gear!

Traveler’s Notebook from Two Hands Paperie

iulie watercolors - the best, love these

JMFT Industries mini zip pouch

Himi gouache - within reach pricewise and high quality

Melanzana skirt - get them in Leadville!

Cotopaxi backpack - best colors ever!

A cup from my grandpa’s house

Ergobaby carrier - very comfy for me and Baby Jewell

Huggies - perfecto

You might notice the Himi gouache looks a bit dried out in the photo - it still works great when rewet! And I think it works very well with the iulie watercolors.

I’m very excited about my Art Mom Gear. It’s very heavy and I haven’t put any thought into making a lightweight setup, but that’s ok, I’m used to taking things pretty slow. With Baby Jewell in his carrier and backpack, I carry an extra 25 pounds, and I’m sure this will increase as Baby Jewell gets bigger or if I get some heavier paints or a big sketchbook.

After lifting Baby Jewell all over the place and carrying him across the countryside, I feel very strong. It’s hard to measure exactly how I’ve changed strengthwise before and after giving birth, but I will say that I feel strong, maybe because it has been like I have effectively carried a watermelon around for several months, up and down various stairs and trails. I’m just getting back into running and am taking it slow, running 1.5 miles or so at a time.

More painting on the way! I can’t wait to show what I’ve been up to lately on the trail.