Which palette? Which colors? Which brushes?

Remember the immediate thrill and attraction when you discovered the Philofaxy blog?  Well, yesterday on a watercolor journaling facebook page I visit from time to time (The Artist's Journal Workshop), someone posted this photo:

Yes, it's her collection of watercolor paint palettes.  I was amazed (and stunned) when I saw it ... like we used to be at those pictures of stacks of filofax binders in all colors and sizes.   

But of course I had to look closer at all of the different palettes -- what sizes, configurations they are.  Because the questions of what palette to use, what assortment of paints (wet or pan? What brand?), what colors, is as engrossing and instructive as are the personalize-your-planner entries I know you love.

So that photo led me to a group on Flickr, "Sketch Kits," where people post photos or paintings or sketches of their sketching gear. I was (to use a british expression) gobsmacked, but in the most delightful of ways.  And guess what?  There are other similar groups on Flickr:

"Sketching Gear" 
 "What's In Your Art Bag?" for photos and drawings of what's in your art bag, of course
 "Paint Palettes" for photos of paint palettes only
"About My Studio/Sketch Stuff" for pictures and drawings of all sorts of art stuff

There are people blogging about their watercolor palettes and color choices and palette hacks and paper and pen options, like Cathy Johnson here, and Roz Stendahl does here and all over her blog...

And you will not be surprised to know that there are people posting videos to show what they keep in their sketch kits, as Carole does here. There are probably tons on Youtube but I haven't ventured to look yet. My head is swirling with enough as it is.

I find it endlessly fascinating.  The visual delight of all that color, for one thing.  Looking at how people arrange things, and come up with clever solutions for little problems, and sort their colors... It is artistic voyeurism and education all at once.

After several happy hours cruising through all of these, I was thoroughly inspired and did a bit of painting with my sister, with this as the result:

I think I told you I'm trying to do a painting every day in connection with a Facebook group called Every Day In May , and yesterday's topic was a pine tree.  I set out to focus on the cedar tree in the corner of the backyard with the chair in its shade, and the flowers sort of carried me away.

 This is a very deep rabbit hole indeed.  I went to bed with visions of palettes and paint colors swirling around in my head, and I woke up this morning feeling almost hung-over with thoughts of colors and palette configurations and such.  For some strange reason, I'm feeling the need to rethink my paint palette set up...