I love making DIY watercolor kits (& used one in my art demo at the NY Times)

I'm a longtime fan of DIY (Do-It-Yourself) art kits that I can take with me when on the road. Yes, I do still have commercial travel art kits as well....but I find that just like expensive art supplies, I tend to put these aside to "save" them for special occasions, to not waste them for casual drawing. As years pass, I've been trying to change that habit, but I'll save for that for another post.

Here's one of the photos I took when working on various types of DIY watercolor travel kits:

Overhead shot of a DIY watercolor travel kit disassembled on a white surface, featuring metal tins, miniature watercolor pans filled with various paint colors, a bottle of Pébéo ceramic paint, a roll of magnetic tape, and handwritten green notes with arrows pointing out details and components.

I ended up being immensely glad to have one of these DIY kits with me when I was supposed to do an art demo with michaelianblack.bsky.socialat the New York Times offices years ago. The professional art supplies I had ordered to be delivered to the Simon & Schuster offices (because I didn't want to carry them around with me on my book tour) never arrived...but I only found out about this the day of the event (!!!).

Here's what I ended up taking with me to the NYTimes:

Overhead shot on a white surface featuring a Pentel water brush, a Pentel pocket brush pen, a small plastic bag containing a custom-labeled "Simon & Schuster Is Well Red" crayon package, and a small metal watercolor tin containing a palette of pans with handwritten color labels.

Also in the photo above: a Pentel water brush and a Pentel pocket brush pen, also part of my DIY art kit. I also had a fun Simon & Schuster crayon package because hey, why not?

Happily, it all ended up working out just fine. I was still SUPER SUPER nervous, but I focused on drawing and let Michael do most of the talking. 😁

The Facebook Live video is no longer available (Meta removed all videos older than 30 days as part of a platform wide policy) but one of my followers was kind enough to send me the recording; because I'm Canadian, I also no longer had access.

At around the 8:00 timestamp, you'll notice Maria Russo (who was NYT children's book editor) about my DIY art kit. 😁

So hurray for DIY art kits!

FYI, Michael and I were promoting I'M SAD, which is one of the children's picture books we've done together for Simon & Schuster. You can find out more about the I'M books on my website.

Book covers for the "I'm" picture book series featuring titles I'm Bored, I'm Sad, I'm Worried, I'm Sorry, and I'm Busy.

Find out more about Debbie at DebbieOhi.com, or browse her social blogs.

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