Painter's Color Diary- What's this all about?

Hi Everyone! Have you seen this painters diary and wondered what it was all about? Watch this review and demo and find out.

[@valeriereneeharper]

If they called it a swatch book it probably would get more attention from potential buyers. And they could put an insert on the inside of other uses for it, color mixing etc.

[@colorcapacity2779]

Good idea!- an inside insert would solve the overly busy cover issue. Thanks for watching.

[@CastleMc]

Here is another solution: I put my swatch pages into photo sleeves that fit into a 3 ring binder. Now I have a binder notebook devoted to color swatches-super easy to reference, and changeable. I also have a watercolor journal devoted to my favorite mixes and palettes.

[@colorcapacity2779]

Your idea solves the problem as well. No need to spend a lot of money when you have a system that works.

[@ericakauffman5786]

Use the blank back sides for color wheels and mixes.

[@juleeahlman]

I love this book. One thing I did towards the was swatch out all my similar colors together, so that I can really compare the differences, such as swatching all my sap greens from different vendors. I just finished swatching out all my yellows and now I can really see the cool vs. warm yellows.

[@jelly_unjarred]

I wish I knew about this product sooner. I would find something like this really useful. You also have a very soothing voice

[@lorettawatkins5024]

This would be a great gifts for a painter.... probably something they would not already have!

[@colorcapacity2779]

It's pretty new. I think you're right.

[@annenglish2935]

I kept Googling the color diary description before knowing there was one in existence! Found the Amazon deal with 2 for $36... that did it... sold! Received yesterday and so relieved to see that the quality was great and exactly as stated! I spent 3 hours making a 1 page chart... was looking for ways to print on cotton watercolor paper... then I found them! Thank 😊 you for making a great product! With love from a California Gramma ❤️

[@colorcapacity2779]

It saves me a lot of time... and no math required!

[@cheryllapham6279]

I swatch on trading sized watercolor cards that I keep in a notebook with inserts for holding cards. But I love this for color mixing charts. I have one diary and plan to buy more as needed. Most office supply stores sell larger spiral coils that will allow you to combine multiple diaries together.

[@Finkeldinken]

That really is a very cool idea. Cotton paper and everything!

[@colorcapacity2779]

I just used it again and the cotton makes all the difference. My colors come out really vibrant.

[@surpriseitsus9622]

I absolutely love this. I wish it was a tad bit bigger, but I need several. ♥. Thanks for your great video and blessings to you in 2023. New subscriber. Lynn

[@colorcapacity2779]

Thanks for watching-and subscribing. I really appreciate it.

[@troyp.vanthorre9767]

I've bought these a couple of months ago and I love them

[@stormy439]

I like it because I might be watching a tutorial and discover a new mix I love. Then I can instantly swatch it in this book to be readily found later. 👍

[@donnaqueen5055]

I too, would love a book of black sheets!!!!

[@marytesta3003]

That is very cool. I think I might order one. I have swatches all over.

[@craftergin]

Thanks for letting us know about this product. It's so much fun to swatch. I created something similar for myself. I just used a 9 x 12 sketchbook and wrote out the palate name and the names of the paint then swatched. I don't have any of those waffle flower stamps so it's just hand drawn rectangles. But the pages don't come out like this one so you can flip it around. I have a 48 palate and a 36 palate so the flipping around of the pages is great! I found it on Amazon and now it's in my cart. I sure hope I get some Amazon gift cards for Christmas...

[@colorcapacity2779]

I'm hoping for those gift cards for you!

[@diannaa5631]

I guess I'm a collector.i have 3 of the 6-8 size. 2 are full,one is getting full.I think the black page or 2 is a great idea.

[@NanaBeth1]

I just got mine & I'm thrilled. Really enjoyed the video. Made me realize i could do color charts on the back for smaller palettes.

[@lindathaxton1994]

Thank you for sharing- I just ordered one from Amazon - great idea!

[@tlembro]

I think they should print on both sides, also company needs to offer extra refill pages!

[@jwall6006]

The problem with extra pages to purchase, would be that they would need to put a bigger coil.

[@OkieSketcher1949]

@@jwall6006 - There are stores where one can purchase a bigger coil. Try a commercial xeroxing or printer store. One where you can put together a manuscript and have it bound with a coiled edge. Have fun with it. @OkieSketcher1949

[@nanettegran3402]

Very cool! Thanks for this tip!

[@cris_ad]

This is fabulous and I bought one before I even finished your video. 10/10

[@colorcapacity2779]

I'm going to need some time to fill mine up. Hope you enjoy your swatching!

[@melaniebaynes2730]

I love the idea of this, and will have a look for something similar in the UK. I would actually prefer it to be in a ringbinder folder, with additional packs available. Thank you for making this video 🙏💖. I have subscribed too!

[@ladym6738]

Yes, have swatches scattered; love this; had no idea was available, will be looking for it. Thanks.

[@colorcapacity2779]

You're Welcome.

[@lisaleone2296]

Big fail that it isn't in multiples of 6. I settled on a brand of sketchbook that I really love and I bought multiples of it. I have one book that is just for swatching and the others are for working in. I also swatch on 2x2 pieces of Arches paper so I can compare different paints on the fly. I keep them in coin protector sheets in a 3 ring binder. Sometimes I have them arranged by manufacturer, sometimes I rearrange them by color family, et cetera. Finally, I have a "haul book" where I swatch items I buy in one sitting or on one day and make notes about how I intend to use them.

[@colorcapacity2779]

Maybe they'll update on a future release. I've also noticed most sets come in 12/24 or 48. Your idea of having a separate journal only for swatches is a good one.

[@phyllisbekemeier3282]

Thanks for reviewing this product. I recently won the watercolor, acrylic and oil diaries from Jerry's. They are sending it out after Christmas. Looking forward to using mine.

[@suzisandpiper]

I have my own version of this I swatch every new paint and set I get. But I have to draw out my grids. It’s my colour bible.

[@patti3d]

The Prima complexion set is my go to for skin colors. I really like it. And I bought 2 of the watercolor diary. I still have room in my first one. I have swatches out all my pan sets and then all my tubes. It’s nice because if I get more tube paints and run out I can take a empty page from another part and place it where I need it. That front “idea” page is easy to take out if it bothers you. I like it as a reference tool to find a specific pigment of paint as I swatched the tubes by pigment number. The only other swatches are inside my pan palettes that I make. But I am sure there are many ways to use this diary. ❤

[@juliehickman2880]

Love this! I have swatches of my collections by brand. But I think I will use these to create color family swatches.

[@heianwoman]

I had seen these books and didn’t know what I thought. Thank you. I can see this would be really useful. I went on line immediately and bought two. Look forward to seeing you again.

[@gretchenfloyd4629]

Thank you for posting this - I hadn't run across it before, so handy to have all the swatches in one place. It got added to the last minute Christmas wish list!

[@barriesmithster]

I took that colorful part of the cover off mine and added to the back.

[@colorcapacity2779]

Brilliant idea!

[@KariGibsonArt]

What a great idea I shall what out for that coming to the UK and I will buy it. I love the surprise colour swatching at the end!

[@colorcapacity2779]

Thanks. And thanks for watching until the end. I wish the true colors of that violet came out on screen. It almost has granules of separate pink and purple in it!

[@mishayx5258]

Them swatches on the back of your sketch book look printed they are at a next level neat!! The swatches look soon pretty 😍😍

[@colorcapacity2779]

Thanks, but the truth is, I measured and taped the lines. Then when I finished swatching, I removed the tape for a crisp edge. You can do it too! The gradiant showing light to dark takes practice but you can do that as well. Thanks for watching!

[@rootwoman123]

Thanks for this review. I have a better idea of what I can do with this tool.

[@alyssarivas4018]

Please share your better idea with us! 🙏

[@rootwoman123]

@@alyssarivas4018 Will do! The first thing I want to do is prioritize my best quality paints for use on this great paper, e. g., Daniel Smith, Schminke, A. Gallo, Sennelier and Winsor and Newton. Secondly, I will swatch all of my paints by color family. Lastly, all metallic and pearlescent paints will be swatched on wide stripes of permanent black ink of at least half of each space. Thanks again for your great review!

[@lorettawatkins5024]

I saw these in our Jerry's artorama store...very nice!

[@melaniehellum1281]

Love the idea. And looks like quality paper.

[@yasuewho]

Thanks for swatching on this! I am prepping for a huge move and trying to rethink all of my organization. That includes better swatch management! I was considering making a new dedicated book by hand, but this looks like a perfect way to get that done faster. They have packs on Amazon. Hopefully mom and pop stores will get them soon. Love the idea of dark papers. I just found your channel and heard about your predicament with space. There are some small carts out there designed for use with laptops that might be handy for you too. They can typically be folded and put away completely and can be adjusted for sitting or standing. I am space challenged, but combining one of those with a limited rotation of supplies in a canvas caddy made art possible. I'll have a standing desk in my studio after we move thanks to that teeny cart, because I realized how much I needed to mix sitting and standing for my back's sake. The cart will turn into my portable buddy, giving me extra space for supplies.

[@colorcapacity2779]

Hey, Thank You for the suggestion. I think I know the kind you're talking about. Since I'm focusing on a studio building my art time is taking a real hit so I'm probably going to deal with what I have for now. Thanks again and welcome as a new subscriber!

[@MkayKaye]

You just gave me a good idea to try to put my carousel on my new bed desk (I often paint in bed). I'm curious about the other storage you're talking about. Do you mean like a little cubby or shelf that folds?

[@-.-4]

I’m a beginner! This sounds great! Now I’m new subscriber!

[@colorcapacity2779]

Welcome fellow creative! You said the most important thing- You are beginning. We all start somewhere and if you keep practicing you'll get better and better and have fun in the process.

[@ChoochooseU]

FYI: I took some of the sections and used a ruler and waterproof pen to cut the boxes in half so I could fit more information on a page at a time. I love this and will purchase another as needed. My book is mixed media and I’ve swatched watercolor, gouache, watercolor pencils, water activated oil pastels, and Charvin pastel sticks as well. It’s held up to all and the clear buffer between us super nice.

[@colorcapacity2779]

Dividing the boxes is a great idea. I love having all my colors in one convenient place.

[@jlinaz2522]

Thank you for showing an in depth review of this product. I had seen it at Jerry's Artarama and thought it was another cool thing but somehow I didn't really need it since I have made swatches of my oil paint tubes and watercolor paint tubes as well. I wasn't aware of how nicely made it was. The removable pages, glassine inserts, and cotton 180lb cold watercolor paper really make it a great product. I decided on getting both the watercolor & oil painter's color diary to make different color mixing charts or colors different paint applications. There are a few more ideas on using the painter's color diary on Jerry's Artarama KZbin channel. I already swatched my Gouache paint with the watercolor painter's diary. It really is a good product and resourceful to have all your color swatches in one place.

[@yasminazevedodossantos5198]

Amei! É organizado e ótimo para que ama olhar as cores.

[@colorcapacity2779]

Ahh cores..... Acho que é por isso que entro em tanto truouble querendo todas as cores que vejo. Espero que isso tenha sido traduzido corretamente?

[@marlenaamalfitano1558]

I have 2 and I absolutely love them. One is for particular brands and the other is for color comparisons and mixes

[@colorcapacity2779]

That's an interesting idea. That way when you order paints or go to the art supply store you can have your brand book handy so you don't duplicate what you already have or forget which one you're running low on.

[@patricialk4996]

I love these!

[@drbulbul]

I have been using a dedicated sketchbook that i use for systematic swatching alone. However, this product looks more efficient because you don't have to draw in your own grids, writing lines, and spaces within to paint. I think i'll get myself one of these for Christmas!

[@diannaa5631]

They also have a 6x8 they call a travel diary.Exactly the same but smaller.

[@colorcapacity2779]

How many times do we duplicate a color we already have? A travel size would solve that problem.

[@Songbitslaura]

Ran across your video, thanks for the review. I did join your channel. new supporter here.

[@colorcapacity2779]

Thanks for the sub

[@marlbboro8091]

omg this is amazing!!!! I am not a swatcher (am a willy nilly hobbyist) but this is fantastic ! This book is like a meditation, just me and my pigments.

[@robinsamuelson3626]

You can fold back the busy front if you don’t like it. The cover sheet is the blue sheet.

[@samanthawales5471]

I’ve kept one of my own Color diaries for years. It’s in a Canson Monteval Watercolor journal. I have my watercolours, coloured pencils, intense, and pens in it. I do like this one too.

[@annelouise4639]

Nice review, thank you.😊 I'm putting my hand up as an overly avid collector of art materials.😣😅 I wish we had something like this in Australia as ruling up boxes for neat swatching is pretty tedious, I find. 😣🎨

[@colorcapacity2779]

Every artist can relate to measuring out boxes to swatch. Isn't this why they taught us division in math class?

[@annelouise4639]

@@colorcapacity2779 I have no problem with division; it's the actual ruling up I find boring.

[@M0odyBlue]

Just got the double pack from Amazon and can’t wait to use it. Hope they make refill pages available.

[@theartisticactuary]

In my paintings, I normally pick out one red, one yellow and one blue at the start to do most of the work. So it would be good if I could have something cataloging all the different combinations I could use and that I could flick through to help me make a choice before starting on a painting. So I've been doing some sums. For each combination, it would be good to see the three primaries, the three secondaries and the sort of grey/black I could get from mixing all three together. That's seven swatches. The book has seven columns, which is great. ✔️ But how many combinations do I need? Well, I have four blue (Winsor GS, cerulean, Mayan genuine, French ultra), three reds (Winsor, rose dore, quin magenta) and three yellows (transparent, Indian, raw sienna). So that's 4*3*3=36 combinations. The book has 10 pages with 5 rows each so has room for 50 ✔️ Which leaves me some spare rows. I could do some swatches with burnt sienna as a fourth red, bringing me up to 4*4*3=48 rows. I've even thought about bringing in Potters pink at some point, so I could try that out as a fourth red. Or I could swatch out my Schmincke supergranulators (five per set, so two extra in each row for the extra colours I've been known to use to supplement the sets). Or I could swatch out all the colours I use (because there are some I use as herbs to supplement my big three ingredients). ✔️ I'm sorely tempted to invest in this book. It's just the right size for what I need and filling it out would be a nice, relaxing way to kick off the new painting year when the sun comes back out in March.

[@colorcapacity2779]

Wow! You sound like one serious painter. I'd love to know what you've been using to swatch up until now? You've got some nice 'base' choices listed.

[@Anikanoteven]

This is such a handy idea, thx!

[@colorcapacity2779]

Just found out about it myself. Honestly, wasn't sure at first but this product kind of grew on me as I kept seeing more to it.

[@MkayKaye]

This looks very useful. Thank you!

[@colorcapacity2779]

Glad you liked the video. Thanks for watching and commenting.

[@fizzlestyxx8507]

I have a question. You showed that you have some swatches in the back of your current book and mentioned that you have some in other books as well. They make paper punches for that type of system. Would it be possible once you use up the book to remove your swatches to add to that diary? I think it would be particularly nice if you could do that for the black paper swatches since the diary doesn't have black paper, but it would also be a way to keep all of your swatches in one place. Sorry if this isn't how things are done. I'm still ridiculously new to artistic pursuits so I'm a bit clueless. Thank you very much for the video.

[@colorcapacity2779]

Thanks for your suggestion. The goal IS to have all your swatches in the same place so you ARE right. Keep on exploring art- we need more creative people making art.

[@fizzlestyxx8507]

@@colorcapacity2779 I wish for you and yours a restful and rejuvenating holiday season!

[@energychameleon1319]

This swatch book has been in my Amazon cart for quite a while. I’m glad you’re reviewing it for us. It’s such a cool idea and it’s 100% cotton. If the price point was a little lower I’m sure I would’ve taken the leap by now.

[@colorcapacity2779]

I actually priced a 9 x 12 Fabriano watercolor block at Jerry's with 20 sheets and it's just over $31.00. Both are 100% cotton and though this has 10 sheets it's about comparable when I consider saving the hassle of measuring out grids and then having loose swatch sheets. You have to decide if it's worth your while depending on how much swatching you do.

[@annenglish2935]

Right now, it's 2 for $36... the cotton 9 x 12 diary! Just received this yesterday... it took me 3 hours to make a page like one of theirs! Happy 😊 painting! Price is from Amazon 2/20/23.

[@NoChybaNieBardzo]

I think it's completely unnecessary. I have a document folder for this, which i perfectly adapt to my needs.I also have space for mixes, color schemes that I like and many more. And i am not limited by space.

[@marvelenia6702]

agree totally.

[@colorcapacity2779]

You definitely have a point. You don't have to spend money for a separate book for swatches but for convenience it's handy. I like to have boxes to swatch in so they're in a straight line, otherwise I end up up or down the page by the end of the line and I'm tired of spending my time measuring out boxes when I could be painting instead.

[@NoChybaNieBardzo]

@@colorcapacity2779 wow. Really?? Hmmm, I'm the other way around, I have my own system for making a sampler, I have everything in a folder for documents arranged better than my actual documents ;) 😉 Sometimes I print the grid, sometimes I do it myself and it doesn't take much time. Unless someone buys a new palette every day... And I'd rather spend money on an extra brush or watercolor paper than this. Honestly, I think it's a good marketing ploy. Many of us have this "artistic shopping syndrome" and such a notebook works great as an object for an artist-shopaholic. However, I understand that there will be people for whom it will be practical and useful. Greetings from snowy Poland 😶‍🌫️🤗🇵🇱

[@OkieSketcher1949]

@@NoChybaNieBardzo - I purchased one not too long ago but have yet to use it as I have been a bit busy doing other things. That being said, I intend to swatch out all of my pallets, one pallet per page, then, using the additional spaces, I intend to add various combinations of colors I find I use more often than not in my paintings. Having this handy I can get a better idea what combinations will work best on the painting before me. I will not have to repeatedly try different mixes until I get what I am looking for. @OkieSketcher1949

[@KevieG]

New subscriber

[@robinsamuelson3626]

Can you paint on the back of the sheets?

[@carolleslie2673]

At first I thought Mmm bit of a waste of money, but the more you did the more I just wanted to take it off you and play with it myself 😂

[@colorcapacity2779]

It grew on me also.

[@ArtyButterfly]

I just run watercolour paper through my printer and print out swatch sheets … then l can store them in clear display books

[@colorcapacity2779]

That's a good alternative. Do you print boxes for the colors or free form the swatches? I like containing the color in boxes but think the printer ink may smudge?

[@ArtyButterfly]

@@colorcapacity2779 l just keep the paint in a smidge from the printer lines

[@sallyb7472]

Me too. I have not had any ink smearing.

[@Marianne_C_O_Art]

Just delegate one journal for swatching.

[@colorcapacity2779]

It's the drawing out all the boxes that I dread Marianne... If only I could make swatches freehand with a brush without diving down the page by the end of the line....

[@Marianne_C_O_Art]

@@colorcapacity2779 lol

[@weathergirl369cloud]

It’s what unclassy trained artist do when they give up their scrapbooking materials and want to pick up crafts and think this is what they can do with paints. Just paint a fucking picture.