3 Tips for Artistic Planning – Watercolor Planner Flip Through

It’s Been a Journey

Back in October, when I first began my watercolor planner for A Month in Color, I wasn’t sure what on earth I was doing. It was a leap in a different direction, and I had no idea if this wild idea would pan out. There was a legit fear that I would fizzle out and go right back to the bullet journal system I had been using for years. But lo and behold, I stuck with it! In five short months, I completely filled up my Moleskine watercolor journal with gorgeous art, helpful plans, and tons of color. I’m ecstatic to be able to show you the complete watercolor planner flip through and see the whole thing all at once. Enjoy!

Materials Used

Over the course of this watercolor planner, I used a ton of tools that I can’t possibly list all right here. But I can cover the majority of my most-used items if you want to check any of them out!

The Watercolor Planner

Moleskine Watercolor Album Sketchbook

The Paints and Accessories

Dr. Ph. Martin’s Hydrus Watercolors (in Set 1 and Set 2)

Sennelier Watercolors

Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleedproof White

Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bombay Ink

Loew Cornell 17 Well Folding Palette

Finetec Metallic Watercolors

Finetec Pearl Watercolors

Washi Tape

The Utensils

Watercolor Paint Brush Set

Pentel Aquash Water Brush Pens

Pentel Pocket Brush Pen

Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pens

Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pens

Sakura White Gelly Roll

Uniball Signo White Gel Pen

Oblique Pen Holder

Leonardt Dip Pen Nibs

Darice Heat Tool

My Watercolor Planner Flip Through

3 Tips for a Successful Watercolor Planner

Want to start a watercolor planner? It’s nerve-wracking at first, but once you get into it, it’s insanely fun! After five months and counting, I’ve learned a few lessons that have helped me push past obstacles and stay on top of my creative planning with daily pages and monthly spreads. So if you want to feel more liberated to get creative, then here are my top three tips for a successful watercolor planner!

#1 – Keep Your Supplies Out

If you have some kind of a permanent workspace, then I would highly recommend that you keep your supplies out and easy to reach. Getting creative and painting comes with plenty of mental hurdles, so you don’t want to have any physical ones, too! If space is limited, then just keep the very basics out, like your journal and a set of colored pencils. On my desk, I like to keep some jars full of my most-used pens, paintbrushes, and pencils lined up along the back so I can easily grab something and get started without much fuss. Keeping your watercolor planner materials out and about will make it so much easier to just sit down and make something fun!

#2 – Don’t Be Afraid to Get Messy

You might feel the instinct to keep everything nice and tidy as you create new pages in your watercolor planner. Fight that instinct! Some of my absolute favorite pages were created from some of my messiest sessions. My January and February monthly spreads are both dear to me, and both involved whipping paint around and getting my fingers covered in color. I’ve had plenty of times where the paint seeps off the edge and stains the next page, but it’s all good. The mess doesn’t matter, only the creativity. The same rule applies for ink, too. Don’t feel like every pen line has to be perfectly neat. Keep paper towels on hand and go to town!

#3 – Don’t Overthink It

It will be easy to get in your own head with a watercolor planner. You will think that you’re not talented enough, you don’t have enough time to create anything good, there’s no good ideas in your head, you can’t make it as good as so-and-so, etc, etc… There will always be some perceived reason why you can’t create. But quiet all those nagging doubts by simply putting a paintbrush to the page and beginning. Did you notice that lots of the pages in my watercolor planner were simply colorful backgrounds? I couldn’t create amazing art every day, but that didn’t stop me from creating something. Really, anything will do.

And anyway, these pages aren’t supposed to be “art”. You’ll be writing all over them with your mundane to-do lists and monthly plans, so why get so hung up on whether it’s incredible? The point of a watercolor planner is to engage in an act of creation in a useful, thoughtful way. Everything else is a bonus. Just create and don’t let yourself get in your own way.

Onwards

I’m thrilled to have accomplished my watercolor planner, and I hope it’s inspired you to start one of your own! You don’t have to be an “artist” to make a watercolor planner work for you. Just think of it as productive play. So grab a watercolor journal, pull out your paints, and start making your planning fun!