April arrived with a delivery from JetPens.

I’d ordered Stabilo NatureColors highlighters and Zebra Mildliners for my planner, but the moment they arrived I wanted to know how they’d behave on Alpha paper. Are they waterproof? Could they work as a sketching underlayer to block in a scene before adding watercolor or ink on top? Swatching each pen was essential, so of course I turned the whole test into a page.

NatureColors: Beige, Earth Green, Mud Green, Sienna, Umber, and Warm Grey.
Mildliners Calm Set: Mild Iris, Mild Mimosa Yellow, Mild Mint, Mild Moss Green, and Mild Smoke Red.
Mildliners Natural Set: Mild Beige, Mild Cool Gray, Mild Cream, Mild Dusty Pink, and Mild Olive.

The NatureColors went down in somewhat random lines, that became this squarish shape. The Mildliners in simple parallel lines on the right. I did test them with water, and they are waterproof. The underlayer idea, to make a quick highlighter sketch, then build color on top, is still sitting in the “to try” pile. Documenting a delivery this way is considerably more interesting than sketching each pen! I do love making color blocks. Or in this case, color stripes.

The strip of color in the middle of the page is a Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle pencil, Sepia 10%. I’m a little obsessed with Sepia. It fits nicely as a soft, light neutral color. Museum Aquarelles are exceptionally soft and produce beautiful washes, and this one is quietly auditioning for a place in my standard travel kit. I may have to experiment with them more.

The right page of this spread has a little journaling alongside the first ten days of April weather. I’m working on adding a bit more journaling to my sketchbook pages, to hold memories, and capture moments.