How gorgeous is the muted set?

These paints differ from Western watercolour in that the binder is resin rather than gum arabic. They are slightly sticky in the pan if you don’t use enough water and they dry with a slight sheen. These Fuumuui paints are very similar to Gansai Tambi by Kuretake, the main difference being the packaging. The Fuumuui pans come in a metal tin (rather than the cardboard boxes Gansai Tambi come in), making them much easier to take on location. The Gansai Tambi are available individually – the Fuumuui Cremora are only available in sets at the moment.

Why was I interested in trying these paints? Since May, I have been experimenting with putting acrylic markers over Neocolor II crayons (and I was trying something similar with Poscas early last year), but the main issue is that the waxiness of the NCIIs clogs the marker tips. So I have been wondering whether using a semi-opaque paint would be a good alternative – and then, out of the blue, Fuummui contacted me!

I love how creamy these Fuumuui paints are and how much fun it is for me to work with semi-opaque paints.

I haven’t quite worked out the best way to combine these Fuumuui paints with NCII, but I am really enjoying using a paint which is so different from my standard watercolour. 

It’s taken me a little time to get used to the consistency of these paints and how much water to put on my brush to achieve solid colours. I love trying new art supplies that require me to adjust my reflex actions, so it’s been a lot of fun playing with these paints over the last few weeks.

Here are some of my test pages when I first got the sets.

And then I took the Muted Set out on location!

Next, I combined the 3 sets into one, and this is what my palette looked like last week.

I love that the colour schemes I’m using with these paints are very different from my normal watercolour work.

Some of you might be thinking, why don’t you just use gouache? Eventually I will try that, but for now, this style of paint is much easier to use on location, and I also like how I can freely layer other media over the top! Because the paint has a slight sheen, my Fude pen glides over it, and I can also easily smudge Tombow (something I like doing).

I really love these Fuumuui Cremora paints (especially that Muted Grey Set!) and have enjoyed sketching with them. Thanks, Fuumuui, for sending me the sets!

Fuumuui also gave me a 10% discount code for anything on the site – they also have interesting double-ended travel brushes, and I’ve heard good things about their sketchbooks.
Code: LIZSTEEL
Link: https://fuumuui.com/discount/LIZSTEEL

The post Playing with new paints appeared first on Liz Steel.

I loved this challenge so much – it was great for abstracting shapes and playing with colour and pattern.

Here are a few more examples from my sketchbook…

I really want to keep using collage in my sketching occasionally, but I’m not sure how easy that will be. I have added a few sheets of collage paper to the back pocket of my sketchbook, and for now I’m still carrying scissors and glue. So it will be interesting to see how often I think to use collage.

Last week I did this page while having coffee with friends at Hills Bros in Martin Place…I like how the writing on the collage paper changes direction.

Before my collage month, I never would have thought to cut the paper around the shapes of my sketches. So maybe I will be able to continue with some occasional collage in my everyday sketching!

The post More collage pages appeared first on Liz Steel.

And in the process, I realised that I haven’t been drawing maps much at all!

So here is a few maps that I found…

And when I have drawn maps while travelling, I’ve kept them really simple – like this one from my recent trip to France.

Here’s another B&W map which varies the scale on the right side (from Leura to Home) so that I could fit everything on the page.

This simple map focused on the rivers and harbour (in blue) and my own journeys in red and yellow.

A map summarising several different outings during a trip to Melbourne.

And another map from the same trip where I only coloured the green areas.

Hmm, it seems that lately when I’m travelling I have kept my maps very simple with partial colour (if any at all!)

Sometimes a map can’t describe all my movements if there is a lot of back and forth, so on this map I included a diagram of what I did during a 24 hours in Nelson Bay for a funeral.

A similar diagram showing lots of movement – this was done in July on the day that my sister and family arrived in Australia. Drawing a map to describe all of this would have been very tricky!

And finally, the most colourful map I’ve done in years – last month, having a little picnic with a friend.

I’m loving going through Sketchbook Design again, and putting this blog article together is a great prompt to draw more maps!

Do you like drawing maps in your sketchbooks?

The post Recent Maps appeared first on Liz Steel.

I’m absolutely loving going through my Sketchbook Design course again with an amazing cohort. So much fun!

It’s giving me a chance to rethink how I use text and headings, and it’s reminding me how much I love ‘colour blocks’. These are coloured backgrounds that can really make your pages pop!

I typically use them for single objects, but my partial sky technique can also be considered a colour block, especially when it relates to other elements on the same double-page spread. The image above is an example.

Here are a few other colour blocks from my sketchbooks in the last month or so.

Do you ever use this technique in your sketchbook pages?

The post Using colour blocks appeared first on Liz Steel.

I did a really fun workshop at the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Toulouse (see more about it here) and wanted to see if I could use it in my everyday sketching. It is a very different way of working (and much slower too), but I’m absolutely loving exploring colours, texture and pattern!

Sometimes I cut out shapes to make the main parts of the scene, and other times I use the collaged paper as a background (similar to pre-painted pages).

I’ve also been using acrylic markers as my main tool this month. Collage makes so much more sense to me now that I’ve been using a lot of opaque media.

Here are a few examples…

I absolutely love challenging myself to do new things and then sharing it all with my Patreons. I’m looking forward to our monthly livestream later this week to go through all my work and discuss aspects of this technique.

As for my other sketching since I got back from France…

Please check out this flip-through video of the sketches I did during August – over on my Patreon Quips.

Have you ever tried to do urban sketching with collage? It’s a lot of fun but quite challenging on a windy day 🙂

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This is what I wrote at the time on Instagram:

My sketchbooks are more than simply a collection of images. I want them to weave a narrative of my life (in this case, my travels in France) through a combination of images and text. I want to create a variation in page design to make flipping through the pages an exciting adventure.

So these pages are very special to me, not just because I’m happy with my sketches (many were quite experimental!), but also because of the memories and stories that they contain.

Keep scrolling for an index of articles I’ve published about this trip.

It’s really fun to see many of my France sketches together like this – to see the variety in hues, media and layout.

Here are all the articles I have published here covering the highlights of my adventures in France:

• France 2026: Lots of Trip Prep with dry media
• France 2026: Reflections from my 3-week trip
• France 2026: Alsace road trip
• France 2026: Travelling day (5 hours in Paris)
• France 2026: Toulouse (Urban Sketchers Symposium)
• France 2026: From Toulouse to Paris

These posts are available to paid members of my community – I’m including the links here for them.

Note: If you are not a paid member, these posts will appear locked, but you can see a preview image for each. If you join the community, even just for one month, you will be able to watch all these videos. Find out more here.

All the posts related to my trip:

• France 2026 Vlog 1: Alsace Part 1
• France 2026 Vlog 2: Alsace Part 2
• France 2026 Vlog 3: Toulouse
• France 2026 Vlog 4: Toulouse to Paris
• France 2026: Photo References
• France 2026: Simplifying Limoges Cathedral Interior
• France 2026: Mixed Media Review
• Replay: July Livestream – going through all my France sketches
• Replay: August Livestream: How I finished off my pages
• Finishing Touches: Adding text & skies
• Finishing Touches: Leaving incomplete?
  Finishing Touches: Values and Story
• Finishing Touches: Demo

Trip Prep videos:

• Trip Prep 2026: Mixed Media Strategies
• TripPrep2026: Dry Media Decisions
• TripPrep2026: Using Neocolor II 
• TripPrep2026: Final Mixed Media Decisions

Yes! I turned my 3-week trip into a big creative project and I filmed it all!

Finally…

Even though this visit to France was the shortest trip I’ve ever made to Europe, it was very special. I’m really happy to have shared my sketches with you, and I hope you enjoyed coming along virtually! I loved meeting many of you in Toulouse, and thanks again to Kerstin and Frannie for making the two mini road trips happen.

Finally, a huge thanks to anyone who took the time to leave a comment. Your feedback is always so important to me and makes creating these blog posts worthwhile.

The post France 2026 : Wrap-up and Index appeared first on Liz Steel.

We visited a number of gorgeous places on the way – all fairly close to the most direct route, which you can see on this map.

There was a fair amount of driving between destinations, so we felt constant time pressure every day. We had to keep moving!

As a result, we ended up setting time limits for most of our sketches. Sometimes as little as 5 minutes!

I know that some people get stressed by crazy short time limits, but for us it became a fun game. Full disclosure: on a number of occasions we extended the time limit but the initial timer forced us to simplify and start with the big shapes or the important lines.

Most of our sketches weren’t complete (and we finished them back home), but setting the timer meant we got something on the page at the time. I’m quite amazed by how much sketching we got done!

Here are the highlights…

(I’m including the time taken for the sketches when we set a timer and noting any additional work to finish the sketch)

An incredible first destination! A 20-minute sketch from a cafe. I later extended the sketch on the righthand side and adjusted the hue of the background hill.

A 5-minute sketch standing up in the middle of the town.

A 6-minute sketch on the walk back up the hill to the car.

Sketching the cathedral at night (10pm)

Getting the tyres fixed the next morning.

A 30-minute sketch of the gorgeous bridge at Cahors.

A gorgeous red town with lots of towers. So many sketchable views!

This was a 20-minute sketch done before we hit the road again.

A quick sketch of the lovely train station before dinner.

Next morning – 5 minute sketch inside the cathedral.

And then a quick sketch outside.

We then did a longer sketch (with no timer!)

We had an hour for sketching at Fontainebleau so I used the first 15 minutes doing a quick collage.

And then spent the rest of the time doing this sketch. I had to work very rapidly to draw all those windows in multiple layers. It wasn’t finished, but it was a great last sketch for this road trip.

Thanks, Frannie, for a fun 4 days of sketching! And for doing all the driving!

The post France 2026: From Toulouse to Paris appeared first on Liz Steel.

It’s always a little hard to do a symposium blog post as so much happens that it’s impossible to summarise in a few words and images. But here goes…

I had a great time in Toulouse – spoke to so many people, sketched with some of my friends and had lots of inspiring art conversations. It is a beautiful city (and I loved filling my sketchbook with pink-ish terracotta hues), and yes, it was hot most days… but as my visit was all about the people, I’ve already forgotten about how uncomfortable the weather was.

If you missed it, I have my own vlog from the Toulouse week (with lots of cameos by my friends!) available for free on Patreon (until 15 Sept 2026) – check it out here.

Since the symposium is all about people, I’m going to start with a big collection of photos I was tagged in! (I know that there are more but these are the ones I could find on my phone)

As for my sketches…

As always, I didn’t sketch as much as I had hoped.

My only official duty this year was teaching one demo (so technically my schedule was free for sketching), but it still is hard to find time to sketch – I’m always meeting people and having conversations.

It’s also hard to focus on my work because of the energy of being around people constantly and all the interruptions. But that’s totally fine, as I go to symposiums to see people, not to sketch. And this year I had many inspiring chats with other sketchers, which was super special!

That said, I am pleased with what I managed to get down during my week in Toulouse.

  
First Toulouse sketch – interruptions galore (sketchers coming up to us and filming at the same time.)

Sketching with Suhita and Uma in a quiet part of Toulouse.

Tuesday: A distracted sketch (due to talking) of the famous dome. Note: I didn’t get to sketch by the river as much as I expected.

Wednesday: on the left, a sketch during the faculty tour, and on the right, some items from the Art Market.

The Japanese Gardens next to the hub – at all times there were many sketchers here.

Thursday afternoon: My wonderful demo group.

I was showing how to sketch architecture in mixed media (using tempera sticks for texture). After a quick architectural analysis of our building, I then did some tests for a good wall colour.

Exploring different colour palettes. Thanks to Marianne, my wonderful volunteer, for all the photos.

Here’s the final sketch.

Friday: I did Marina’s wonderful collage workshop. I’m super excited by the possibilities of including collage in my work going forward.

The only sketch I did of the Pont Neuf was a collage version! 

Two street scenes – Thursday noon and Friday evening.

Saturday morning: I managed an hour-long solo sketching session – and felt so refreshed afterwards. Sketching is the way I like to process thoughts, so it was wonderful to have a little time to catch up with myself while doing this.

I then joined the sketchwalk and managed these two quick sketches – on the left while catching up with Shiho and on the right, sitting by myself.

In the afternoon I caught up with some of the SketchingNow/Patreon gang and did this sketch of the basilica from a side street.

And then two more sketches while talking non-stop.

The last evening of the symposium was all about talking to people, so I didn’t manage another Toulouse sketch.

As I flip through the pages of my sketchbook now that I’m back home, I’m struck by the strong terracotta colours of my Toulouse sketchbook.

These days I interpret colour rather than try to match hues exactly, but I still find myself asking: was it really that colour?

So I decided to create a colour swatch page from my photos. (Note: I created a similar image from photos online as part of my trip prep (which I shared with my community), but it’s so much better to use my own photos.

And yes! Toulouse buildings truly are those gorgeous vibrant colours! 

I loved visiting the Pink City, and I’m still in a pinkish-hue mood, trying to use pink or salmon whenever I can in my everyday sketching.

Finally – A huge thanks to everyone who worked tirelessly to make this symposium such a success – from the incredible local team to everyone in the USK committees and executive board.

The post France 2026: Toulouse (Urban Sketchers Symposium) appeared first on Liz Steel.

It’s been interesting to see how my combination of text and sketches has evolved over the years, and today I want to share a few examples with you. (Note: I included some of these in an email I sent out recently, but I’m adding more examples in this article!)

Before I started regularly sketching, I kept written journals when I travelled and only occasionally added a drawing.

Whenever I included a sketch, the stories were richer.

So I was determined to learn how to paint with watercolour so that I could create more image-based travel sketchbooks.

In January 2007, I started sketching my life in preparation for a 5-week visit to Europe later that year. (Sketching my life was simply a means of training for this upcoming trip!)

I was so happy that I filled two Moleskine sketchbooks on that trip – filling my pages with a few sketches per day, accompanied by my usual written accounts of my adventures.

I became obsessed with sketching after this trip, and sketching my life became an end in itself. It helped me see beauty in the ordinary and enjoy the small moments of life.

Over the years, I created habits to incorporate sketching into my busy everyday schedule, but I often rely on writing to complete the narrative for each day.

Special memories are encoded into my sketches, but my handwritten notes record (often with a touch of humour) additional little moments that I would otherwise forget.

I’ve also come to realise that the process of composing my sketches and notes on the page is a very distinct creative act – one that I enjoy almost as much as the sketching itself.

Here are some examples (from my sketchbooks over the years) showing a few different ways I add text to my sketchbook pages.

Writing in a long text block aligning with the width of my sketch.

Writing in a small text block fitting into an open-corner of my sketch.

Columns of text.

Varying the colour of my text in random text blocks across the spread.

More random notes across the page.

Text incorporated into the sketch.

A full page of text contrasting with the openness of the opposite page.

Text as background.

Text in a shape with an overlapping sketch.

There is so much that you can do when you add a bit of writing to your sketchbook pages! And this is something that I’m really looking forward to exploring inside Sketchbook Design in the coming weeks, as there are always so many wonderful ideas shared in the classroom!

Just for the record: You don’t have to have neat handwriting, or journal your life as I do- there are lots of different ways to add text that will contribute to story-telling within your sketchbooks. And yes, we also look at these options inside Sketchbook Design.

I’m so excited to be going through this course again – starting this week!

Live Version starting 9 September 2026
Work through the lessons in 9 weeks with  an inspiring group of sketchers
+ take part in 9 bonus weekly Q&A livestreams

Find out more about Sketchbook Design

Buy Sketchbook Design with Foundations and Watercolour and save! 
Find out more about the Sketch Your Life Bundle

Do you add writing to your sketchbook pages?

If yes, I would love to hear why you do and what kind of things you write about.

If no, why not?

If it is something that you wish you did more of, I would love to know what’s stopping you. What are the barriers to writing in your sketchbook?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.

The post Adding writing to my sketchbook pages and a question for you appeared first on Liz Steel.

On the two train trips, I finished pages in my sketchbook, edited two 40-minute videos for Patreon (for members of my Sketching Adventure community… I’m referring to my Alsace vlogs here and here), and then, in my spare time, I sketched the view out the window in three combination panoramas.

Once in Paris, my friend Magdy met me at the train station. We jumped in a taxi, and on the way I saw a few Paris highlights – the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and Les Invalides.

She took me to her neighbourhood, and we had a lovely lunch.

And then I was taken to the train station. Thanks, Madgy, for looking after me so well during my brief visit to Paris. It was lovely to catch up with you and J!

I arrived in Toulouse after 8 pm, so it was around 9 pm by the time I got out to walk the streets.

I didn’t sketch (it was still very warm!), but I walked around, took a few photos, and got a feel for the city. (BTW: I didn’t see any sketchers!)

Once back in my hotel, I did these colour swatches to record my first response to the pinks of Toulouse. These were test swatches for my demo – the left column contains my tempera sticks as a first layer. Three watercolour washes form the vertical columns.

What a lovely travelling day this was! Of course, it would have been nice to have had more time in Paris this trip, but I’m happy I managed to sneak in 5 hours!

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