I’ve never painted observations, but I can share some tips! I shared some here too before getting pointed over here: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/life-hacks-for-naturalists/4636/39?u=tanyuu
- There are watercolor pencils. Think colored pencils, but they bleed if water gets on them.
- When you get into the arena of student and artist grade paint, the pigment they use determines everything from the price, the lightfastness (ie how resistant to light damage it is), tinting strength (does it stain the paper when you try to lift the paint up), and how much you probably need to use before it overpowers the color you’re trying to make.
- There’s markers! Not really as useful in terms of lugging around, but there’s a lot of neat alcohol-based brands.
- The heavier the weight of the paper, the more it can withstand buckling. 72lb is the bare minimum. There are options to get around this, like stretching it ahead of time (https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2015/07/17/stretching-watercolour-paper-for-a-better-painting-experience/), watercolor board, or watercolor block sketchpads.