When I travel I want to travel lightly. That's why when I travel with my art supplies I want to make sure I'm not over packing. When I travel I always want to take my art supplies with me because it's the perfect way for me to unwind after a day of sightseeing or travel. I recently purchased the art moleskin which I took with me on this trip. I also took my winsor and newton watercolor set.
A few years ago I bought this toiletries hanging bag. I soon realized that it would make a much better art supply bag than toiletry bag. It has 3 compartments, I will be sharing with you what I keep in each container.
Before I share with you what is in each compartment I did want to share that normally I use the canson mixed media journal, but I found that it was a little too big when I traveled which is the reason I switched to my moleskin notebook. I will be doing a review on how I like the moleskin and what is going to happen to my canson xl notebook.
If you aren't familiar with the winsor and netwon watercolor sets here is a quick inside look.
 |
Winsor & Newton Cotman Water Color Half Pan Studio Set |
I keep a long wax paper on the paint. The reason I do that is because I noticed that with the travel some of the paints were coming out or getting loose inside the palette. Keeping the wax paper over it keeps the paints secure.
The main reason why I love this palate is because it has a great selection of colors and it has plenty of mixing space!
In one of the compartments I have let some Dr. Ph Martins concentrated watercolor. I let the blues dry and I can revive them with a little water and use them. No need to carry the entire bottle with me. Although I wouldn't recommend you do this with all the colors. I'll do a review on these at a later time.
Okay, so inside the first compartment I keep all of my micron pens. I also keep my pencil in case I want to sketch. I keep an eraser as well. I also keep two waterbrush pens.
In the second compartment I took some of my favorite brushes. First I took my Raphaël Soft Aqua Brush 845. I also took my Princeton Art & Brush Real Value Natural Camel Brush Set, Round Size 1, 3 and 5. I Have a few brushes from Artist loft that are meant for acrylic. I also have a waterbrush that I have filled with black india ink. Lastly I keep a ruler and some napkins. These napkins are not like the regular hand napkins. They are linen free napkins so I don't end up with fuzz on my brushes. They are long lasting so I can use (as you can see) one for months if I need to. The packet I have has lasted me 4 yrs, I only use a few of these napkins in a year.
My last compartment contained some acrylic student grade paints by Artist loft (Michaels brand). I also had a few winsor and newton cotman (tubes). I also have copic white, pastel dreams palette, and brush cleaner.
All of these items are extremely portable. If I choose I can leave things in the hotel or not travel with them at all. If I wanted to I could reduce even more by not taking anything in the third compartment. I will say that I will be looking for a smaller palette to take instead of my half pan set. I do find that out of all of these it's the bulkiest.
I hope this gives you a better idea of how YOU CAN travel with your art supplies!!
Let me know how you travel with your art supplies down below!
Love the idea of getting out and about and bringing tools along to share and document the journey! How earthy and spiritual! Rosemary and co have started selling a little travel brush kit which is uber cute too although I'll be waiting for the synthetic version as its more animal friendly. Thanks for the tips, I'll be able to enjoy some en plein air painting :-) - Christina Hawe
ReplyDeleteI'll have to check out the Rosemary and Co set. Although I don't take my art supplies outside I do like to unwind by creating in my hotel room after a long day of sight seeing. Eventually I want to do some urban sketching, I think it looks like a fun way to record my journeys :)
DeleteWhat art supplies do you use for plain air painting? @Christina
two small palette ideas for you... 1) Winsor and Newton Field Plus Set ...12 half pans with a good range of colors for mixing..a round #5 cotman travel brush...a water bottle with 2 water cups and in addition to the 5 mixing wells in the cover, there are 2 slide outs which give you 8 additional mixing wells. Closed it's all of 5.5 inches x 4.5 inches... and I manage to get a second brush in the case as well.. either a WN or Whiskey Painters #2 travel brush as they have super slim cases. It comes with Cotman half pans but the pans snap out very easily so you can swap in artist quality half pans or snap out the 3 trays holding the half pans and you can get 6 5ml tubes in. All in all a great little kit to have even when you're not traveling...I throw it in my purse all the time with a watercolor journal and can literally paint anywhere. But if you like lots of colors with you, I have a great little hack for you. Medeen sells empty palette tins (on Amazon and lots of the art supply sites). Their small tin is only 2.75" by 4.75 inches and marketed for 12 half pans, but you can actually easily fit 21 half pans in without altering the palette. (I posted a crappy video of this on You Tube if you want to see it.."Set Up the Medeen...") This tin will also give you 3 mixing palettes and you can fit a couple of those slim travel brushes in as well in this unbelievably small tin. [That tin, a smaller Altoid tin with kneaded erasers, sharpener, sponges, some other little tools I use, a 2 oz. watercolor spray bottle, some drawing pencils and Microns, a masking fluid applicator, a few larger Voyager Black Velvet travel brushes and a couples water brushes all fit into a 7 in. By 4 in. plastic makeup case - if I'm planning to paint outside, I can even fit the water bottle and cups from the WN field kit in as well.
ReplyDelete