Whether I’m packing my bag for a weekend at the river or a night at the bar, I am likely carrying all of this stuff with me. Is this a “basic” kit? Absolutely not. But this pen case can also hold a pad of watercolor paper & fits into a canvas tote bag with my favorite sketchbook just fine. I can always pluck out a small edit of pens from here if I actually need to travel light, but for my everyday joy-of-spontaneous-creation I feel like, YOLO.
I’ve never been a minimalist.
I’ve strayed a few times and lived to regret it: My go-to notebook is the Canson Artist Sketchbook 8.5x11”. I’m in the habit of closing my pens in the pages of my book, which kills the spine of lesser notebooks. This one holds up to serious abuse, has low page bleed-through, and takes quite a bit of water on the paper before buckling.
Tombow Dual Brush Pens (one of my bffs gifted me my first set of these and it changed my practice 4evr), mechanical pencils, white eraser, selection of highlighters for pop (and a Sharpie just in case).
My dad’s old Kuretake water brush pen. When he died, I took this from his travel-art-kit. I treated the water he left in the well as sacred. My dad used this with his watercolor Prismacolors. I use it to mush around colored brush pen ink for a watercolor effect.
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My daily writers: The Tombow Fudenosuke in both the firm and the flexible tips. Firm tip is my speed-writer, the other one lingers and flows.
The dentist sent me home with this pouch full of sponsored dental products, but now I use the pouch to travel with my edited watercolor brush selection. I like having a tattered 1” for irregular washes of sky and greenery and an assortment of round & angle flats.
I have been plein air watercolor painting with a built-in-pan set from Paul Rubens (not to be confused with PeeWee, RIP). If I’m going for a legit plein air sesh, I also throw in a water misting bottle, some paper towels, a roll of paper-safe-tape and use an 18” field sketch board.
Okay, y’all. Looking forward to sharing some cool new audio/visuals, oracle updates & fun interviews soon. In the meantime, I’d love if you would share this newsletter with a friend and drop a comment letting me know what you carry to create with!
