Pencil-packing Trips and Tips
I do most of my drawing on holiday – not only are the places I visit good source material, but I also have more time to indulge in drawing. So the first question I ask after I’ve booked the flight is, what equipment to take on a sketching trip? It is tempting to pack a huge array of brushes, pens, pencils, paints, different size drawing/painting pads, palette and water container. This is not practical, however, and over the years I have honed it down to the real essentials. (I could make do with one pencil and one small sketch pad, of course, but let’s not get silly about this…) Obviously, I’m not talking about dedicated sketching and painting holidays, when you’d want to take more gear.
Number one on my list is a decent size of sketchbook. A hardback book is useful because it gives you a solid surface to work on, as well as providing protection from rain, spilt drinks, etc. And once you are back home, the books look nice stacked together on the bookshelf. Many of the everyday sketchbooks that I carry around at home are spiral bound, but for holidays I find stitched binding better. There are no metal bits to get caught on other stuff in your bag, and they pack flatter. I often draw across a double-page spread, which is easier in a bound book. I usually buy the large size Moleskine sketchbook (13x21cm / 5×8.25in) – I like the ribbon page marker and the pocket at the back. Because of where I live, I don’t have easy access to good painting gear, so I order on line.
I take a selection of Staedtler Mars Lumograph pencils – 2B, 3B and one or two out of 4, 5 and/or 6B. An ordinary stationery erasure as well as an artist’s kneadable rubber are regular items of kit. I currently use Staedtler pigment liners or Uni pin pens – I’m happy with both. My favourite sizes are 0.3 and 0.5, but I also take 0.1, and even 0.03, plus a thicker 0.8.
At home I use watercolour paints in tubes, but nothing beats a small box filled with “half-pans” for travelling. My current favourite is the super-compact and convenient Winsor & Newton watercolour field box set. I’m a sucker for watercolour boxes, and this one is my top pick, especially because it incorporates a little water bottle (though my husband jokes it looks like a plastic hip flask and that I actually have it filled with gin) and a water container, as well as the cute little brush that comes in all W&N sets. It comes with 12 half-pans, but I have managed to squeeze in two more. Of course, I change the colours, too. I always ditch the black and white pans (why do they even put them in?). This is what my box what my box currently holds:
I also take a few small tubes of less frequently used but nevertheless useful colours, such as opera rose – perfect for tropical bougainvillea; cobalt turquoise – Aegean and Andaman seas; Naples yellow – indispensable for Mediterranean houses; and Indian red – earth, brick, walls and more in India. I store them in tiny plastic bags so there’s no disaster if I forget to screw the caps on tightly.
My brushes are all so old that the writing on the handles has rubbed off, so I can’t give details of sizes and type of hair. They are mostly good-quality watercolour brushes, however. I just take two or three medium-handle-length styles with different brush sizes on holiday; nothing too big as I’m not focusing on painting complete pictures, just adding washes or assessing colours.
For this reason, I don’t take a separate palette either; the fold-out palettes incorporated into the field box are fine. Other bits and pieces include a penknife for sharpening pencils as well as creating effects in watercolour, a wad of kitchen towel or a pack of tissues – not just for spills, but for dabbing out sky paint to make clouds – plus a small piece of towel cut from an old facecloth, and a couple of bulldog clips.
I carry all my gear except the sketchbook in a zipped pouch-style bag that I keep in my carry-on bag. The sketchbook goes into a plastic bag that is also in my carry-on. The penknife, of course, is put into my checked-in bag on flights. (I’ve twice had to forfeit penknives at security checks… I now only travel with an old one that I don’t mind giving up if I do forget to take it out of the carry-on!). When going out for a day’s sketching pack a hat, sunblock and drinking water.
Sketching on holiday: Leave it out!
What do I leave at home? The lightweight portable easel and a sketching stool are for sketching out and about at home. I used to take small specialist watercolour blocks or spirals, but this means I need to take more brushes. Looking through materials for this website, though, I discovered a small Bockingford watercolour block used on a trip to Greece in 2012. The pictures of Milos here have inspired me to try to include something similar on my next holiday. Let’s see if I can manage with just one larger brush.