Vacation sketching

Sketching supplies I packed for my Summer break

During this Summer I’m spending a six week workation in my homeland, Slovenia - I packed my iPad and drawing supplies, hoping to tackle some drawing and writing projects while I also spend time with friends and family.

I have always admired artists who keep travelling sketchbooks and can draw on the road, wherever they go and whenever they feel inspired, documenting interesting details and making precious holiday souvenirs in form of a sketchbook. The hardest thing for me, apart from actually taking time to sketch 😊, seems to be narrowing down the number of drawing tools I might need when I find myself away from the studio. How many pencils is too many? Will I really have time to watercolour or should I just take a dip pen and a bottle of ink?

A 30 minute sketch during my weekly “mama taxi” duty - I used three different coloured pencils.

It’s always fun to research what other artists are using to sketch on the go; some will limit their selection to only the colours they expect using for a certain outing (going to the seaside will demand a different palette than urban sketching or woodland adventure), others will challenge themselves by packing only a couple of drawing tools in a range of light to dark (for this exercise I recommend

Charlotte Durance

3 materials challenge on Instagram).

Packing a vacation sketch set can be difficult, deciding which favourite pencils and markers to take and which to leave behind so you still have some room left for the toiletries … but there is an upside to the sacrifice: it’s a perfect excuse for holiday art supplies shopping 😉.

My messy pencil case during Katie Stack’s sketch party.

A couple of days ago I joined my fellow Illoguilder

Katie Stack

‘s sketch party, a live Zoom sketching session she hosts every month - it was fun drawing along with everyone, following Katie’s prompts in a fast, one minute per sketch pace. But from all the materials I packed for this vacation I ended up using only a handfull of pencils and a water brush - it made me realise I could have definitely trimmed the selection much further…

Below are the full contents of my giant pencil case, from brush pens, ball point pens and markers to different types of dry pastels and watercolour pencils. Some are a part of larger, inexpensive sets I bought off internet and others I picked individually in specialised shops, carefully chosing the exact shade I actually like and use (it’s more fun that buying shoes, I swear!)

Here are some of my travel favourites (edited for the August

illoguild

question of the month):

~ I love Tombow brush pens but they are are quite long and take a lot of space so I packed a few Faber-Castell Pitt Artist pen brushes instead;

A light grey or blue for drawing shadows in a line sketch and some other colours for a quick highlight. A simple office highlighter is also a great choice, like Stabilo, though I prefer pastel hues rather than flashy fluorescent ones.

~ I have lots of different watercolour pencils, like Derwent’s Inktense and Watercolour, I like to buy a few from different brands to test their characteristics but not all are available in my local supply shops; so on my recent trip to Paris I had a chance to test Caran D’Ache Museum Aquarelle and fell in love with the creamy, almost opaque quality of the pencils. I also bought a selection of neutral hues from Faber Castell’s Albrecht Dürer collection, I find their many nuances perfect for drawing a variety of skin tones.

I use a simple, medium size water brush with container (pictured is a Derwent brush from a set of three sizes) to work with watercolour pencils.

~ I also packed some dry pastels and pencils, it’s nice to mix and match those that will smudge with water and those that will confidently leave marks on top of darker hues, like the thick, creamy Woody pencils from Stabilo.

~ Speaking of creamy, for me there isn’t a more satisfying coloured pencil than the butter-soft Prismacolor. They are rather pricey so I only have a couple so far but it’s definitely worth buying the basic palette you work with the most of you love to colour in shapes by hand.

~ And I shouldn’t forget a couple of graphite pencils (a softer and a harder kind), a small pencil sharpener with container and a soft eraser plus some fine liners; I like uni-ball micro pen and liquid gel ink pens from Pentel that dry super fast and don’t smudge when used with brush pens.

I tested them all on a page in my sketchbook - now I can see that some are definitely too similar! Perhaps a smaller pencil case will force me to reduce my selection next time…

What’s in your vacation sketching pencil case? Do you have a favourite few and what is your secret for picking only the bare essentials?

Let’s share tips! 😍