My portable art kit

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I like to create in my art studio—but I also create outside, while traveling and lounging about the house—sketching in front of the tv, on the deck and most of all (now that I’ve replaced reading in bed with art making as my daily wakeup habit), as often as not in bed propped up against sit up pillows.

It’s been a series of trial and error over the years—and review of a lot of YouTube videos looking for ideas from other artists—but I think I’ve finally put together a workable, flexible portable art kit. And the beauty of it is that the pieces of this art kit can be thrown in a tote bag or box around the house—or in a packing cube for a suitcase. Same pieces.

Below I open the packing cube I’m taking to Southern California and New Mexico here in April to show what’s inside.

What you see here are essentially three layers of items that all fit together in a very compact bundle. From bottom to top (which I show in detail below), I have a handmade foam sketchboard, a cutting mat, water cups and a binder clip, a box of collage bits, 3 small sketchbooks, a dry media bag and a wet media bag.

And that’s it!

Now let me show what’s inside.

Normally I’d carry just one sketchbook, but as I’ve said before, I have three main projects for this year, which means I’m working in three books:

Here you see the small 2024 Moleskine 365 that I’m filling with daily art, my green landscape-sized art journal for full and complete creativity just for myself, and a sketchbook, where I practice in my art practice—and tease out ideas for other work and projects.

(Normally at home I use a larger, thicker sketchbook, but for travel I carry this lightweight A5 pamphlet style sketchbook.)

The largest piece of this kit is an AWESOME pen case I found on Amazon:

It’s about 8”X10” and it carries my dry media: pens (okay, kinda dry), graphite pencils, colored pencils (Caran D’Ache Luminance), and collage supplies: glue sticks, small scissors, a small ruler and a craft knife. In that small grey pouch in front I also carry a pencil sharpener, erasers and lead for the mechanical pencil.

That Nova craft knife there in the far back right, by the way, is also a cool find. It’s flat and fully retractable.

I also carry a very small “wet media bag”. This is for travel watercolors (color sheets and/or a small tin of colors), travel paintbrushes, and a paper towel.

I’m ambivalent about carrying wet media. I love Posca pens, ink and goauche, but oh they are messy! They’re difficult to use when you’re not at a table, can easily destroy fabric and furniture, and require a lot of clean up. Also, painting takes time I don’t always have when I’m traveling.

And yet, over the years I’ve found that sometimes I just want and need saturated color. And of all the wet media options, watercolors really are the most compact and lightweight, portable and easiest for clean up. So I carry a very small pouch of watercolor supplies for those times.

And that leads me to the bottom layer of my art cube:

There on the left you see a box, and on the right a cutting mat and a set of two very small stainless steel water cups that clip onto the mat. Those water cups of course are for the wet media.

The box and the cutting mat are for collage. I just love collage SO MUCH and this little set of items - along with the collage tools in the dry media bag - are all I really need to make little collages wherever I go.

As you can see below I fill this 1/2” tall 6X9” box with little paper scraps I’m always collecting. So when I want to collage on the go, I can start here—or I can pick up any magazine I find around the house or out in the world—pull out my cutting mat and cut and piece away.

But wait! What’s under the cutting mat?

This my friends is a binder clip and a handmade, foam sketchboard. I found the idea from some kind artist soul on YouTube (I forgot who, now) and I have to say it is a game changer!

As soon as I came across the video I ran down to Michaels and bought a sheet of foam board, then went home and cut it down to I think 9”X12”. Then, she had me score the piece and fold it in two (without pulling the two sides apart) and THEN I wrapped it in packing tape, including not across but inside the scored fold so it will fold in and out without breaking.

Oh. My. Gosh. This feather light board opens up to lie flat to hold one of the small sketchbooks, which I can also clip together with that binder clip, and it’s strong and it folds to just 9X6”—to fit nicely with the cutting mat of the same size in the art kit.

Wha la! A hard surface to create on the go.

Okay - so that’ s my portable art kit and I’m off to new travel adventures with it.

IS Illustrated life drawing for me?

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IS Illustrated life drawing for me?

I created a set of panels in my new sketchbook that capture something of my guided meditations last week. They might not make sense to anyone else, but they document the images that came to me. Some thoughts:

  1. After reviewing and reflecting on my last sketchbook, I double downed on my intention to do more illustrated life journaling —and I immediately hit familiar roadblocks. First, especially when I started to add ink to the graphite sketches, the self criticism began that did not stop. From color choices to “bad” drawings, I was absolutely sure this page was a mess.

    So sure that I went to bed last night feeling down,. Before lights out, I scrolled through Pinterest looking for art I enjoy as opposed to this crap I’d currently made (I did get madly inspired as often happens—more on that later) I went to sleep deciding that illustrated journaling is not for me, after all.

    And of course I woke up this morning to see that maybe the page isn’t bad at all. The drawing is rough - it is in pencil - but that was intended. The blue/greys work and the dark blue ink isn’t so bad - and in fact I could have added more in a few other places (maybe I will).

    Like I said about all the other illustrated life drawings I’ve done—this is a huge pattern: hate it while making and then afterwards I’m surprised that it’s not total crap.

  2. A note about media and color. I glazed over graphite sketches with

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Sketchbook Review

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Sketchbook Review

I finally finished my latest sketchbook (Sept ‘23-Feb ‘24) so I sat down this morning to do a little reflection and review. The most glaring feature that stands out for me is that the pages swing wildly between mediums and kinds of sketchbooking—from collage to practice to illustrated journaling and more.

Intuitive Collage

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Wah Wah. Didn't work.

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Wah Wah. Didn't work.

Ok, well this collage is as resolved as it’s going to get—but not successful. Rather than one composition, it’s a hodge podge of individual elements that I just couldn’t bring together. Looking back at where I started—with just the grid and a few large shapes—I see that I just added complexity without bringing it together.

I do like the color palette, though, and I enjoyed working with collage in this more abstract way. I need to try this grid thing again, but re-think how to work with the geometry of the structure. I’m missing some understanding…It’s been a busy week with not a lot of time for art, but I should have some good time this rainy weekend.

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Grid collage a whole new way

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Grid collage a whole new way

Exploring collage continues. I’m working on using the key elements in the kind of art that most inspires me in my work. So this is not finished yet, but what I’ve got here is an acrylic gouache background grid using just three primary colors + white and black. And then, I thumbed through a few magazines for a palette of complementary color and texture papers…and now I’m slowly adding shapes from that pile. So far the black hair of the figure is the only paint so far. Everything else is paper.

One shape leads to the other—which is my favorite kind of process. I’m envisioning much more paper and paint marks, but I have no real concrete plans.

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From beginning to final

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From beginning to final

Last week I shared the first pass on this collage grid—and today I finished it. AHere I was practicing 1) intuitive composition, 2) how to add layers of color and pattern to create more depth and interest, and 3) keeping an eye on the full page composition for unity and balance.

Oh man, choice is such a big part of creating! Every item, every color and mark, comes down to making a choice—which can be paralyzing. I notice that I am developing stronger trust in my intuition—I know that there’s a part of me that knows something more than my conscious mind does—which often proves to be true.

For this page, though, I was focused mostly on visual integrity more than any deeper meanings—and i found that after the images were in place, I felt paralyzed by all the ways I could complete each one—and I didn’t want to choose. So I copied the page twice and tried different ways to complete each composition—and then I made final choices on the original page.

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Beginnings

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Beginnings

Today I started this collage grid in my sketchbook - it’s not yet finished. As I look at the kinds of work I like to do (I finally got my 2023 sketchbook pages into a gallery and I’m kind of up to date on instagram with final artworks of late), I realize that while I love to draw and paint, there’s something about collage that clicks for me. I love picking through paper, shapes and color and “finding” a whole new image. With that said, I want to up my collage game and find authentic, original epression. So that’s what I’m experimenting with. This is just the first layer.

Note: I am super inspired by two collage artists lately who I really admire for their original work (both very different): Luis Martin, “the “Art Engineer” on YouTube and Kevin Mercer, who I found on Pinterest—I watched this process video of his today. My art goal is to create my own collage style too.

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Inside weather January 22

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Inside weather January 22

Finished this fun exercise (Draw Together with WendyMac) while listening to a really great interview on the Conspiracy of Goodness Podcast: Unlearning Modern Expectations with an Indigenous Mindset with Connor Ryan Part I. What a gift he has for clearly articulating truth, showing the way out of our toxic exploitive culture to a sane and sustainable, peaceful relationship with life. This is how I want to live.

Illustrated six emotions with weather metaphors, first layers graphite, then Econoline watercolor marker on top. Left to Right: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, Grief, Peace.

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