I always love reading about other people’s art supplies. This may be because reading about other people’s art supplies, then making my own lists of art supplies I would like, then scrolling around online to find out where they are sold / read reviews is rather easier to do than actually sitting down and just Doing Some Art. But that might be a topic for another day.
I do love looking at the weirdly enormous ‘hauls’ of art materials that some people buy and handily post on youtube. But the art supplies that I really love to learn about are the seasoned regulars. The ones you reach for so regularly that you couldn’t live without them. The ones you have two, or three, unopened back ups of just in case you ever run out so you don’t have to be without one for even a single second.
So I thought I’d write a blog post about what I throw into my pencil case before I go out sketching, now that I have finally managed to make sketching on the go, and outside, a (relatively) regular thing.
Above is my pencil case of choice. For ages I did not have a pencil case, in fact I am slightly entertained to relate that I had forgotten that pencil cases even existed! I had a few pens swilling around loose in my hand bag, and was feeling frustrated about it, remarking that they were getting lost, and the lids were coming off, and what I needed was, '“a small bag to put them in …. oh.” This happened to be the next pencil case I saw, so I am not claiming any superiority for it. It holds the implements. It’s reasonably capacious without being huge in size. What more could we want.
First into the case: the old faithfuls. In this case, a pencil, and two fineliner pens. I only carry one pencil, and to be honest I don’t often sketch with pencil now, which is strange because it used to be the ONLY thing I would ever draw with. But I still carry one, mainly for sketching out rough outlines and guidelines early on.
The fineliner pens are Winsor & Newton, and I use these ones because they are water proof, meaning I can watercolour over them after they are dry, without my piece deteriorating into a grey splodgy mess. I always carry a 0.8 for my general drawing, inky and wide and forgiving, and a 0.3 for finer detail. (And I do indeed possess, at any time, at least four or five of each, and the idea of running out makes me start to sweat and want to stock up on a few more.)
I can have a perfectly good time sketching with just these three implements (plus a rubber / eraser), but if I am throwing more in, then next come the category I shall term the ‘wild card’ pens. This is a small selection of coloured pens that I might use to colour in or to draw with. I prefer bright, bold colours for this: turquoise, teal, hot pink, or purple. Here I have one of my Tombow double-tipped pens (brush pen at one end, felt tip at the other), a Pentel brush sign pen in pink, and a disposeable fountain pen with turquoise ink.
I really like the disposeable fountain pens, but I am not sure I will replace them when they run dry, as they do seem needlessly wasteful and unsustainable. The Pentel pen is lovely for calligraphy and also lovely for drawing as the nib is firm but flexible so you can get some variation in line width. And a good Tombow is just never a bad thing.
I very often bring an Ecoline with me, and although I have flirted with the grey blue, and the maroon, in the end I come back to this stalwart, the grey. I love to sketch in fineliner pen and then use the juicy Ecoline to create some shadows and depth. The pen is so inky it almost feels splashy to use, which encourages me to loosen up a bit (this does not come naturally to me, either in drawing or temperament) which makes it a great addition.
And finally, I have only very recently started to get more confident with painting watercolours when out and about, which I tend to do with a little travel set of paints and a water brush. I also pack a piece of kitchen roll that I can wipe the water brush off with, and then I’m away. Truthfully I still feel self conscious painting in public, and not confident enough about my results to do it very often, but I have gained some confidence from painting in backgrounds, which feels like a good start and a way of warming up a little.
So that’s my sketchbook kit. Sometimes I bring all of the above, sometimes just some. Sometimes I get all over excited and stuff masses more in, and then don’t use any of it apart from one pen. But these are my regulars. And I’d love to know - what are yours?
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