Art Materials for Holiday Sketching
Top Tips and suggestions from our artists.
What our artists use
• Watercolour block or pad, 300gsm, cold pressed or rough A4 or larger,
• Sketching pad, a good heavy cartridge is fine,
• Possibly a bound Sketch Book. Paper should be quality cold press watercolour,
• Water colour and acrylic brushes,
• Grey lead, waterproof black fine liner, pastels, colored pencils, ink pens, black ink and anything to paint, sketch or draw with,
• A light weight board to tape paper or canvas to. Clip boards are good also,
• A roll of masking tape and scissors,
• Suitably small palette for water colors or gouache that has a lid,
• A back pack or bag big enough to carry your sketching on site painting materials and water,
• A hat,
• Light weight folding seat,
• Camera or iPad.
Artist's onsite Travel Kit
• Watercolor paper A5, A4 and A3 sizes in a block or a pad (Saunders, Arches or Canson cold press 300gsm medium grain blocks – no stretching, clips or backing board needed)
• Slim palette knife - to remove pages from paint block and get insects off your artwork.
• Visual diary or cartridge paper sketch pad for preliminary sketches, notes and colour testing
• 3B grey lead pencil.
• Staedtler waterproof black pigment ink pen 0.3 – 0.5mm tip
• Small good quality watercolor travel set with inbuilt palettes (Winsor and Newton).
•Good quality white gouache - Winsor & Newton.
• Quality round watercolor brushes with short handles (easier for packing) and good points, sizes 3, 6, 10; a needle point brush, size 8 and a larger mop or wash brush (Our artist uses long-lasting da Vinci or Roymac synthetic watercolour brushes for versatility)
• Additional plastic palette for more mixing if needed (Cathy uses a 6-well children’s palette)
• 250g disposable drink container with popper cap or plastic syringe for clean water application to paint and a small artist’s spray bottle
• Collapsible “lantern” water container or other stable light container.
• Chux absorbent kitchen cloths and a travel pack of tissues for lift-outs and clean-ups
You could also include:
• Trusty Ipad or smart phone with good size screen
(Cathy takes her iPad everywhere – great for taking and then looking at photos while travelling – no printing needed!).
• Soft chalk and oil pastels, colored inks (Our artist often uses sepia ink with a dropper to draw with directly), colored pencils, watercolor pencils - anything you can use to draw, paint and layer.
• Rough or fine grain watercolor paper – experiment to see what works for you.
WATERCOLOURS (Half pan sets or tubes)
A pocket field half pan travel set . Good quality sets come from Winsor & Newton, Schmincke, Daniel Smith and others.
Typically a 14 color half pan set has Alizarin, Crimson, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Purple Lake, Cerulean Blue, Ultra Marine Blue, Yellow Ochre, Chinese White (or White gouache), Lemon Yellow Hue, Cad Yellow, Cad Red Pale, Cad Red Hue, Viridian and Sap Green.
Other useful tube colours you could add are Sepia, Prussian Blue or Phthalo Blue, Cobalt Blue and Raw Umber.
TOP TIPS while you are away
• Observation. Draw or paint what you see not what you think you see.
• Practice plein air more you practice the better you become even in your backyard
• Keep it simple. You don't have to fit in every detail.
• Technology is here to stay. iPads and cameras are simply tools you can use
• You are the Artist. Live it, love it, it might not happen again. Focus on your work and come up with a result.
• Finishing a painting brings a sense of achievement doing great things for your confidence.
• Have fun. Get emotional. You are painting for the pleasure of it in another country. Something not everyone gets to do.
• Go light. Before you travel have a plein air test run to work out what you need.
Artists & Contributors: Cathy Shugg, artist, Craig Penny, artist, Anne Justin pastel artist and others
What our artists use
• Watercolour block or pad, 300gsm, cold pressed or rough A4 or larger,
• Sketching pad, a good heavy cartridge is fine,
• Possibly a bound Sketch Book. Paper should be quality cold press watercolour,
• Water colour and acrylic brushes,
• Grey lead, waterproof black fine liner, pastels, colored pencils, ink pens, black ink and anything to paint, sketch or draw with,
• A light weight board to tape paper or canvas to. Clip boards are good also,
• A roll of masking tape and scissors,
• Suitably small palette for water colors or gouache that has a lid,
• A back pack or bag big enough to carry your sketching on site painting materials and water,
• A hat,
• Light weight folding seat,
• Camera or iPad.
Artist's onsite Travel Kit
• Watercolor paper A5, A4 and A3 sizes in a block or a pad (Saunders, Arches or Canson cold press 300gsm medium grain blocks – no stretching, clips or backing board needed)
• Slim palette knife - to remove pages from paint block and get insects off your artwork.
• Visual diary or cartridge paper sketch pad for preliminary sketches, notes and colour testing
• 3B grey lead pencil.
• Staedtler waterproof black pigment ink pen 0.3 – 0.5mm tip
• Small good quality watercolor travel set with inbuilt palettes (Winsor and Newton).
•Good quality white gouache - Winsor & Newton.
• Quality round watercolor brushes with short handles (easier for packing) and good points, sizes 3, 6, 10; a needle point brush, size 8 and a larger mop or wash brush (Our artist uses long-lasting da Vinci or Roymac synthetic watercolour brushes for versatility)
• Additional plastic palette for more mixing if needed (Cathy uses a 6-well children’s palette)
• 250g disposable drink container with popper cap or plastic syringe for clean water application to paint and a small artist’s spray bottle
• Collapsible “lantern” water container or other stable light container.
• Chux absorbent kitchen cloths and a travel pack of tissues for lift-outs and clean-ups
You could also include:
• Trusty Ipad or smart phone with good size screen
(Cathy takes her iPad everywhere – great for taking and then looking at photos while travelling – no printing needed!).
• Soft chalk and oil pastels, colored inks (Our artist often uses sepia ink with a dropper to draw with directly), colored pencils, watercolor pencils - anything you can use to draw, paint and layer.
• Rough or fine grain watercolor paper – experiment to see what works for you.
WATERCOLOURS (Half pan sets or tubes)
A pocket field half pan travel set . Good quality sets come from Winsor & Newton, Schmincke, Daniel Smith and others.
Typically a 14 color half pan set has Alizarin, Crimson, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Purple Lake, Cerulean Blue, Ultra Marine Blue, Yellow Ochre, Chinese White (or White gouache), Lemon Yellow Hue, Cad Yellow, Cad Red Pale, Cad Red Hue, Viridian and Sap Green.
Other useful tube colours you could add are Sepia, Prussian Blue or Phthalo Blue, Cobalt Blue and Raw Umber.
TOP TIPS while you are away
• Observation. Draw or paint what you see not what you think you see.
• Practice plein air more you practice the better you become even in your backyard
• Keep it simple. You don't have to fit in every detail.
• Technology is here to stay. iPads and cameras are simply tools you can use
• You are the Artist. Live it, love it, it might not happen again. Focus on your work and come up with a result.
• Finishing a painting brings a sense of achievement doing great things for your confidence.
• Have fun. Get emotional. You are painting for the pleasure of it in another country. Something not everyone gets to do.
• Go light. Before you travel have a plein air test run to work out what you need.
Artists & Contributors: Cathy Shugg, artist, Craig Penny, artist, Anne Justin pastel artist and others