Thursday, October 29, 2015

Creative Spaces :: The Plein-air Sketching Kit

the joys of plein-air painting I enjoy painting and sketching outside. Very little of this work gets directly into exhibition pieces but that’s not really my purpose. I find I do remember more and connect with a place more strongly when I have spent a little time sketching.

Over time my “sketching bag” has evolved to include more paints (watercolours and water soluble media) and brushes. If I use pencils they will probably be really soft (eg 4B or 6B) but I have begun to use ink pens more often. I’ve become a real fan of Derwent’s Inktense blocks.  Whilst charcoal is good for the studio, it can’t stand the travel and rough handling so I have found conte is way better.

I currently have two identical smaller re-purposed shoulder carry bags (handout from a tour group) and have them fitted out with similar basics. One is just a little more slimmed down than the other. Things get used up and I make occasional changes of what I consider is essential, particularly the surfaces I am painting/drawing on.The contents of the "Fatter" Sketching Bag & Accompanments Sometime I just have a basic sketch book, other times I might want good quality watercolour paper (ie > 300gsm) I pretty well always have one packed and ready to go. At the moment I have only the one folio to carry better quality media (ie individual watercolour or pastel papers) it also holds a drawing board that can be attached to a camera tripod, (see my tripod easel post), This normally travels with the larger kit which is logical as it has more watercolour paints.

Yes all that stuff does fit in the dark blue bag! Easily!

No comments: