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| My sketching travel kit laid out before my trip to Venice - lots of lightweight canvas pencil wraps! photo Katherine Tyrrell |
This is my travel kit for artwork abroad – all of this goes in the luggage and on the plane! And when I'm being very ambitious or going on a long trip my pastels go to!
At the moment I'm in the middle of sorting out what I'm packing for my next big trip to California, Arizona and New Mexico. I pack the art stuff first and then weigh and see how much I've got left for clothes. Priorities! Tonight I packed my pencil wraps with coloured pencils having visited the art shop earlier in the day to get new supplies of the Daler Rowney sketchbook I use on every trip. I'll also be taking a new Moleskine.
However, you don't have to take all of this. Each individual has their own individual perspective on what they need. All are equally valid - it's whatever it takes to make you feel you can do good work. Mind you, my opinions have been honed through much travel and carrying supplies around. My on-board luggage tends to contain the expensive art supplies, a change of underwear and a clean Tshirt!
My essentials include:
- Sketchbooks and/or small blocks of hot press watercolour paper (I use Arches HP) plus a portfolio of different coloured/types of drawing support
- Small foam core board - cut to fit the suitcase
- Clips to hold paper in place and/or sketchbook paper from flapping in a breeze
- Mechanical pencils (require no sharpening and you can vary the hardness/softness of the 'leads')
- Coloured pencils – sorted into colour groups – in pencils rolls
- Two pencils cases (warm and cool colours) containing shorties for ‘lightweight' trips
- a waterbrush if you're taking watercolour pencils (or a small pan of watercolours)
- Small light electric sharpener (for sharpening points in the evening.
- A small handheld sharpener for daytime
- Camera + battery charger + socket conversion kit + spare batteries
- A folding chair (I'm much more comfortable with back support - this one has travelled thousands of miles)
- Very strong bungee cord to hold folding chair together
- Folding mac and umbrella
- Protective creams for sun and bugs
- Good footwear for all that walking!
- Sack with lots of pockets enabling easy location of different bits of art gear. I now use a backpack.
- Guidebooks / maps(so as not to get lost!)
- bottle of water
Technorati tags: art , drawing , coloured pencils , moleskine , pencil , sketching , sketchbook
Wow! Your back, shoulders, and arms must be very strong. Just the small backpack I took on the sketchcrawl caused my shoulders and back lots of pain. And I too am one to take all but the kitchen sink.
ReplyDeleteI will look forward to your journeys as I have not travelled. This will give me an opportunity to see "the world" without leaving my house. I look forward to each new post.
Have a wonderful trip to my corner of the world (CA). Have a good, productive, and safe trip. Jeanne
Thanks Jeanne
ReplyDeleteLots of people to see in California but unfortunately there's only going to be enough time to see a very few of them given the travelling I'm doing. I'll still be looking out for your sketches on WC though! ;)
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ReplyDeleteGreat to share your experiences. I am looking at how artists travel on long tours and came across interesting stuff about Turner's equipment on Tate's site.
ReplyDeleteThere is a kid's section on his travels, very informative. See it here:
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turner/travelsv2/turnerstravel.htm
Be fantastic if we could exchange information about web links for artists travels, fascinating subject.
I found some other Turner travel bits from the Tate web site.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/CollectionDisplays?venueid=1&roomid=5954
This is for his english tours.
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/CollectionDisplays?venueid=1&roomid=5915
this is for abroad.
This will be relevant to a project I'm starting for 2010 which is about landscapes (and the different approcahes to sketching/paing them over the years - both art history and instruction)
ReplyDelete