The Portable Sketcher

I am always looking for ways in which I can make Urban Sketching portable. I always carry a “purse” which is actually my art bag but that includes my wallet. In my “purse” I always carry a couple of sketchbooks, pencils, different types of pens and my watercolors among other things. In a future posting I will share what I carry in detail and how I prepare my sketch bag for my daily use. Trying to be compact but still having all I need to be ready to urban sketch lead me to find this new product, The Portable Painter. I came across this product thru Indiegogo.com  crowd funding site. It was started by Steven Padden and so far it has been very successful. I bought it for $30.00 and it arrived way faster than I expected, it took about a week!

But what is The Portable Painter? The Portable Painter is a palette with two wells and a brush. It is made of plastic and is very light. It comes with 12 half pans and I used some double tape to attach the pan to the palette to hold it tight. What I like about it is that it is so compact that it fits perfectly inside my “purse”/art bag, it is very light and you can even put it in your bag pocket. The wells slide perfectly to each side of the palette and you can place it on the ground, a table and even your thigh.

One well serves to wet your brush and the other to clean it. It comes with a double brush or you might be able to fit in a travel brush of your liking. I was able to get my size 4 Escoda Versatil, larger sizes on this brand are too thick.
So far I used it in the field on Saturday while sketching with Urban Sketchers and it was very useful. So I liked it and if you like to explore new art products and you are always on the go, The Portable Sketcher might be one to try. Here are the pictures of the product and my most recent sketch.

The Portable Painter right out of the box.

The palette has the double sided brush, two wells and 12 half pans.

The double brush has two sizes.

I added double tape to the half pans to make sure they don't move inside the palette.

And finally what did I sketched using this palette?

The Freight house Square in Tacoma!

I hope this was useful. Let me know if you have any questions and Happy Sketching!

Daisy

Experimenting with Fountain Pens!

One thing I love about this artistic endeavor is that I get to experiment with different mediums or
combination of mediums in a regular bases. A few weeks ago I received two items that I was waiting for, a LAMY fine point fountain pen and a Platinum Carbon Pen with the ink and the converters as well. LAMY pens creator was C. Josef LAMY, who until 1930 had worked as a manager for an American writing instrument manufacturer, started his own business in Heidelberg, by the name of the Orthos Füllfederhalter-Fabrik. The LAMY I am using is the LAMY Safari who was unveiled at the Frankfurt Fair in 1980 and from that point on it became the best-selling fountain pen in the world.
I was not sure what the best ink would work best for sketching and using watercolors. I was close to buying the Noodlers brand but a colleague sketcher recommended the Platinum Carbon Ink and the Platinum Carbon pen as well since it is extra fine and it is a great complement to the LAMY. She stated that she prefers the Platinum Carbon ink because is dries fast and it is easier to apply watercolor on top very quickly. Thank you Kate! I am a fast sketcher and my time for sketching is quite limited during the week so I need to make sure that my ink dries quickly so I can paint and have a finish product in 30minutes. I followed her recommendations and voila, this is the result.

This is the pulpit of the University of Puget Sound Chapel in Tacoma. Painted with watercolors.

This is another sketch I did from my home looking at the neighborhood recently using the LAMY Fountain pen with the Platinum Carbon Ink. Painted with watercolors.

And finally this is a view of Center for Health Sciences at the Tacoma Community College. I did this quick sketch during lunch using the LAMY pen as well. Painted with watercolor pencils.

So far I am very pleased with the results and plan to continue experimenting with the fountain pens. I will keep you posted!

Happy Sketching,

Daisy

An even more minimal kit for sketching every day

So many teachers have said it.  Improvement in any endeavor depends upon constant practice.  Taking workshops or watching video tutorials isn't enough.  To improve, it's important to sketch every day.  Even if there isn't time for a complete composition in a large sketchbook, moments can be found to do a quick drawing.    These could be on the bus, in a coffee shop or even waiting in line.

Field Notes Workshop Companion limited edition notebook

To that end, I, too, have a small kit I carry every day. It does fit in my purse/bag but sometimes it's still more than I want to carry.



I've recently purchased several of the Field Notes Workshop Companion limited edition notebooks because the paper is  good for sketching.  They are 6 for $20.   It even can stand up to a light watercolor wash.   They have a dot grid, which isn't ideal but is acceptable for these quick, 5 minute sketches.  However, it is a limited edition and won't be available for much longer.



Then I read about this Etsy shop.  YellowPaperHouse offers several sizes of small notebooks.    One option is the Field Notes sized books.  The paper choices include Canson Mixed Media and Watercolor papers.   These are decent papers, especially for a tiny book meant for fast sketches.   I made some sketches in both these books this weekend and I am very happy with them.   I suppose you could make these yourself but at $6 each, they are fairly affordable. 





These tiny sketchbooks make it even easier to sketch every day.  One of these and a pen makes a good carry-every-day kit.  Add a bit of paper with a few watercolor dots and a waterbrush and that's the enough to add some color to the drawings. 

Minimal Sketch Kit

When I first went urban sketching I brought way too many things with me the first few sketch outings. I wasn't sure what was 'normal' for an urban sketcher to have along out there in the wilds of the urban setting.

I also worried because I wasn't  sure what supplies I might want or need to actually use, so I brought several grades of hardness in lead pencils, sharpeners, mechanical pencils, extra leads, several kinds of erasers, masking tape,  bungy cords (not sure what for), pens of all sorts, watercolors-and palette-and water jug (a too large water jug), colored pencils, and, several kinds of small and large sketchbooks. 

I prepared myself for changes in weather, both in the layers I was wearing...and in the supplemental garments to be found in my sturdy rolling cart. I was ready for wounds, hunger, mapping my journey, taking out trash, having a place to sit, a way to clean hands, preventing sun burns and mosquito bites...and....the list was longer, but I'm too embarrassed to go on listing items.

My first urban sketcher lesson learned: One's gear will be heavy if one's packing philosophy includes the phrase 'just in case.' 

So, now I try to be a minimalist. I decide what supplies I would enjoy using this particular day...and that is what I will happily use no matter where I wind up or what I find to sketch. I try to limit myself to what will fit in my pockets, though admittedly, I have some jackets and vests with good-sized pockets. Second-hand shops are great for garments like that.
This is one of my smaller sketch kits: black and white ink pens, a mechanical pencil, an eraser. One pen is missing, because I used it to make this sketch.