Updated May 2013
After nearly a year of trying out many art materials, sketch
kit setups and bags, I simplified my system to one bag (and the occasional vest and ultra-minimalist kit). I’ve updated this page to reflect my current favorite
materials, but the former page still remains as an Archive.
Please see these posts for my reviews or commentary of some products listed below:
Tina's 2012 Top 10 (my favorites of the year)
Tina's Bottom 10 (including reasons for detesting these products)
An Urban Palette (my selection of Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers)
The Ongoing Evolution of a Mint Tin Watercolor Kit (its continually changing paints and forms)
Putting My Bag on a Diet (getting down to the bare essentials to lighten the load)
(Note: For your convenience, I’ve included links below to online resources for my favorite art supplies, but please shop around for the best value. I am not affiliated with any of these retailers and will not receive a kickback, even though I should, since I give them so much of my money.)
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| Top view of Rickshaw bag. |
Sketch Bag
I no longer make a distinction between my everyday purse and my sketch bag. My current sketch bag/purse is a Rickshaw Bagworks Zero messenger bag, carried with me at all times the way I used to carry my purse, containing the following:
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| Contents of my Rickshaw bag. |
- Several Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush pens (see An Urban Palette for the specific colors)
- A few colors of Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer and/or Caran d’Ache Supracolor II water-soluble colored pencils
- Kuretake Fountain Brush Pen
- Uniball Signo opaque white gel pen
- Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Big Brush Pens in warm and cool gray tones
- Several Lamy Safari, Lamy Al-Star and Lamy Nexx fountain pens containing the following inks (see my blog post on how I came to select these inks):
Waterproof inks:
Water-soluble inks:
- Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens (sepia, superfine)
- Kuretake waterbrushes (small, medium, large) (For an excellent article comparing various waterbrushes, please see Russel Stutler's website.)
- Self-made mint tin watercolor sketch kit and mixing palette
- Pencil sharpener
- Cretacolor Nero extrasoft pencil
- Plastic ruler
- Paper towels
- Handmade Greeting Card Sketchbook
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One of the following sketchbooks (why I use so many sketchbooks simultaneously is explained in this blog post):
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Landscape-format watercolor sketchbook (Moleskine or Pentalic), 5” x 8”
- Portrait-format Stillman & Birn sketchbook, 8.5” x 5.5”
- Eyeglasses
- Water bottle
When fitness-walking, I never used to take sketching gear of any kind. But ever since I wanted to capture an elusive gray heron I spotted at Green Lake, I’ve been taking my ultra-minimalist sketch kit.
This kit is currently housed in a Travelon Convertible Travel Wallet, which has (though barely) enough space for my smart phone and keys too, so it’s actually a serviceable bag. It contains:
- a Lamy fountain pen filled with water-soluble ink
- Handmade Greeting Card Sketchbook or pocket-size Moleskine watercolor sketchbook
- Kuretake waterbrush
- Eyeglasses (with a dedicated space in the bag, the all-important glasses are no longer forgotten)
When I am in my studio (alas, the wet, dark and cold winter
is long in Seattle), I have at my disposal all of the above, plus:
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| My studio. |
I love your gear> Everything!
ReplyDeleteProbably I will ask you some suggestions on some of your equipment later, especially the marker and the Stillman & Birn sketchbooks.
And what an ordered and clean desktop... I will never had something like you! :)
Cheers,
Stefano
http://www.broworkshop.com/sketching/