Supplemental Mixed-Media Kit Refresh

 

Multiple bag dumps

After writing yesterday’s post, I realized there was no reason to wait to pare down my mixed-media kit if I had any intention of using it in the field again. First, I did a multiple-bag dump: All the mixed-media tools I had assembled at my reading chair (for doomscrolling prevention), all the materials I had recently brought on location and found to be too much, and the color portion of my usual daily-carry. The first two batches are shown in the photo above.

Shown below is the color part of my current daily-carry, which is mostly the same as the wacky palette I had assembled a few weeks ago (with the optimistic addition of pink after I spotted plum blossoms last week!). Not shown are the brush pen, marker, white Gelly Roll and waterbrush that rarely change.

The color part of my everyday-carry. (Apologies for the uneven lighting in today's photos. It's the one drawback of my current studio downstairs compared to the former studio upstairs: I can't find a spot where light isn't coming in from one window or another unless I remember to do all my photography in the early morning.)

Here are my selection strategies: The daily-carry must stand alone in terms of color range. Pencils are the most physically robust, lightweight and versatile, so they are still the mainstay.  

For the supplemental mixed-media kit that I bring along with a Hahnemühle sketchbook, I kept values and temperature in mind but did not strictly maintain a warm and a cool in lights, mediums and darks. If I have a hue in one medium, I don’t need a similar or identical one in another medium. I also considered all the colors in my daily-carry and tried not to duplicate anything there. Finally, I’m still choosing most hues that I wouldn’t typically see in my urban environment, just to stay awake and not color by autopilot.   

As much as I enjoy using Derwent Inktense Blocks, I recently broke another one without even dropping them, so I’ve decided they are too fragile for the road (unless I carry them in a heavy, clanky tin, which I have no intention of doing). Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayons and a few Derwent Drawing pencils are a good mix of water-soluble and non-soluble. Shown below is the newly slimmed-down supplemental kit.

Supplemental mixed-media kit

My tiny Sendak is too tiny for all of these, so I’m back to my Rickshaw Sinclair pen case, which I used briefly last summer to carry Neo II crayons (below). It’s not ideal, but it will do for now.

The Neo II crayons fit in a single row. I'm hoping that will keep them from being too bulky and also keep them from falling down horizontally, which makes them much harder to dig out.

My Rickshaw Sinclair

This process required much hemming and hawing. However, my everyday-carry kit had been stable for a long time before this recent rekindling of mixed-media interest. I admit that I enjoyed this first-world drama.

Incidentally, if you are part of the stationery universe, you’re probably familiar with the Japanese term techo kaigi (literally “planner meeting”: a meeting with yourself about your planner). It refers to the process of reflecting on one’s planners and notebooks to help decide which products and how to use them in the upcoming year. We urban sketchers need our own term for the similar process we go through constantly with our sketch kits. Sketchy media kaigi? Art material kaigi? Portable kit kaigi? Not too catchy. Let me know if you have ideas.