Minimal Sketch Kit: A Personal Challenge

My current daily-carry sketch kit.

After reading my review of Mike Daikubara’s book in which he talks quite a bit about maintaining a minimal sketch kit, a blog reader asked me what my minimal sketch kit would be. Believe it or not, I have tried to answer this question for myself many times, at least in theory. However, I can’t say I’ve ever answered it in practice – at least for more than a day or so.

The photo above shows my current daily-carry sketch kit. Although I’ve carried much more at times, my current kit could hardly be called minimal. (If you do a search on my blog for “bag dump,” you’ll see variations of the contents through the years.) I don’t ever need all of these supplies every day, but since I never know what subject matter I’ll encounter or what I’ll feel like sketching on any given day (and this is doubly true when I travel), I always feel a need to carry everything – just in case. And more to the point, I don’t want to stop and choose which materials to bring each time I go out, because that just adds to the general maintenance and overhead of sketching. I want to grab and go each time I step out the door, and this kit serves me well that way.

Nonetheless, I do think often about lightening my load and streamlining my supplies, especially when I’m due to travel, but also here at home. So, my reader’s question prompted me to review the various ways I’ve tried to answer it for myself.

The one time I really don’t want to be encumbered with a bag is when I go out fitness walking around Green Lake, which I’ve been doing regularly for nearly 30 years. Until I started sketching, I carried nothing but my phone, ID and keys on these walks. You can read about the event that eventually prompted me to carry a minimal sketch kit while fitness walking; here’s what it looks like:

My fitness-walking kit

 The contents change from time to time, but in general, the kit consists of a small notebook and two or three pens.

When I began using Field Notes notebooks for quick, casual sketches, I started thinking about the concept of a minimal sketch kit further, and I realized that my choice of media was determined by my choice of small notebook. Depending on which one I used – one with red paper, one with bright orange paper, or one with white paper – I could choose one or two pens appropriate for the paper. That’s fairly minimal as well as compact, just like my fitness-walking kit, but I also find the page size limiting. (I do carry and use a Field Notes daily, but only in addition to the rest of my kit – not instead of.) Here are a few variations:

Field Notes Sweet Tooth, white Gelly Roll, Franklin-Christoph fude fountain pen

EEEK Field Notes, white Derwent colored pencil, white Gelly Roll, Copic brush pen

Dime Novel Field Notes and Zebra brush pen

Dime Novel Field Notes

Of course, I know it’s possible to streamline even further, and a couple of months ago I set out to prove it to myself by taking nothing but a slim, A5-size notebook and a pencil to the park. If my goal is to simply capture daily scenes from my mundane life, a pencil and paper could easily serve that need. Who needs all that color anyway? (I can hear you laughing all the way from here.) Well, that lasted only for the one trip to the park, but it was a good theory. Again, I do regularly use that particular notebook (a Baron Fig Vanguard) with a single pencil, but I carry them in addition to everything else – not in place of.

Baron Fig Vanguard and Blackwing pencil

When I started using a new Stillman & Birn Nova sketchbook with toned paper a couple of months ago, I realized it could be the centerpiece for a nicely streamlined sketch kit. A brush pen or gray toned markers, a white pencil or gel pen for highlights, and a couple of colored pencils for spot color were all I needed.

Stillman & Birn Nova sketchbook, brush pen, fountain pen, colored pencils

Of course, then the trees started turning, and I got frustrated that the brightest, boldest urban palette I can use all year seemed dull on gray paper, so I quickly put away the Nova and went back to my standard white paper – and all 25 colored pencils as usual.

Every sketch kit begins with paper: The sketchbook you choose sets the stage and determines all the other choices you make. For example, if you choose a small notebook with thin paper that can’t stand up to any media other than pencil, that would make an ideally minimal kit. If the book has red paper, then you don’t need color – a black and a white pen will do – another minimal kit.

My problem is that for most of the years I’ve been sketching, I’ve been making my own sketchbooks with paper I chose specifically to hold up to as many wet and dry media as possible. Although not of the highest quality, Canson XL 140-pound watercolor paper can take everything I’ve ever tried with it – watercolor paints, watercolor pencils, traditional colored pencils, inks (applied with a pen or a waterbrush), graphite, brush pens, India ink, and water applied with a brush or sprayer. Since the paper accommodates everything well, I have a challenging time eliminating media options. And that’s how I end up with a relatively hefty, non-streamlined kit. 

Not exactly minimal.

I’m motivated to simplify my kit, but I know I wouldn’t last long using only a pencil, or even only a red Field Notes and brush pen. I’m thinking I’d do better with a kit somewhere in between. What about that toned Stillman & Birn? I’ve been intending to give it another try anyway once the dead gray of winter settles in, and I’m mostly sketching indoors. So here’s my plan: Come January when the red Santas and green wreaths are a fond memory in the white pages of my usual DIY sketchbook, I’ll switch to the tan S&B Nova. At the same time, I’ll streamline my tools to a half-dozen (or so) colored pencils, a pen, a couple of gray markers and a white pencil. And I’ll commit to that kit until the book is full (or until the cherry blossoms bloom, if that comes first! Every promise has a cherry blossom clause). It’ll be my version of a New Year’s resolution (which I otherwise never make).

Minimal Sketch Kit Challenge Begins

The most minimal sketch kit I've ever used for daily-carry!

For the past month or more, I’ve been thinking about streamlining my sketch kit (at least temporarily). My goal was to begin in January when I was done with festive holiday colors, but I finished filling a signature of my usual DIY sketchbook at Swanson’s last Friday, so I dumped out my bag the next day.  

As I mentioned in last month’s post, I think my sketch kit always begins with the sketchbook, which guides all the other choices. Without much expectation for color in these wet and gray months, it’s a good opportunity to give toned paper the solid trial I have been wanting to give it, so a 5 ½-by-8 ½ inch Stillman & Birn Nova is my sketchbook of choice. A few months ago I gave the gray one a shot for urban sketches, but I really enjoyed using the tan one for life drawing at Drawing Jam a few weeks ago (and more recently at Zoka Coffee). I’m starting this personal challenge with the tan one, but I may switch to gray if I feel like it, just for a change (all other tools would remain the same).

In the past when I’ve experimented with using a S&B softcover sketchbook as my daily-carry, I’ve found it to be bulkier than I like (especially compared to a single signature of paper, which is my usual daily-carry). But with all my colored pencils and other materials taken out, my bag has plenty of room for it.

In addition to a Nova as my primary sketchbook, I’m also carrying a small Field Notes notebook as always. Normally I prefer a red one, but since that’s basically toned paper too, it seems redundant during this challenge. I’m starting with a white one, which would give me different options while using the same tools.

As for those tools, here’s my carefully considered selection (from top):

• My usual Kum portable pencil sharpener.
• Viarco ArtGraf 6B water-soluble graphite pencil. I was tempted to put in a Gekkoso 8B or some other super-soft graphite to go with the Blackwing’s medium softness (the two together are a good pairing for value studies). But since the ArtGraf is water-soluble in addition to being dark and soft, it works double-duty, giving me more bang for the slim sketch kit buck.
• Chinese white Derwent drawing pencil – for soft highlights, especially on skin.
• White Gelly Roll gel pen – for shiny-bright highlights.
• Blackwing graphite pencil with the softest core (ungraded, but about 4B).
• Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen in a medium warm gray.
• Caran D’Ache Bicolor red/blue combo pencil. This combo pencil is my only color medium during this challenge! With two colors, it’s as compact and streamlined as I can get – and the cores are even water-soluble! While I’ve tried several novelty double-sided colored pencils, none have cores worth using. Intended for editing, this Caran d’Ache, however, contains the same high-quality water-soluble cores as its Supracolor line. (I sure wish Caran d’Ache would come out with a small set of double-sided pencils using Supracolor cores! That would be my colored pencil dream come true! See tomorrow’s post for more dreams.)
• Mini-size Kuretake waterbrush – to use with the water-soluble pencils.
• My favorite Sailor fountain pen with fude nib with water-soluble ink.
• Zebra (non-hairy) brush pen with waterproof ink.

My intention is to stick to this basic set of tools, but as with the sketchbook, I reserve the right to switch out one implement for another if something isn’t working as I had hoped. But I want to avoid thinking about the kit and switching materials every time I go out, because that would defeat my guiding principle of keeping things low-maintenance.

A prototype sketch kit case made by my favorite bag manufacturer.

These specific tools weren’t difficult to choose; most of them appear on my list of 2017 Top Products, so they are already time-tested and trusted. But there’s an important reason why I am committed to sticking with this particular number of tools: It’s exactly the number that fits in this beautiful case, which also has room for a Field Notes notebook or a 3 ½-by-5 ½ inch Stillman & Birn sketchbook. Slim and compact, it fits nicely in my bag. (It’s a prototype case that I’m testing for the manufacturer. It hasn’t been released publicly, so I’m not allowed to talk about it, but I’m really hoping it will eventually go into production.) The case is not just convenient and attractive; it’s also self-enforcing. If I want to put something new in, I must take something else out or it won’t fit. It’s going to keep me honest for this self-challenge.

Although bag weight is not a primary concern or motivator for this challenge, I have had shoulder issues in the past, so I do try to minimize the weight of my daily-carry in general (and especially when I travel). I weighed my bag with all my usual gear, and it came in at just under 4 pounds (1.78 kg). With my slimmed-down kit, my bag now weighs about 3 ¼ pounds (1.49 kg). I’m a bit surprised that it doesn’t weigh even less, but the S&B sketchbook weighs quite a bit more than a single DIY signature. 

That’s it – my super-minimal, daily-carry kit! I am committed to it until the S&B Nova sketchbook is full. And just because I know you’re curious, shown below are all the things I took out of my bag!

Ejected: 25 water-soluble colored pencils, 4 pens, 1 pencil, water spritzer, 4 brushes. The two black cases hold the implements upright inside my bag.

Will I miss all my colors and other materials and regret this challenge? Or will I realize I can do without a lot of stuff permanently? We’ll both find out! Anyone want to join me in this quest for minimalism? (Don’t worry – it’s just temporary. 😉)

Edited 2/19/18: Find out about the results of my two-month minimalism challenge!

Minimized and Matchy: Rickshaw Sinclair Model R

 

Matchy, matchy!

For several years, I challenged myself annually for a month or so to slim down my sketch kit to the bare essentials. The purpose of this exercise was to lighten my daily-carry load and see how little I could take with me and still sketch without feeling deprived or frustrated. Readers have told me (and shown me with their page hits) that seeing my minimal sketch kits is one of their favorite things on my blog. Something about attempts at minimizing seems to inspire many sketchers.

When the pandemic hit, I found myself doing most of my urban sketching during neighborhood fitness walks, which meant that I didn’t want to carry my entire, full-size sketch bag. Since my pandemic-edition sketch kit had become my daily-carry, my usual minimal challenge seemed unnecessary. By 2021, I was sketching beyond the neighborhood again, but I continued the habit of sketching during my fitness walks (a habit that continues to this day – one of the best things to come out of the pandemic). Again, I didn’t feel like a minimal challenge was necessary.

The primary triad palettes I used during the summer and now the secondary triads I am using this fall have given me a new twist on minimalism. Even when I’m working with a minimal palette, I  usually still carry the other colors as a security blanket. My bag shakeout a month ago made me commit to the minimal secondary palette and take out the security colors. The kit was slim enough that I could fit everything into my mini Sendak instead of the full-size Sendak I had been using.

My minimal pencil palette fits easily in the outer slash pocket. 

Here’s the next step in my bag diet program: Everything in my current kit fits into my new Rickshaw Bags Sinclair Model R pen case! Launched at the San Francisco Pen Show in August, the Model R was offered for a discounted intro price. A collaboration between Brad Dowdy of the former Nock Co. and Rickshaw, the new Sinclair is a clear improvement over its previous design – cushier interior, a new outer pocket and, most important to me, more fabric choices. I chose the Ink Dots fabric pattern because it includes colors that would coordinate with any of my Rickshaw bags (so far, I have bags in purple, another purple, black, pink, neon pink and red). I just switched from my pink spring/summer bag to my fall/winter waterproof purple bag, which has a bright yellow lining.

Although it most often appears in marketing and social media photos filled with fountain pens (the cushy lining is meant to protect them), the Sinclair Model R is not just for precious fountain pens – it’s a great little sketch kit organizer! That new slash pocket is just right for my minimal pencil palette, and the inner compartments hold the rest of my kit comfortably. With such a small kit, the entire bag is lighter and slimmer.

An essential characteristic of any bag organizer I would use is that the Model R can stand upright inside my bag, giving me immediate, single-handed access to my tools while sketching as I stand. If I’m sketching at the comfort of a café table, I can pull the whole thing out, and it takes up little tabletop space.

Two cushy inner compartments easily contain the rest of my sketch materials and tools, and everything stands upright and accessible in my bag.

A compact kit for a cafe table.

I’m sure it’s not a permanent change. As has always happened in the past, more tools and colors will creep back in over time, and one day I’ll decide it’s time to get out the fat pants again (in this case, that’s one of the Sendaks, which, unlike fat pants, are a welcome pleasure). But for now, my personal minimalism challenge is back on – with my smallest tool organizer yet.

Minimalism 2019 Begins!

Slim, trim and minimized!

Who made a resolution to lose some weight? I did, but not from my body – just my bag!

About a year ago, I challenged myself to put my sketch kit on an extreme diet for a limited time. I had two goals: Learn what it was like to use minimal materials and also lighten the load on my shoulder. Two months later, I learned a lot from thinking in different ways when I didn’t have every tool or color at my disposal. A few things that came out of my kit for the challenge were never replaced because I realized I could live without them (unfortunately, other things crept in throughout the year since).

I’ve decided to make it an annual winter self-challenge, and this year it began Jan. 2. I’ve committed to sticking with my minimal kit through the end of January (possibly longer, depending on how I’m feeling about it by then).

 

Contents of my minimal kit

Shown above is my slimmed-down kit, which contains (from left):

• 4 water-soluble Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle and Supracolor colored pencils (secondary triad plus warm gray)
• 1 water-soluble Caran d’Ache blue/red bicolor pencil
• 1 Blackwing graphite pencil
• 1 waterbrush (I swapped a full-length brush for the compact size to fit in the case)
• 1 waterproof Zebra brush pen
• 1 Faber-Castell Pitt Big Brush marker (warm gray IV)
• 1 white colored pencil
• 1 white Gelly Roll gel pen
• Kneadable eraser
• A small Rickshaw pen case to hold all of the above (this prototype design has not been released publicly).
• Not shown: My usual sharpener and a red Field Notes Sweet Tooth notebook, which I’ll still use during the challenge. (It’s become such an essential part of my daily-carry that I forgot that it’s technically part of the sketch kit, too.)

Last year my only color for a while was the blue/red bicolor, and I found that the palette was too limiting, so this year I added a secondary triad: orange, medium green and dark purple. I love using a secondary-triad palette, but I haven’t done much with it since my trip to Italy, so this seemed like a good opportunity.

You’re probably looking at the photo and wondering, What about a sketchbook? That’s a key question because the sketchbook can be the heaviest part of any sketch kit. Last year I used a Stillman & Birn Nova softcover sketchbook, and the beige paper was ideal for a limited-color palette. But it’s also significantly thicker and heavier than my usual handmade signatures of paper, so although my tools and other materials were lighter, the Nova added some weight back in.

I've stitched thin, lightweight signatures from these papers.

Giving all of that experience lengthy consideration, this year I decided to continue using my usual super-slim and lightweight handmade signatures (you can see how thin it is in this post), but I’m also giving myself more options. I stitched one using paper from a 9-by-12-inch S&B Nova spiralbound edition. Throughout the month, I can choose among my usual 140-pound Canson XL watercolor paper (for use with water-soluble colored pencils), Strathmore Bristol smooth (with graphite), and Stillman & Birn beige (when I’m in the mood for toned paper). Even carrying two at a time is still lighter than a bound sketchbook, so I expect these signatures to serve me well.

Despite the narrow selection, at least some tools and materials can be used with any paper I choose, so when I leave the house to sketch, I only have to consider the paper – not the rest of the materials. I’ll probably carry the Canson XL watercolor paper as the default and choose the others sporadically.

Initially I had hoped to slim down even more by switching to a smaller bag. Although I made a valiant effort to eliminate some elements from my non-sketch-related everyday-carry items (typical purse stuff), I just couldn’t make it work comfortably. I was able to jam it all in, but then it was so tight that I knew I would struggle each time I reached into it. Still, I’m happy to have reduced the weight of my usual bag by nearly 20 percent:

Bag before diet: 4 lbs.
Bag during minimal challenge: 3 lbs., 4 oz.

My everyday-carry Rickshaw bag and the pen case that holds my sketch kit.

I took my svelte bag out for a first sketch a few days ago to see if I needed to make adjustments. The secondary triad is going to take some getting used to (in the house sketch at top of page, I had to mix orange with warm gray to get the wood tone for the door – a hue I usually carry in one handy pencil), but I thoroughly enjoy the challenge of mixing colors from a limited palette.

Below are all the things I jettisoned from my bag, at least for the duration of the challenge. Like last year, though, I intend to consider each item very carefully before it goes back in!

Here's all the weight my bag lost!

Top view: Slim and trim, even when filled with my usual "purse stuff."

2021 Minimalism Challenge: Most Extreme Ever

 

Downsized! Here's the sketcher's-eye-view of my extremely slimmed-down sketch kit.

Every winter since 2018 I’ve challenged myself to minimize and simplify my sketch kit (here are reports from other years: 2019, 2020). Not intended as a permanent kit change, the challenge usually lasts about a month during the most colorless time of year. Though it is occasionally frustrating, I enjoy the opportunity to clean out my kit and remove inessentials. With fewer materials to choose from, I look at my sketch opportunities with a fresh eye. Of course, after the end of each challenge, more materials inevitably creep back in, but not without a critical evaluation of whether they would earn their long-term keep in my bag.

This year, because my pandemic edition sketch kit is already smaller and pared down, I was tempted to skip the challenge – how much slimmer could my sketch kit possibly be? But then I looked at it critically one day, and I had to admit that quite a few things kept appearing over the summer and fall during the best color months. The kit could certainly stand to lose a few tools. It was time for a minimalism challenge after all.

A bit over-stuffed.

Before: Everything that was in my daily-carry kit.

And minimal it is – perhaps the most extreme kit ever (below). The kit’s focal point is a new rendition of a very old-school tool: the classic Bic 4-Color ballpoint pen, but with a twist – it comes with a mechanical pencil unit. I’ll be writing a full review of this fun tool soon, but for now, I’ll just say that the addition of the pencil makes it an interesting and functional Swiss army knife of ballpoint ink (red, blue and black) and graphite.

After (from left): Bic 4-Color, Caran d'Ache Bicolor, Uni Pin brush pen, Gelly Roll, Derwent
Drawing Pencil, all contained in Rickshaw Waldo field case.

I thought very carefully about color. Of course, I always want all hues, but which colors would be important in conveying meaning in an otherwise monochrome sketch? In my limited geographic sketching area, the only colors I felt that way about are heavy equipment yellow and traffic cone orange. I judiciously picked out the yellow/orange Caran d’Ache Bicolor pencil and called it good.

The Uni Pin brush-tip marker, white Sakura Gelly Roll gel pen and white Derwent drawing pencil made the final cut because I use them whenever I sketch in a red Sweet Tooth Field Notes, which is still one of my favorite fast-sketch approaches.

Slim and trim.

To keep myself honest, I went through my stash of bag accessories and found a bright pink Rickshaw Bags Waldo field case that I had received as a gift a while back. It’s a slightly smaller version of the one I used all last year in my pandemic kit. There’s a bit of space to spare, but not much, so it will prevent too many tools from sneaking in. (I mostly live in yoga pants these days, but every couple weeks, I put on my jeans to make sure I still can. Same concept.)

A tough but significant decision was to use dry materials only. (The Caran d’Ache Bicolor is water-soluble, but I’m using it dry.) This simplifies the kit significantly: I could eliminate both the waterbrush and the spritzing bottle. This also means paper quality is no longer an issue, so I can use any simple sketchbook or notebook. I took out the pocket-size Stillman & Birn Beta book that had been my daily-carry in the fall and replaced it with a slimmer Field Notes Signature. Although the latter’s paper has let me down with light washes, I enjoy using its slightly larger page size with all dry materials. The red Field Notes is already a daily-carry alternative to any white paper book I carry.

Sketchbooks: two Field Notes options

1/25/21 First sketch with the spartan kit

Too spartan? Probably. But it will be fun to find out how long I last and what I can’t live without. I took my ultra-lite kit out for a trial run the other day. News flash: ballpoint ink doesn’t blend well with colored pencil. And I’d like to get a softer lead for the mechanical pencil. It’s an interesting combo, though. Stay tuned for updates.

Sketch Kit Diet: Lighter, Slimmer, More Essential

Svelte and ready for action.

My minimal sketch kit challenge is done, and it taught me many things – not the least of which is that I appreciate a lighter bag, and I don’t need as many colors or tools as I always think I do. I intended the experiment to be temporary – I didn’t want to be colorless forever – but I also didn’t want to simply shove all the stuff I used to carry back into my bag.

I dumped every minimal item I’ve been carrying the past two months as well as every item I had taken out before the challenge and laid them all out on my desk. Some things were easy to eliminate because I didn’t miss them at all during the past two months – an extra waterbrush, two brush pens, a second Pitt tonal marker. Of course, some things, like the spray bottle and traditional brush for spreading sprayed water, are used only with water-soluble colored pencils, so without the latter, I had no use for them. With all of that in mind, I evaluated each pencil, pen and brush by asking it this question: Will you earn your keep – enough to make me want to carry you every day?

The items you see in the photo above made the final cut. All items that were in my minimal kit remained except the rainbow pencil. To that, I added:

• A second fountain pen containing waterproof ink (the one with water-soluble ink in my minimal kit served me fine without color, but when I start using water-soluble colored pencils again, I’ll want one with waterproof ink, too)
• A second waterbrush (the smaller size is handy for details)
• The spray bottle (for my spritzing technique)
• A traditional brush (for spreading sprayed water on the page)
• 14 water-soluble colored pencils. Previously, I carried 25. I chose the 14 colors judiciously based on the current season (the pink one for plum and cherry blossoms is overly optimistic, I know, but I need something to hope for) here at home. When I travel this spring and summer, I’m sure I’ll need to change the palette for the locations. But here’s a bonus: I eliminated enough colored pencils that I now have space in my Tran Portfolio Pencil Case for several other implements (with slots to spare!). This compression enabled me to eliminate one of two Lihit Lab Slim Pen Cases I had been using to organize the other implements. The result is a less bulky bag.
• Not shown: My usual signature of paper in place of the Stillman & Birn sketchbook.

It’s easily apparent that once I added color back in, the tools that support it (brushes, sprayer, waterproof ink) also had to be included. But I’m pleased to say that several items proved to be excess, and they didn’t make the cut.

With that strict diet, how much weight did my bag lose?

Bag before diet: just under 4 lbs. (1.78 kg)

Bag during minimal challenge: 3 lbs., 4 oz. (1.49 kg)

Bag after diet: 3 lbs., 11 oz. (1.67 kg)

Net weight loss: 4 ounces (0.11 kg)

Even with the addition of watercolor pencils, the tools needed to support them, and the two bag organizers (Tran Portfolio and Lihit Lab), my bag weighs only 7 ounces (0.18 kg) more than it did with my minimal kit. A significant factor is the sketchbook itself: A signature of paper (four folded sheets of 140-pound watercolor paper) is much lighter than the softcover Stillman & Birn. As much as I enjoyed using the S&B Nova, that difference in weight is a worthwhile tradeoff. I’m going to continue rolling my own (that’s the same conclusion I came to when I tried the S&B softcover a couple of years ago).

Here’s how everything looks in the newly arranged organizers:

Trim and tidy.

And here’s the pre-diet kit:

Too many cookies over the holidays.

“But I Might Need it”: How to Downsize Your Kit

2013 (Note the spare ink cartridges and multiple waterbrushes)

Long-time readers of this blog have seen my sketch kit get smaller over the years. Sometimes the reduction was only temporary, and more materials eventually crept back in. Sometimes the reduction was only hypothetical (search the term “Gilligan’s Island” on my blog, and you’ll find many examples of how I’d pack my kit for that fateful “three-hour tour”).

It took a global pandemic to shrink my sketch kit permanently. Once I got used to a daily-carry bag that was small and light enough to take fitness walks with, there was no going back. Even when I occasionally missed the so-called “full arsenal,” I enjoyed the liberty of lightness too much.

2015

Seeing my compact bag and kit, other sketchers have exclaimed that they’d like to get their own sketch kits (hauled in a huge backpack or wheeled bag) down to a more manageable size, but they just haven’t figured out how. Peering into their bags, I can see that they continuously carry items they “might need,” yet they confess they have not used them in months/years/decades. (By the way, all of this resonates with general downsizing of an entire home, if you catch my drift.)

I’ve noticed that often the people who seem overburdened by their loads are the same people who lament that they don’t get out to sketch as much as they’d like. Hmmm . . . ya think there’s a connection?

2016 (This was my most mixed-media year! I loved fountain pens,
markers, watercolors, watercolor pencils and brush pens, and darned
if I wasn't going to bring them all to the Manchester symposium!

While it’s none of my business how much stuff others want to haul around, I believe strongly that anything that keeps you from sketching as much (or as easily) as you’d like is a problem. The objective is to sketch, and we shouldn’t let carrying our materials keep us from that objective. (For that matter, we shouldn’t let owning too many materials keep us from that objective. See: downsizing.)

I’ve been thinking for a while about writing this post, and my recent visit to Poulsbo when I inadvertently left behind my auxiliary tote bag reminded me of the very points I wanted to make in such a post (and I had to listen to my own lecture that day). The first bullet point is my guiding principle for carrying less. The other points are suggestions on ways to downsize:

2018 (disregard the numbers; they refer to a different post)

• Having fewer options “forces” more creative solutions. A favorite example is when I was sketching a fire station during a minimalism challenge – and I had no red! How could I possibly sketch a fire station without red? Ta-da – my four-color ballpoint pen (which I keep in my bag for general notetaking, not sketching) came to my rescue.
• A friend and I just had a conversation about how the 80/20 rule applies to sketch kits: We all use about 20 percent of our materials 80 percent of the time. That rule applies even with my minimal kit. Consider which items you use 80 percent of the time and remove the rest.
• Whatever is your color medium of choice, choose a minimal palette – say, six to 10 colors. Esthetically, a limited palette looks more cohesive. It also encourages mixing and experimenting with hues that at first may not seem “right.” Some of my favorite sketches have been primary and secondary triad experiments. One time, I was dismayed that my limited palette didn’t include the right periwinkle hue to sketch a Bachelor’s Button. I was “forced” to optically mix some unexpected colors, and I was delighted with the result.

• 

  2021 (This version of my pandemic kit was minimal even for me!)

  Stop prepping for every possible sketch “emergency.” I used to carry a small pencil sharpener routinely. It’s tiny and doesn’t weigh much, so it seemed like an easy carry. The one or two times I actually needed it, though, it was lost at the bottom of my bag. It wasn’t worth the bother of digging it out. I finally took the sharpener out and instead use other sharpeners at home that do the job more effectively.
• Along the same lines, stop carrying “spares” of favorite materials. This was a biggie whenever I traveled. I knew I couldn’t just go back home to get more, and local stores might not carry exactly what I needed, so I always carried extras (pencils, pens, ink refills, entire sketchbooks) of things I felt I couldn’t live without. Almost always, I brought them all home again without using them. On all my post-pandemic trips (Dallas, Portland and L.A.), I cut the cord on spares. Guess what? I lived!

(Shown in this post are a few of my sketch kits over the years. For a look at all past sketch kits and bags, see my Sketch Kit Archive page.)

Current: lean and mean