When is a travel kit too small?

On a recent trip to Chicago, I met up with Gail Dokucu, a newly-appointed administrator for the local Urban Sketchers group. Since I was carrying everything in a backpack (clothes, toiletries, and art supplies), I decided to trim down my travel sketch kit to save on volume and weight. My traditional travel kit (shown on the left) includes a Strathmore mixed media journal, Daniel Smith 15 half-pan watercolor box, waterbrush, Tombow markers, Micron pens, pencil, kneaded eraser, a water spritzer, and a foldable seat cushion. For my simple kit (shown on the right), I took a 3x5 field notebook, a mini-set of brush markers, a water-soluble gray ink pen, and a waterbrush. While I opted not to take a watercolor kit, I still wanted the ability to add a little color to my sketches, so I took along 2 Neocolor watercolor crayons.

Before meeting Gail, I found a nice little sketch spot at the Corner Bakery Cafe on Jackson. This particular cafe looks into the 2-story lobby of the historic Railway Exchange building with its large staircase, second floor balcony, and steel-framed atrium. Unfortunately, when I met up with Gail, I spent most of our time talking and touring the building.

So how did I like my slimmed down kit?

Pros:  It was fun sketching in a tiny notebook and I will probably start carrying one with me wherever I go. While the paper in most field notebooks won’t hold up to a lot of water, it seemed to do just fine with the bit of moisture from my waterbrush. Dragging the waterbrush across my water-soluble gray ink lines and watercolor crayon shaded areas is a simple way to create a little depth and interest in my pictures.

Cons:  I missed my watercolor palette A LOT. I went back to the Chicago Cultural Center the next day and just could not capture the richness of that architecture (especially the tiled mosaics) with blue and pink crayons. My Pitt brush pens seemed much more pigmented than my Tombow markers, plus they were not water-soluble. I know some sketchers create gorgeous gray-scale drawings with Pitt pens, but I haven’t developed that skill yet.

So, in conclusion, when traveling I’ll probably stick with my original kit and leave a t-shirt or some other item of clothing at home to compensate for the extra weight and volume. After all, we artists have to have our priorities.