How cozy and thoughtfully put together! I adore the way of taking loose sheets of paper with you, in lieu of a sketchbook. This setup reminds me of how a character in a Ghibli film would go out for a day of creating art. 🥰
I have a similar setup in my sketching kit but instead of using two plastic boards I use a folding nurse clipboard made of aluminum. It folds in A5 size and it can hold paper up to A4 size that is more than enough for my sketches. I'm usually sketching on A5 papers or alternatively the 1/8th of a full watercolour paper sheet that is about 19x13 cm. Somewhat smaller than A5. I attach my palette and my water container with a similar way.
Great ideas thank you Vika. For an even lighter 'seat' I use a sheet of bubble wrap. You can use it if the wall/bench is damp, or you can have it as a sort of table to spread things out on if the ground is wet. Also, if you found you wanted an additional mixing space you can use a metal lid from say a jam jar or smaller jar which the magnets will of course hold in place.
I have a very similar setup. Online, I bought a business card case with a magnetic bottm an 14 half pans of water color. I take a 4 x 4 sketchbook or other small sketchbooks as I like making stories. They are not a specific story or stories, but I lose loose paper. 2 Aqua brushes, a flat and standard brush, a misting bottle, and a needle top bottle to refill the brushes or mister. An HB Staedler Mars mechanical pencil, Micron PN archival pen, and a Uniball fine point pen, both have waterproof ink, a kneaded eraser, and a pencil white eraser. Also, a regular pencil sharpener when I carry color pencils and a tiny pencil sharpener for the mechanical pencil. Sometimes, I carry a 5 x 7 clip board and 2 binder clips. I've either packed these in a Mead pencil case that opens flat with various pockets and a zipper closure. Or I can pack these into the center section of my small purse. These are always with me, and I use them anytime I'm waiting for an appointment or food service at a restaurant.
It's hilarious how similar our kits are. I still use a book rather than a single sheet of paper, but otherwise, we have the same kit! Im curious to see if it has evolved since this video was posted 11 months ago.
Thanks for the video! I want to get into doing watercolor again and want it to be easy to take out and put away my stuff. I'm in a tiny apartment, so I can't leave it out. "travel" set ups give me great ideas for how to make them small, stowable, and yet usable!
This is wonderfully efficient and the only way I can think to improve it is threading some elastic loops onto the back in some way that would make it more comfortable to hold onto it for a long time if you were standing. It is cool that you carry a light sitting mat.😊
I've gotten to where I use a waterbrush in the same way as a regular brush. For whatever reason, I run out of water in the brush, probably because of cleaning colors from the brush as I go along. So I tend to do the brush in water and also squeeze the barrel.
Same here! I do sometimes wash the waterbrush with the water from the barrel when there is a light color on the brush for example, but when the paint is heavy or stainy it's just easier to wash it in a cup
I was not expecting this kind of travel kit at all, so different and functional! I love to see the sketchers creativity looking for practical solutions 😄 Thank you for sharing Vika! I definetily will try something like this
Thank you for this video! I find the large Pentel brush works well for water control as well, it’s actually the smallest Pentel size where water flows out very quickly whenever the brushes are on the paper, even without squeezing.
Hi Feta! And thank you for sharing your experience! Interesting, I used all their sizes and didn't have this issue, but maybe that was some kind of luck as I do hear artist mentioning this issue often!
Great video!! I've been watching a lot of sketching setup's for a few days now and this one has been the most useful when it comes to the drawing board!! I'm leaving for a in three weeks and I've been trying to get a good idea on how to make a drawing board in time for it, this helped immensely 💚💚
This is a tidy and functional set up. I'm starting to feel the same way about sketchbooks too, but I have two on the go to finish! I've been experimenting with various minimal palettes for a while, but I haven't found my preferred combination yet, so I tend to take a larger palette of 12 full-pan colours in a white plastic St. Petersburg travel palette. My current colours are: Quinacridone Rose - D.S. Transparent Red Oxide - D.S. Ultramarine Blue - D.S. Cerulean Blue Chromium - D.S. Hansa Yellow Medium - QoR New Gamboge - D.S. Undersea Green - D.S. Phthalo Yellow Green - D.S. Mars Brown - White Nights Joseph Z's Cool Grey - D.S. Quinacridone Sienna - D.S. Perylene Violet - D.S. As the mixing space is limited, I take a couple of tin lids to use for additional mixing space. Although, if I take a larger palette with more mixing space, then there's no need for the tin lids. I take way too many extra brushes and pens, so that's something I can cut down on. My water cup is one of those collapsible Derwent cups, which I like for the volume of water it hold. I'll usually be caring a 1L water bottle anyway, because I live in Madrid where it is almost always very dry. My paper board is now a sandwich of two boards with a space between them where I store the loose sheets of watercolour paper - usually Arches or Hahnemüelle 300g/m2 rough and smooth options. I'm thinking of attaching some kind of clasp to hold it with one hand if I don't have anywhere to support it properly. I don't think my set up is particularly minimal, but it is a lot easier to stuff into a small bag and carry around on my bike or when walking. It's light and easy to set up quickly.
Hey Mark, thank you so much for your detailed comment, so great to learn about your setup! Good luck finishing 2 sketchbooks!! My first pallette for outside painting was actually 12well white nights one! Really liked it at the time. Great color choices for your palette, been wanting to try out at transp. red oxide and definitely undersea green!! Good idea on brining extra mixing space, I also used tin lids for when I sketched in museums and tin means it can work with magnets so it is always a plus Understand your choice of a collapsible cup (I have one from fabell castel, use it at home mainly), especially if you work on cotton paper you would need enough water for that Your setup and ideas sound great, and the sketching kits would also be different depending on the style of sketching etc the main thing that it is convenient for the artist!
Thank you so much for sharing this 🤩 this is very helpful!! I just started taking some watercolor classes and it was my first time painting outside so my setup was very chaotic and unpractical and I have everything all over the place 😅, and I was looking ideas for something without having to carry a lot of things, simple, functional and practical and this is perfect 🙌🏻
What are great lightweight kit! I've been working on trimming down my sketching kit, and recently switched to using single sheets. I currently use an old clipboard to hold the loose sheets, but I'm definitely going to switch to your dual painting board setup.
I couldn't believe how much better it was with just using the sheets! I also used a clipboard for some time and it worked great for me too! Hope you try out this "new" version of painting board and find it convenient! Would love to hear your impressions after you try it out!
I fill a small squeeze bottle with pointy tip to refill my travel water brushes. It’s called a “Unicorn Bottle” they are long and slender with a long slender pointed tip. They are refillable and hold enough water for a couple refills already with you :-)
@@vikakvasnik1581 if you have a Vape Shop in your area, they will likely have some you could purchase or maybe even give you for free. I give them out to customers who need them because we buy them in bulk at my shop. I hope you find some and enjoy using them!
That painting board looks awesome! Do you remember what strength were the magnets or would just any work? Also, even more importantly, do you have the dimensions for the artboard and the clips? Your setup looks so awesome so I'd love to replicate it almost exactly. ❤
Hi there, thank you for your comment and questions! I got just first sticky magnets I could find, it should be ok hopefully. The board dimensions are 20*26 cm. Good luck!
I don't unfortunately have a video going through the process step by step, but I have a more detailed video about this palette where I share some ideas on what I was doing, maybe this would be helpful. I think it's linked to this video - if not just scroll some videos back and it will be there! Hope it's helpful!
Thank you! The flat brush was by Nevskaya Palitra, but I believe they just brand waterbrushes produced in China or Korea, so if Nevskaya Palitra is not available you could search and try some similar ones
Hi Linda and thank you! When I sketch outside I tend to use cellulose paper, when painting at home I use both cellulose and cotton. My fav cellulose paper is Canson Montval - if you want to know more details - I added a text in the video of the exact papers/parameters I have in the kit - somewhere in the section where I talk about paper
Hmm. The only way to wash the colour out of a water brush is to squeeze the water out…unless you have a water pot, in which case you may just as well use a regular brush anyway. They give better control. Also..you don’t need a pipette or some fancy thing to fill a water brush. Either hold it under a tap or squeeze it and dip the end in water, then release the squeeze…it will suck water into the handle.
Ho Roger, sure, all valid points, you don't need any fancy or special things to go out and sketch. I was just sharing some tips that made the process more convenient for me and maybe could be useful for someone else as well out there. Regarding waterbrush, of course you can just squeeze it to wash it out, however sometimes you sketch in places when you can't do that, like in museums or other closed spaces, so this is where having a little water container comes handy to manage that. Cheers