The art of (art supply) packing with Citlaflor (part 2)
Sharing what we pack for a sketch outing - the medium and maximum sized edition
Last week Citla shared the first half of this series in her newsletter The Sketchbook Games. In that edition we both shared what we have in our basic art supply kit that we take out with us. We also share our mini kits, that we take when we know beforehand that we won’t have much time to sketch. In this edition we are going to look at our bigger kits, starting with the medium one which we take out when we definitely know we will be able to sketch and lastly we’ll share our maximum, everything but the kitchen sink, art supply kits, tailored for outings aimed at sketching as much as possible.
But first, a bit about Citlaflor:
Citlaflor, or Citla for short, is a multimedia artist and illustrator from Mexico who lives in Austria. Her life is as multifaceted as her array of art supplies. By day, Citla is immersed in the world of biotechnology research. However, once the lab coat comes off, her heart and mind are wholly devoted to the world of art, from drawing to painting and even exploring the world of ceramics. Through Citla’s newsletter, The Sketchbook Games, she shares her knowledge and enthusiasm for art with others. The newsletter is a place full of tips, techniques and inspiration; aimed at helping others discover and explore their artistic talents. It is separated into different art topics such as value, color, etc. Lately, the topic has been urban sketching, which is where the idea of comparing two artists’ ways of packing art kits came from. You can check out Citla’s newsletter here.
Citla’s medium sized kit
“My medium sized kit is an expansion of my mini and basic kits, but I add materials that uses water. These materials range from a small watercolour palette to my watercolour crayons like Neocolor II’s and my new favourite Jaxon’s Aquarell. As for the sketchbooks, I interchange them a lot. I always reach for my A5 Royal Talens, but as soon as I run out of them, I start looking for other options. I recently got a mini Muji sketchbook whose pages feel utterly fragile, but it actually holds a lot of materials. Expanding my kit also means I get to bring some watercolour markers. These waited a long time to be added to my kit, as it took me so long to figure out how to use them effectively. As for anything, I have most of the brands I see around, in this kit I have a couple of Tombow’s, but my favourites are the Faber Castell Albrecht Dührer and the Winsor and Newton Watercolor Promarkers.
To show you the complete colour palette I have in this kit, I have made a short one minute video swatching the materials.
Even though this kit seems very big, I rarely use all of it at once. I have noticed that I create small color palettes from this kit and use only a couple of materials at a time. This is because I can't always spend a long time painting outside but as soon as I get home I will experiment a bit more with everything I have and spend more time on it.”
Citla’s maximum sized kit
“Something similar happens to me with the extreme kit as with the medium one. I only use a smaller portion of my materials, the difference? I normally use gouache but I have an additional watercolor palette, just in case. It is funny, as soon as I have the freedom to grow my palette, I feel the need to paint more than to draw.
I normally use my col-erase pencil to make a sketch and then I start with the blobs of paint, in this regard I can work more with the shapes than with the details of what I am painting. The pencils become my biggest help but only after everything has dried; they allow me to play with different textures and shades.
Lately I added more acrylic markers to this kit, because I love the textures you can achieve with them, but I am not the biggest fan of all the colours I find around, so I mix my own colors and fill empty markers.
The cool thing about this kit? It all fits in one bag, even with a big sketchbook. Because of this and the fact that I have almost everything I want and need to paint, this has been my favourite art kit when I am at home, or when I go on holidays and I can bring lots of things.
For this extreme size kit I did not make a video showing you all the colours in it, because it might be a bit too much, but here is a piece I made with this huge kit:”
Nino’s medium and maximum art supply kits
Before I show my medium and maximum sized kits it might be useful to know the two things which determine the size of my sketching kit:
How much time I know I will have to sketch. This varies from anything from five minutes during a quick walk to two hours during a urban sketching meetup with other sketchers.
How much space I have in my bag for sketching gear.
Remember you can see my mini and basic kits in part one of this series. But now, let’s get to my medium and maximum sized kits:
Nino’s medium sized kit
My medium kit feels like less stuff when packed so neatly into my Etchr field case, but it’s more, I promise you. It takes up more space in my backpack and can’t really fit into my handbag. However, the pencil case has a handy strap that you can use to carry it separate from your handbag. I mostly use this when I know I will have 40 to 60 minutes to sketch.
This kit contains:
My A5 Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook
Binder clips to hold the pages
Derwent pastel pencil sharpener and a small zip-lock bag for the pencil shavings
A collection of coloured pencils from the following ranges: Derwent Drawing, Caran d’Ache Luminance & Faber-Castell Plychromos. The pencils are all sorted into colour groups and will vary with the season changes.
One black marker from Kuretake
A collection of coloured Pitt Artist brush pens from Faber-Castell
All of this, except for the sketchbook, fits neatly into my Etchr Field case.
Something I drew with this kit:
Nino’s maximum sized kit
The extreme kit is probably the biggest kit that I will take with me. If I take this I know I will probably have at least 90 minutes up to two hours per sketch.
This kit contains everything that is in my basic kit plus the following:
Another handful of Derwent Inktense pencils
One Promarker from Winsor and Newton (pale rose)
A collection of Posca acrylic markers from Uni
Two waterbrushes from Derwent
Glue
Scissors
Binder clips
My big Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook
Collection of coloured and patterned paper for collage. (Mostly from the Flow magazine.)
Except for the sketchbook and collage papers this all fits into what I think was originally sold as a makeup bag. Well, I say, why put makeup in it when you can fill it with art supplies.
Something I drew with this kit:
Speed Sketching with Watercolour Pencils Online Workshop
I have been going through all the exercises in this workshop this last week and am having a blast. So if you haven’t booked your seat for it yet, I want to remind you to do so. It is in just over a week and I am so looking forward to teaching it and seeing what all the participants will produce by the end of it.
Go here for more info about it:
Thank you for reading Sketch. Explore. Create! I hope that you enjoyed looking through our sketching kits. It was lots of fun doing this collaboration piece with Citla. One of my favourite things about art is how it can bring people together. Collaboration, not competition, right?
May your art kit bring you joy even before you start sketching. Now go and sketch!
Nino
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I really loved making this series with you, thanks Nino 🩷
this was a great series!