Tools of the trade

The other day a commenter to the blog asked what I take with me when I go out to paint every day. I thought I would reply in the form of a post instead of in the reply section so that anyone interested could also see my response. I thought that a sketch of my stuff would be helpful too.

I use very few tools but the ones I have are good quality. Let’s start with the paints. I always use tubes of paint as opposed to pans because the colours are so saturated. Most of what I have is Winsor Newton Artist’s Quality but recently I tried some Daniel Smith Cobalt Blue and French Ultramarine and I’m very satisfied with the results. Dry pan colours, when reconstituted, are washed out and you never get the sedimentation you would with tube colours. My travel palette is from Daniel Smith as well although if you look it up on their website you’ll see that it only has 16 reservoirs whereas mine has 24. That’s because I bought extra half pans so I could add some unusual pigments that I use less frequently. They don’t fit properly so I have popsicle sticks jammed in next to them, and this works surprisingly well.

I have lots of great brushes but I always use the same ones for these sketches. A while ago I was using a Daniel Smith travel brush but I recently switched to the two you see above —  the Winsor Newton Series 7 Sable, no. 5 and no. 7. These brushes hold lots of paint and come to a very fine point. Expensive but they’ll last a lifetime if you take care of them.

As for pens and pencils, I don’t have that many. For pen and wash I use either the Micron .005 (very fine) or the Sakura Microperm 01 which is a bit heavier. Both are permanent since I don’t want any bleed when I add the colour. My pencil is a cheap mechanical pencil that you can get in any office supply store. I don’t like to carry a sharpener and these work well.

The water container is something I found at the art supply store and despite its ugly pink lid it fits perfectly in the cup holder of the car and it never spills in the event of a sudden departure due to a school bus or other unforeseen event.

This all goes into my vintage CBC bag and off I go.