I started painting again as a way to fill time whilst the kids played in the park. My oldest daughter has special needs so would often fall asleep whilst everyone played and I’ld be left minding all the stuff. So I started sketching then bringing cheap watercolour paints along to paint what I saw. The other kids sometimes would join me when they needed a time out so I’ld rip some pages out and pass them some brushes. We would often move to a different area or playground quite quickly.
For a while I was carrying things in a snaplock bag incase it spilt but found it was slow to pack up quickly when moving from site to site. I wanted something that I could open, do some painting for a few min, and then just close quickly. I found it hard to balance all my tools without loosing it on the ground so it also had to have everything tied down. I prefer to use A5 or A6 size because it’s quick to paint and you get more practise than larger drawings. It is also more portable than the A4 size and easy to put in my handbag so that I could paint anywhere. My kit needed to be small and compact to also increase my chances to paint.
I searched and reviewed a lot of different kits and set ups but most required you to take everything out to paint then pack away. It was more designed to be used on a table and was hard to balance. The closest art kit I found was the art tool kit but again you need to take out your book to paint. I also liked the look of the etcher slate mini because it is an all in one but it is quite expensive. I liked the modular use of the magnets to customise the set up however the usable size is A4 which was too big for my needs and the A5 size you need to take out like the art tool kit.
I have previously experimented with repurposing an old diary for my bullet journel and found an old notepad cover I had made when I was in highschool. I had considered making one but didn’t feel confident with sewing one with zips. I found had an old diary with a zip that seemed thick enough to reuse. So I used a stanley knife to cut out the diary and the lined it with cardboard covered with pretty material leftover from a different project. I created a pocket on one side and sewed elastic loops and glued velcro. I used an old bra strap to create the centre pen holder and sewed additional elastic to hold the other pens/ brushes and also the watercolour journel.
Here’s the finished product
I have a Winsor and Newton compact paint set which extends out with extra areas for mixing and a hole for your thumb. So I used velcro to attach it (furry side on the paint box so that it didn’t scratch my hand), this allowed it to be held securely when being painted int the book but also to detach it so that I can hold it like an artist palette.
On the right you can see there is an A5 perspex board, this is also detachable so that I can swap it in and out with my A5 watercolour block, or even with another watercolour journey – it can take from A6 to A5 sized books.
Over the past year I have found different ways to adapt this plein air kit to my needs depending on the paper or journal I’m using – swapping out the winsor and newton paint palette with an Art Tool Kit palette, which is much thinner and lighter, allowing for larger sized books, more velcro to be able to stick small pots of water using old salad dressing containers (Sistema is the best).
I like this plein air journal kit set up because often it means I can just open, it and start painting. I won’t have to unpack and pack, and no loosing expensive art supplies. I can also use it anywhere – I’ve painted at shows, parks, beach, in the car, in a plane (though, I was once told that I couldn’t paint on the plane, it was similar to using nail polish). When it’s time to move, stop or pause, I can pop a clean tissue between the pages, pop my lids on the water tubs, and then close it up and zip it up.
Rachel Fong Art 