So the last few posts have been the set up of my kits however I realised for my holiday I was limited with space and had to make some hard choices. So here’s what I actually took with me and what I actually used.
The first kit I kept in my handbag for ink and wash quick sketches see the New A6 Plein air journal in leather set up plus have added a small vial of masking fluid the duck bill pen for drawing waves faster and also added back in my twsbi eco.
The second kit using my Upcycled makeup case to plain air kit had my watercolour journal but have swapped out the steel oil pots which I was using for water as they’ve started to leak. I managed to add a few more Velcro dots and voila the temu bottles for water fit nicely in the same space.
I’ve added extra Velcro dots (from temu) and an additional Velcro strip to make into an adjustable strap so that it can hold my watercolour blocks for painting A5 landscape. This was really the only reason to bring the other A5 case which I will be leaving behind. And even though I’ll have to wait til I get to use my new cool colour set up it should be fine on holidays I’ll still have access to all the colours but not arranged so nicely and I might just have to use both kits together. If I’m using watercolour blocks I will also have to move the bottles of water separately in a snaplock bag as it doesn’t fit but it is still a smaller footprint compared to bringing a whole extra kit.
I have packed separately in a snaplock bag a small bottle of the deAtramentis archival black ink to refill the calligraphy pens and also spare superglue as these dots don’t always stick well and often need to be superglued.
I realised most of the additional brushes I could do without (the other kits have very similar brushes more suited for smaller paintings) and given there’s only 3 sheets of the Fabriano paper left, the kit will be mostly used with watercolour blocks so there’s no need for the additional kit.
Last minute I had also grabbed the small note book that came with the Londo leather A6 pen case and used it as a mini travel journal. Surprisingly it held up with Ink and wash with no bleeding. It initially didn’t quite fit in the case with the blue beta Stillman and Birn but over the course of a week or so it seemed to have stretched the leather and now zips quite nicely.
I found that I didn’t have that much time to paint so the mini A6 set up was what I used the most. I managed to do a nice travel journal illustrated with some sketches with Ink and wash. Using waterproof ink made it easy to do washes over large amounts of text to clean my mixing palette and also experiment with different colour combinations at the same time. Or to use colour to highlight parts.
I found the beta Stillman and Birn good at holding up under some washes and it has been good for portraits as it appears to have a faster drying time than 100% cotton watercolour paper. It doesn’t hold up well under scrubbing when wet, it is clear that it will pilll even under moderate scrubbing but with quick washes and fast drying I rarely had to wait for it to dry between layers.
The serum spray bottle lid worked very well as it only held a tiny amount of water and when the water became dirty i just tipped it into a tissue and could refill it with fresh water from the spray bottle. It is not a normal spray bottle that spritzers fine mist but a serum bottle designed for thicker liquid. This makes it super fast to refill as I can slide the bottle so that the top is over the edge and squirt it into the lid to refill without even taking it out. This allows everything to be usable but also securely strapped down so things don’t fall off if I’m bumped or there is a sudden gust of wind or even just being in the car painting and we suddenly turn a corner.
I’m did get a bit of time to use the A5 kit at the beach and tested out the masking fluid a few times for the waves.
In future if it’s a busy holiday or if space was an issue I think I could get away with just the A6 Plein air kit. The only advantage of having the A5 is the wider colour range and the two pots of water…. So if this is an issue then just the A5 would be great.
Here’s a few snaps from the Londo travel journal
Here’s also a good example of the stillman and Birn beta
On the left is an ink sketch then wash hand on the right is just painting directly. I did these in the car on the way down as it was a long roadtrip. As you can see on the right picture there’s a bit of pilling under the left eye and that’s because I did not let it dry between washes. It holds up better if you let to dry and you can still do the numerous washes that is required for portraits.
Here’s another example of ink and wash. I find if I have more time to observe then it’s a better result. On the left my nephew gave me only about 5 min max to paint. The one on the right had much longer about 10-20min of painting and observing.
My other paintings I only had time to sketch quickly and then went and painted them later when I had time. They are more sketchy and cartoony as I didn’t have as much time to paint whilst observing so often had to make it up based on what I could remember. Here are some of the better ones
Rachel Fong Art 