Baby's First Kit
I had planned my first kit for urban sketching, though with no small amount of trepidation. Until a couple days ago, everything was still vaguely "nice to do", but now it's becoming real. This morning I got a blackout announcement from the building management. Apparently they're fixing something near the power supply. My LGS kindly agreed to let me borrow their space and internet connection even though today is officially their day's off. The thoughts of having the place alone for myself for several hours initiated a sliver of courage. I decided to bring my sketching kit and put it to a test. I had many many many thoughts about what to bring, but when it's time to go, I hastily packed up a collection thrown together on the spot.
The first version, brands omitted because I never like the amount of emphasis put on that:
- a black fineliner
- a brushpen filled with purple-gray ink
- a brushpen filled with mint green ink
- a waterbrush
- two ballpoints
- a mechanical pencil with colored lead
- a mechanical pencil with 2B lead
- a 2B pencil stub (capped with a random brush cap coming with the brushes)
- a metal clip
- a small box of spare leads (12 leads)
- an eraser
- an eraser pen
- a syringe and a blunt tip needle
- a tin of watercolor palette (8 colors) + mini brush
- a fine mister/perfume atomizer and a 30ml spray bottle (to top the mister and the cap can act as a water cup) both in a ziploc bag
- a square format sketchbook (12cmx12cm)
- 2 q-tips, 2 alcohol wipe, and 4 sheets of cotton swabs in a ziploc bag
It's kinda too many still, but everything fits in one pencil case I can loop around my hand while painting. The case is relatively light for the bulk. When I transition to sketching outside, I can leave the messenger bag in the cafe. The brushpens have such an odd ink combo, I know, but I fell for these two inks and would like to explore using them together for loose sketches. Saw some travel toiletries organizer that looked nice but I refrained from buying things until I had more idea what to look for.
I think the items have a good range (ignore the redundancy for now), though the sketchbook and the palette I haven't tested. Initially I wanted to use them at home, but eh. Worst case the paper buckles, not the end of the world.
Being an LGS though, the first thing I saw when entering was a slew of stationeries strewn across the table, a remnant of last night's board game session. A pen, a pencil, markers black and blue, a ballpoint, an eraser, and a pack of wet wipes. I could have sauntered in and started drawing.