I ALWAYS overpack art supplies when I travel, especially if its a new location. When you’re not sure what scenarios to expect the tendency is to take a little of everything “just in case”. But on this last trip we travelled to Turkey with just a small under-seat bag, so space was at a premium.
I was really strict and took my 6 colour watercolour kit, one travel water-brush pen and an A6 reporter’s notebook style watercolour book – even though I was away for a month.
Micro Portable Painter Palette
This micro palette is a compact way to transport 6 half-pans. There’s one fold out flap for mixing, and when I’m using a limited colour palette I’ll just use this flap. But the lid converts to another mixing space that attaches to the palette.
The outer section of this micro set can also be attached to the palette and functions as a water holder. It’s a good size to clean your brush, or you can use it to put a folded wad of water-soaked kitchen roll in, which is good wiping your water brush.
Read this great review of the Portable Painter Palette on DoodleWash.
6 Watercolour Half-Pans
I bought this Micro Portable Painter a few years ago, and usually use it when I go to Life Drawing in Tavira. I’ve never travelled with just this limited set of colours, but limiting your choice to just primary colours (3 cool and 3 warm) is a great way to give your colour mixing skills a workout.
I bought the Daniel Smith Essentials Set, which is six 5ml tubes of professional grade transparent watercolours, and these were squeezed into my micro palette.
The colours in this set are:
- Hansa Yellow Light, 5ml (Cool Yellow)
- New Gamboge, 5ml (Warm Yellow)
- Quinacridone Rose, 5ml (Cool Red)
- Pyrrol Scarlet, 5ml (Warm Red)
- Phthalo Blue GS, 5ml (Cool Blue)
- French Ultramarine, 5ml (Warm Blue)
If you’ve been amassing your own collection of watercolour half-pans or tubes, you can probably create your own Cool and Warm Primary set, using these shades or similar. As long as you have a set of 3 cool and 3 warm primary colours in your palette, it’ll work.
A6 Watercolour Book
I’m a big fan of Hanemühle watercolour books. I usually use the A5 Landscape or A6 Portrait. But I decided to mix it up and buy an A6 Landscape book for the trip. Just incase I wanted to sketch some sweeping beach scenes. I like this format because it looks more like a notebook than a sketchbook, so I don’t feel so conspicuous when I’m sketching at a packed cafe.
It’s going to be interesting to see whether this palette works for a four week trip, and whether I can get to grips with only using a water brush.
