If you’re serious about painting with watercolours, I recommend keeping a little travel set packed & ready to go whenever inspiration may strike.
It’s all about reducing barriers to action. If you painting bag is filled with everything you need, it’s easy to just pick up on your way out the door see? You’re less likely to go through with taking your painting gear to the beach for example, if you have to think of everything you need, find them, pack them etc. This might not seem like a big task, and in reality it’s not. But a painting kit that’s ready to go is far more likely to get used, & far more often!
It doesn’t matter whether you’re painting at a cafe, at the park, the beach- maybe you’re in a hotel or maybe you’re amongst the trees somewhere- there’s a list of essentials you’ll need to if you want to create with watercolours. This article will go through everything you need to create an artist travel kit for watercolour artists, so you can get plein air painting straight away!
It’ll be annoying to get into your creative groove & realise you’ve forgotten something – so let’s cover everything you’ll need in a travel kit for watercolours- pretty much everything & anything you need for a painting session!
I keep my artist travel kit in a designated bag & it’s always packed & ready to go. In my bag I have…
☼ winsor & newton tin palette
☼ a plastic palette
☼ paper
☼ a watercolour journal
☼ watercolour brushes
☼ collapsible water cups
☼ paper towel
☼ a clipboard with storage compartment
☼ a pencil case
Of course to paint, you need paints!
I love winsor & newton watercolours & use their 24 pan professional watercolour tin whenever I’m painting on the go.
This tin is great because you can remove the pans and replace them with whichever colours you like! It’s super nifty, easy to transport & there’s heaps of space for mixing colours.
If you’re not quite ready for professional pigments, or wanting a cheaper option, winsor & newton also have a cotman range for beginners. There’s the 24 pan cotman tin set, a 13 pan pocket set and also a 14 pan field pocket set.
This palette is the best if you buy your pigments in tubes. There’s 33 wells & heaps of mixing space. The mixing part even comes out for easy cleaning. This is my to-go palette for painting out because I can choose which colours to take with me.
I like this particular palette because the wells are only on one side. When I’ve used palettes with wells on both sides in the past, my paints have sometimes fallen out and crumbled everywhere when shutting the lid turns them upside down. Very annoying!
Another great thing about this palette is the wells are smooth & rounded, which is much gentler on your brushes compared to dipping them into square pans.
It’s up to you whether you’d prefer to paint on loose paper or in a watercolour journal. A journal could be easier to transport, as any loose sheets of paper will need to be stored in something that keeps them from being creased or getting wet (i’ll show you where I keep my sheets of paper in a moment!).
As always, I’m a huge advocate for arches watercolour paper, 100% cotton, 300gsm. I prefer painting on smooth hot-pressed paper, but you can get cold-pressed arches paper as well which has a rougher surface. either way, this is hands down the best watercolour paper I’ve ever used! It doesn’t matter if im painting in the studio, in a cafe, at the beach, wherever I am I’m usually painting on arches.
A journal is another great alternative for painting out & about, because you can be sure your paper and paintings are safe from creasing or folding.
I love the range of Hahnemuhle’s watercolour journals – they are the only ones I’ve found which are made from 100% cotton fibres, & the paper is a little thicker than most journals at 250gsm. You can get heaps of different shapes & sizes. I think the A6 size journal is perfect for any watercolour artist wanting to paint out & about.
You can certainly get special watercolour brushes made especially for travel – they usually have lids so the brush hairs aren’t damaged in transit. I prefer to just use my normal brushes & store them in a canvas brush roll.
These are my favourite watercolour brushes – sleek, animal-free and handmade in Germany. Their ergonomic wooden handles are so nice to hold & made from sustainably sourced forestry. The brush hairs (although synthetic) have outstanding water & pigment holding capacity – they are an absolute dream to paint with, & if I’m painting plein air, they are certainly coming with me .
I love white canvas because it just feels like such a natural & clean aesthetic. I have a canvas roll for pencils, & two for my brushes. I put brushes I use all the time in a small canvas brush roll & the rest in a large canvas brush roll.
Because I always store my brushes in these aesthetic rolls, it’s easy to just pick up the one I want & add it to my travel painting bag.
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These collapsible water cups are super lightweight, easy to transport & the perfect solution for your paint water.
There’s not much else to say about them. I like the cute pink colour but they also come in blue.
I love this clipboard because of the two storage pockets- yes, I said TWO pockets! It’s great because I can still use it to rest on & tape my paper to for painting, with the added bonus of safe spaces for finished works & extra watercolour paper.
I highly recommend this clipboard for any artist- it honestly solved so much hassle for me & my out-&-about painting sessions! I like the A4 size as well because it’s small enough to fit in my bag but just big enough to do a decent sized painting.
& obviously you need paper towel. Or microfibre rags like this one are great because you can reuse them & you don’t get any loose fibres sticking to your brush when wiping it clean.
You might want something for things like pencils, erasers, rulers, gel pens etc – anything else you might need for the initial sketch or final touches.
I love this little pencil case because there’s heaps of nooks to organise your things & a large expandable pocket to create more space if you need it.
what you put all your travel artsy gear in is again dependant on a myriad of variables! I like using this carrhart bag, but literally any bag, box, cart, trolley, whatever you like, will do the job just fine!
artist tote bag
artist cart
This is all so personal. How you put together a artist’s travel kit & what you put in it, is highly dependant on what you like painting, the size you want to paint, where you’re going to paint… the variables are endless.
Someone may only want a hand-sized book with a pocket palette, whereas someone else may enjoy painting with a travel easel and paint box. The gear you need to paint at a cafe is going to be slightly different to what you need to paint on the beach. Someone painting on A3 size paper is going to have a different set-up to someone painting in an A6 journal. There is no right or wrong here! I highly suggest embracing your own needs & painting desires!
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☼ what do i need to put together an artist travel kit bag?
☼ what do watercolour artists take with them to paint outside?
☼ what is in a watercolour artist’s travel bag?
☼ what is plein air watercolour painting?
☼ what do i need to start painting with watercolours?
☼ what do i need to paint with watercolours plein air?
☼ what do i need to paint with watercolours on the go?
☼ what do i need to paint with watercolours with travelling?
☼ what do i need to paint with watercolours at a cafe?
☼ what do i need to paint with watercolours at the park?
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hi, i’m sarah, an australian artist head-over-heels with watercolour & creative practice- it truely is good for your soul.
i am completely self-taught in all the mediums i use & i am here to share everything i know with you!
i write about all things creativity, watercolour, gouache, hand-made ceramics & my own artistic process. I have degrees in human psychology & veterinary medicine- so you might find some sporadic related facts in my writing.
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