Travel is on the horizon and I want to keep up the momentum of my drawing practice so I need to take some equipment.  But what to take and how to transport it?  My full drawing box is a carpenters tool caddy and has a hefty weight to it.  We are planning to travel on hand baggage only so weight and size are crucial.

First to decide what is the minimum that I need; firstly a pencil & a sketch book  then some means of sharpening (not a knife as it won’t be allowed in hand-baggage) and an eraser and finally some coloured pencils and a blender/burnisher.

I used Jane Strother’s book ‘The Coloured Pencil Artist’s Pocket Palette‘ to help me choose which of my 100+ coloured pencils would earn it’s place to travel to foreign parts.

The chosen ones

These are the chosen ones and I made a little test card to see the colours.  At the end of the row are a blender, a burnisher, a graphite pencil (H), and an eraser pencil with a brush; all held together in a holder made by making channels in a piece of elastic – genius I thought as now they won’t roll around all over the place!

Sketch book has to be small too, so I chose an A6 hardback book with cartridge paper from Jackson’s Art Supplies.

A6 Sketch book

Pencil sharpener in self seal bag as I don’t want to drop pencil shavings.

Pencil sharpener in self sealing bag

And finally a bag to put it all in.  I found fabric, elastic and toggle closure in my stash and made a drawstring bag to hold it all.

Drawstring bag

I am a little worried, as my pencils are sharp, will they be allowed onto the plane?  I am going to have to take a chance on that and just keep my fingers crossed that I do not look like someone who will use a pencil as a deadly weapon.  But the pencils are sharp so I raided the bathroom to find a tube to slide over the pencil roll to protect the tips.

Tube slides up to protect the pencil tips

Finally, all is ready and the whole lot weighs in at 280gms

Packed and ready to go

Now I just have to remember to use it when I am away…………….