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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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