What’s In My Sketching Bag?
I had a request from my friend Amy-Jane Van den Bergh to show my Urban Sketching kit to all who might be interested. I hope it will inspire more people to take up this most enjoyable activity.
First let me give a quick introduction to the Global Urban Sketchers organization.
Urban Sketchers (USk) was started in 2007 by Seattle-based journalist and illustrator, Gabriel Campanario, when he created an online forum for all sketchers who enjoyed drawing their surrounding neighbourhoods, the cities where they live and work and the places that they travel to. It’s an international non-profit dedicated to fostering a global community of artists who practice on-location drawing. They strive to “Show the World, One Drawing at a Time.”
There are hundreds of Chapters of USk all over the world and here in South Africa we have three official chapters – USk Cape Town, USk Johannesburg and USk Stellenbosch. There are also unofficial sketching groups in Pretoria and the D’Urban Sketchers in Durban.
You can visit the Urban Sketchers website for more information, to sign up for “Drawing Attention” (their monthly online magazine) or to find a chapter near you:
http://www.urbansketchers.org/
My very first sketch event was in April 2013 at The Lamp Post, an antique shop in Norwood. I was very nervous about sketching in public – and I did all of my sketches in pencil as I did not feel comfortable enough to use ink or watercolour ‘out there’. At that stage I did not do any sketching (or any art for that matter) and my drawings reminded me of the work I did in the beginning of my first year at university! But all the other sketchers were so nice and welcoming and it turned out to be a very nice experience. The owner of the shop even gave us soup and freshly baked bread for lunch! I dreaded the ‘show-and-tell’ session over lunch, but soon found myself passing my sketchbook along just like all the others! It’s not a competition to see worse work is the best, it’s about enjoying the act of sketching and sharing one’s unique take on the places and people we witness…
These days, I sketch mostly in ink with some watercolours added. I usually do a quick pencil guideline sketch and then do the actual sketch in waterproof ink (so the watercolours won’t smudge the ink lines). Then I delete the pencil lines and add watercolours. Occasionally I would use only watercolour, or start with watercolour and then add ink lines afterwards.
So, let me unpack my bag:
Pencils and related accessories
– Pentel clutch (or mechanical) pencils eliminate the need for sharpening.
– I love the humble pencil and Kohi-Noor is my favourite brand as it has a really dark graphite lead. They’re not easy to find locally though. Staedler and Faber-Castell are also good, but really cheap pencils (like the bulk box school variety) are not worth it. I only use softer grade pencils (2B, 3B and 4B).
– Sharpener with a receptor for the shavings.
– Homemade viewfinder which I usually forget I have in the bag.
– Putty Eraser
– Pentel Clic eraser pen which I seldom use.
– Small ruler which I very rarely use.
Pens
– Lamy Safari fountain pens. I have a red one with an Extra Fine nib (which I use the most) and a blue one with a Fine nib. These are sold with medium nibs which I find much too thick for my purpose. They use ink cartridges that are available in packs of 10 in a range of colours. I use refillable converters on both my pens, but I do not refill them with Lamy inks as they are not waterproof. I prefer to use Noodler’s ink. Lamy pens and accessories are available at Exclusive Books.
– UNI-PIN Drawing pens. These are my go-to pens as they are great to use, waterproof and easy to find. I use the 0.05 and 0.1 line widths the most, but occasionally I use the 0.2 width as well.
– Staedler Pigment liners. These are very similar to the Uni-Pin pens but with a longer tip.
– Parker Fountain Pen with Extra Fine nib (not as fine as the Lamy Extra Fine nib)
– Pilot VPen with Medium nib. This cheap disposable fountain pen comes in different colours of ink that is not waterproof. (I ordered it online once to make up the minimum amount for an order to get free shipping. It’s really good value for money and a good introduction to fountain pens – but I probably won’t replace it when the ink runs out as the nib is too thick for my liking and the ink is not waterproof)
– Pentel Ballpoint Pen (love this pen but it doesn’t work well on all types of paper)
– Pentel Brush Pen. This comes with disposable cartridges as well, but the ink is not waterproof.
Inks
– Noodler’s Ink – Black Waterproof (Bulletproof). This ink dries up in an instant on the page but magically never clogs up the fountain pens.
-Parker Black ‘Quinck’ Ink – I use this in my Parker -Fountain pen when I want to ‘pull’ washes from the ink lines with a waterbrush – as the ink is not waterproof.
– Acrylic inks from various brands used with the dipping pens or brushes (I seldom use these on sketchcrawls as it is a bit cumbersome to carry bottles of ink in a sketch bag)
Sketchbooks and paper
For the last few years I have been using Seawhite of Brighton Sketchbooks almost exclusively. The smooth paper works well for pen and ink and although the paper is not very heavy (only 140gsm), it takes watercolour washes rather well and the colours never bleed through the pages. The pages buckle slightly but the advantages far outweigh this slight disadvantage. The A5 softcover books are light and easy to carry around and I love the ‘Thick and Chunky’ hardcover sketchbooks in square format. I use the 14x14cm and 19x19cm size chunky books. Cass Art in the UK sells these as well as their own A5 softcover books with paper that looks and feels the same for a better price..
Brushes
– Rosemary and Company Travel Brushes. I use No. 6 Round and Dagger Kolinski brushes. The great thing about these are that they are made in 2 parts, and the one part forms a cap to protect the brush while out sketching. The Dagger has become my favourite as you can create variable line thicknesses up to a fine point in one line with it. I still need a lot of practice to perfect this though!
– Winsor & Newton Pocket Brush (probably a No. 2) which is part of their small Cotman Travel Watercolour set
– Waterbrushes from Derwent and Mont Marte in thin, medium and broad nib sizes. The Mont Marte brushes are good value for money, but the water flow can be a little too generous at times.
Watercolour
– Small W&N Cotman Travel Watercolour set (12 half pans) with travel brush.
– Winsor and Newton Professional Watercolour set (24 half pans) which I mostly use this in the studio as it’s a big to lug around.
The Bag(s)
I have 2 ‘Messenger‘ type shoulder bags for sketching.
– The first one I bought is way too big and I only use it if there is not going to be a lot of walking during a Sketchcrawl. The temptation is to pack way too much because there is space for more than I‘ll ever need. It is no fun dragging a heavy bag around looking for something to sketch.
– The second bag is the same type but only half the size. I can fit everything in it except for my chair and straw hat. This is the bag I use most of the time.
– Penholder bag. I bought a little denim ‘money’ bag at the Crazy store many years ago – It hangs around my neck, for quick and easy access to my pens and pencils. It had just one pocket with a zipper, but I stitched a seam down the middle as the pens tended to slide out of the bag. I lost quite a few coloured pencils that way. Now the two divided pockets hold everything tightly in place.
Chair
I have a small fisherman’s chair that I can sling over my shoulder and is very light to carry. I do not like sitting on the ground or leaning against dirty pillars or walls.
Miscellaneous stuff
– These days we have to take and wear masks while sketching, but I do pull it down when there is no-one close to me.
– I always carry liquid hand sanitizer or wipes, not only now that the Covid pandemic requires it
– Tissues and kitchen towels
– Drinking water
– Small medicine/vitamin bottles with water for watercolour painting – I find that the Solel and Dischem vitamin do not leak.
– A hat (I prefer a cloth hat that can be folded and kept in the bag, but if we’re going to spend long hours in full sun, I take a staw hat)
– Sunscreen is a must!
– Mosquito repellent in ‘dry stick’ format (I only pack this if we’re going to the great outdoors after rain when these nasty little buggers try to eat you alive)
– If we sketch in the Joburg CBD or in rough terrain, I prefer to wear sneakers as I don’t want to bump a toe against some dirty sidewalk or other unsavoury objects.
– Some people listen to music or podcasts with earphones while sketching but I seldom do that as the sights, the sounds (and even the smells) of a place all contribute to the overall experience. Earphones tend to keep onlookers away but I actually enjoy the interaction with people while sketching. Some people can be a little pesky, but I just carry on and ignore them after a while (especially if they expect me to tell them how I do it or teach them all I know in 5 minutes). Safety is always a concern and we need to be careful and sensible (without being neurotic) – but this is another reason why I don’t use earphones.
So, that is my sketching kit!
