Capsule Art Gear for Travel

It is that time of year when we start planning our vacations and holiday trips. While my husband and I have nothing on the calendar for the moment, we will! Meanwhile, my sister and her husband are planning a walking holiday in England. These two are crazy world travelers!

Get your art supplies ready to go and create your art gear capsule. Like a capsule wardrobe that you can create multiple outfits with a few articles of clothing, we are going to do it with your art materials. Pull out the art supplies that you think you want to take with you.

Top up your palettes, make a color guide at the same time. Maybe adding new colors that you have fallen in love with over the last year or you may need to remove. Be sure to label your pans and make a swatch page in your new journal as you fill the pans.

Travel brushes, do the ones you have still meet your needs? When I started making travel journals and doing urban sketching, I used a much smaller journal. I was really afraid of going larger! I have overcome that fear and now really love a large journal. That meant that I needed larger brushes. I have leaped from a #4 to a #12. I use a #16 at home in the studio. The larger the brush, the more water and paint it will hold and the larger the surface it will cover.

Now to create the travel capsule for art! My experience in putting together a travel kit is that pull out what you think you want and spread it all out on a table. Remember that you have carry everything you take with you, all the time. Take two minutes right now and grab the supplies out of that pile that you use the most. That is what you will take. Don’t go back for the other things that you think you might use, they will be dead weight.

Now find a zipper pouch that is perfect for the supplies you choose from the two minute exercise. This will be your travel capsule art supply bag! Art journal, colors, and all the little things like a water cup, rag, waterproof pens or ink and fountain pen. Check out my video on what I took to England a few years ago, this has not changed. In fact, I purchased the hip pack for that trip and now use it for all my hikes, trips, etc. It has become the perfect bag for me.

Make sure that the zipper pouch you have placed everything in fits in one of your carryons. If it doesn’t, pare down a bit more.  You are allowed two items, sizing matters on them and check with your airlines website as what size restrictions there are for the flight you are taking. Airlines are starting to be strict about the two item limit for carryon. Two items include purse, pillow, blankets, pack, etc. You should be able to pack for a 2-3 week trip in a 40 liter pack and a daypack. Daypack has to fit under the seat and fall into the guidelines.

Here’s a video I made a couple of years ago about what I travel with. This is before I came up with Capsule Art Gear idea!