Explore sketchbooks

Part 6 This month, become more organised with your art kit and save yourself time, with Andy Walker

Part 6 How to choose and use a sketching kit, make a coloured pencil palette and fill your sketchbook, by Andy Walker

Sketchbooks and kit you may need

Make a coloured pencil palette

How to choose and use a basic sketching kit

Sketchbooks are a great way to keep your paintings and ideas organised. I used to plan paintings and make sketches and drawings on scraps of paper or on loose watercolour sheets then, of course, lose them. I could always remember what I had drawn, but could never find them again! I don’t think I am alone in this and, unless you are a person who is unusually organised, I expect you will have experienced the same thing. My sketchbook collection then came to my rescue. Now I keep everything in one book or another and it becomes much easier to locate a painting or an idea for a painting that I once had.

In this article I want to show you a variety of ways you can organise your sketchbooks and your materials so you can go out sketching without worrying if you’ve missed something important.

Sketchbooks

Sketchbooks come in a variety of styles, shapes, sizes and prices, and you can use them in an infinite number of ways. Some are ring-bound and others stitched; some are hard-backed, which are always my preference and others soft backed; there are sketchbooks with drawing paper, watercolour paper and coloured paper.

Useable sizes come in A4, A5 and A6; anything bigger or smaller than this is unworkable or unmanageable to me.

The choice is endless, but I suggest you buy two or three different books that you think might suit you and see how you get on. I am always on the lookout for new books to try! I am sure you will think of many other ways you can organise your sketchbooks, but it is certainly worth doing it one way or another. Some people have one allpurpose book and work through it bit by bit until it is finished then they start the next one. Others keep books for different subjects, such as landscapes, still life or portraits – or use books for different media. My only advice is to do what suits you best and I hope the following is useful to you.

Sketching kit

Anything you take with you to sketch outdoors needs to be small, lightweight and ready to go. There is nothing more dispiriting than having the urge to go out sketching then spend the next half-hour searching for and gathering your kit, by which time your enthusiasm has waned and you just need a cup of tea! My advice is to keep a small sketching kit at the ready at all times so you can just grab your bag and go.

If you simplify right down, you can keep your sketching kit with you in a handbag or coat pocket then you can sketch whenever the mood strikes. A sketchbook, fountain pen and water brush are as simple as it gets, but you can do so much with such as kit. It is a flexible combination that allows you to draw strong and lively lines and achieve a good range of tonal washes.

There are a number of ways to lay down these washes so try the following exercise (on page 30) and see how it works for you.

A coloured-pencil palette

This is a really neat and small way to carry a palette of colours with you. It fits in between the pages of your sketchbook so it is always with you. You will need to use watercolour pencils or Derwent Inktense pencils for this technique.

You can make a number of palettes of different colour ranges – perhaps one with earth colours and greens if you are going to a woodland or bright colours if you are heading to the seaside. Alternatively, just choose the colours you are comfortable with using.

A small watercolour kit

This kit has a few more tools so I suggest you keep them in a small bag that’s ready to go. You can then just grab this bag and go, knowing you have all you need. It contains:

1 A watercolour sketchbook Mine is A5 size so it fits into a small bag.

2 A small paint set This one is a Winsor & Newton Cotman Sketcher’s Pocket Box, but any small palette will do.

3 The palette is clipped onto the sketchbook with a bulldog clip.

4 A watercolour brush Shown here is an Escoda Optimo No. 8, which folds away and is a decent enough size for painting on an A5 pad. 5 A 3B pencil.

6 A roll of masking tape (optional). I often put masking tape around the edges of the page before painting so that when it is lifted off it gives a clean white border. It just makes the sketch look a little bit better and is a nice way to present it.

7 A water container. Mine is a small tray – the bottom half of one of those plastic boxes that screws come in from the DIY shop. I glued sandpaper onto the bottom of it to stop it sliding around and if you are careful you can balance it on your sketchbook while painting. However it’s safer to rest it on the ground or on something else.

8 A water bottle. This one is plastic and lightweight.

You will also need kitchen roll or paper hankies for drying off your brush.

You can paint anywhere with this kit, either standing up or sitting down, as you can hold the sketchbook and palette in one hand.

A scruffy book (Daler-Rowney cartridge paper sketchbook A5). I always have an inexpensive book for trying things out, making a mess and being generally scruffy. It’s not a book that I would want to show anyone, but it is full of ideas and images that provide inspiration.

A neat book (Creabox Marabou, bought in an art shop in France, A5). I have recently started a new sketchbook, which comprises nicequality watercolour paper and my aim is to fill it with gouache paintings. I am putting a neat border around each one with masking tape and trying to make a book that I would show to friends – if they ask!

A travel diary (Moleskine 13x21cm watercolour sketchbook). I’ll talk more about this and about journaling in a future article, but this is a great way to record your holiday or your life!

Pencil and pen sketches (Daler-Rowney Ebony Artist’s Sketchbook A5). This is somewhere between the scruffy and the neat book. Here I keep any plein air pencil or pen sketches that I can use as the basis for paintings.

3 4 2 5 1 6 7 My small watercolour kit en plein air 8

The watercolour kit in action, painting blossom

I suggest you cut a piece of tracing paper or greaseproof paper to size and fold it over your palette. This will protect your sketchbook from becoming marked by the palette when you store it away. Some sketchbooks have a handy pocket at the back, and this is a great place to keep these palettes. 3 Use a water brush to lift colour from the palette.

1 Cut a piece of watercolour paper to fit inside your sketchbook then choose a limited range of colours and scrub down patches of colours onto the paper. You will need to rub quite hard to lay down a good amount of pigment.

2