Sketch Kit

Hi, my name's Stuart Loughridge. I'm gonna talk about sketching. It's the foundation to all the artwork I create in the studio. So I'm gonna talk about the materials I carry around with me when I'm outdoors and creating these sketches. The bare minimum that I carry with me is a leather bound book with loose pieces of paper, my pencil, preferably a mechanical pencil, so I don't have to keep sharpening it, and an eraser somewhere in my pocket. And this is just for sketching outlines, minimal shading. If I want to become more involved in my sketch, if I have more time to stop and work, then I'll carry around a pencil kit. This is a homemade kit and it has in it the different leads of pencil. It has a white pencil if I need to work on a white highlight. It has a little extra water. It has some brushes, some watercolor medium, some white gouache, titanium white, razor blades, clips, paper towels, et cetera, and always essential a bottle cap to put the water in and quickly toss it out when it's dirty. If I have more time, and I think I'm gonna go out for maybe a three mile walk, maybe two hours, then I can bring my pocket watercolor kit. And this is a homemade watercolor kit. I carry it in a bag so it stays protected. I generally carry a shoulder bag or a backpack. And it's a book that's been altered into a sketch kit. I have water. I have some opaque white, which I'll talk about later. And the sketch kit is meant to be held in one hand and work with the other. In no way do I need to tip this sketch kit over if there's water in it, because again, it's a loose bottle cap and I can simply toss the water out. Rather than the majority you buy on the market, you have to flip. This is loose. So in here I have the color and the palette. The paper clips here with these clips. I always carry extra clips as you saw in here. I have brushes stored in there with little pencils and a little file in the back with paper, perhaps some sketches that I've started that I'll go back to and visit. So that's a sketch kit that maybe gives me a half hour to 45 minute window to work with. It's a small piece of paper. If I think I'm going to go out maybe to a nature reserve and settle down for four or five hours, then I'll bring a larger kit. And this can sit in the backpack with the tripod. It's a bit more of a commitment to carry around. And this kit is a day planner with brushes, some water, clips, a palette. I'll talk about the palette later, a series of colors, again, a water container that is removable so I can toss the water out without having to tip the whole palette over. I have an eraser, kneaded eraser, a pencil, mechanical pencil, some paper towels and series of paper. And to demonstrate how the paper stays on there, I can just grab a sheet, grab a few clips. The important thing is that you might be out on a windy day, maybe over on a bridge, overlooking the river. And so you wanna open this, and you don't want anything to blow away. So immediately you start clipping things down, and I can clip this board to the zipper, clip the paper down. And I have more clips if I need them. The brushes are all held in with a pocket protector that's attached to a piece of paper and slid in. So nothing's gonna fall out. I'm not gonna be chasing things, which could be annoying when you're trying to get to work. So really, an example again, if it's a windy day, I can simply just open the book. Nothing's gonna fall out, hold down my paper, clip, and I'm good to go. This is more of a tripod setup and a lap style setup. It's a very difficult sketch kit to hold in one arm and work this way. Your arm will tire, versus this one. It's much easier to hold in the one hand. This medium sketch kit is probably my favorite one to carry around because I can go long distances. I have about 45 minute commitment time to sketch. So maybe I can get two sketches out on a three hour walk. So this is my preferable sketch kit. If I'm out really in the big outdoors, maybe camping for a few nights at a park, or staying with friends out of town and going out for long sketches, this is great. This is great. But, again, this is preferable maybe for city sketching, 'cause you can park yourself out of the way, stay out of the way of traffic, not have to set up a tripod, have your one arm hold, and work quick. And then also back to the pencil sketching and how important that is in the work, and how everything starts with a great pencil sketch. So this is really the most essential sketchbook of them all and compromises the bulk of my archive, our pencil drawings. So I hope that is of help to you and that you go out sketching.