Portable art kit revisited

This is my third incarnation of a portable sketching/painting kit for plein air.  When I was showing the kids at summer camp my art kit, I realized that a lot of the art supplies I take for granted are a novelty to others.  I also tend to let it grow a bit, but it hasn't gotten so heavy that it's a pain, and I like having extra supplies for myself or others.  So let me share what's inside my art bag!

Main access is through the top,
which is convenient. 

An old camera bag converted
into my portable art kit.

First, the bag: an old camera bag sent to me by my father.  The cube shape works wells for my rectangular sketchpads and containers.  The main access is through the top, but there is also a little zippered side compartment which is handy for smaller items that might get lost in the bottom of the bag.

Inside the bag I keep:
• Two spiral bound sketchbooks, the current books are an Aquabee Super Deluxe (9 by 6 inches), and a Pentalic Nature Sketch (6 by 12 inches).


My current portable art bag and contents (not including kitten!)

My pencil box.

• A pencil box with an assortment of mechanical pencils, artist drawing pencils, charcoal pencils, erasers, and pencil sharpener. I prefer the white vinyl erasers, since they seem to work best for me.

• A brush box with four Niji Aquabrushes. These are waterbrushes that have a hollow barrel in the handle that can be filled with water. One is a flat, and the others are rounds in three sizes. I carry a small ruler and some Q-tips.

 

My brush box, an inexpensive
plastic container from Walmart.

• A miscellaneous box. A bit of everything: emery boards for pointing pencils, toothpicks, a cut credit card for scraping, and GUM brand teeth cleaners for lifting. Derwent Blue-gray watercolor pencil, Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils in Black, White, and Payne’s Gray, and a #11 Xacto knife (blade protected by an eraser). A Signo Uni-ball white gel pen, and a Prismacolor white colored pencil. Oh, and a white birthday candle for watercolor resist.

    • A magnifying glass, an all-purpose multi-tool, and an assortment of binder clips (good for windy days).


Some of the tidbits from my miscellaneous box.

• Extra paper towels, zip-lock bags (different sizes), and a travel spray bottle with water. Extra batteries for my digital camera.
• Pens. Sepia Micron Pigma and Faber Castell Pitt artist pens in black and dark sepia, in assorted sizes.

 • Water soluble pencils. Derwent watercolor pencils and Derwent Inktense pencils, each 12 piece sets, and a set of 24 Kimberly watercolor pencils.

• A travel set of Daniel Smith watercolor paints I put together myself.  You can read about the palette and paint choices here.

Watercolor travel set.

If you'd like to see the previous incarnations, visit my Flickr photostream here for the first art kit, and this blog post for my second art kit.

I've learned a lot from what other artists carry, and am willing to try new things, so please feel free to share your tips!






SketchCrawl on the museum grounds



One of the brick pathways that wind through the outdoor displays.



What a nice group of sketchers we had!  Our outing on Saturday was planned as part of the 32nd Worldwide SketchCrawl, an event that spans the world and joins artists and drawing enthusiasts for a day of creative sketching fun.  We met at the Collier County Museum from 9 am to 12 noon, and sketched and painted the lovely grounds in the back. 



Our sign, so visitors could find us.




It was a hot day, just right for a rest in the shade!

 

Being able to peek over other artist's shoulders while they're creating is very inspiring.  I came away with new ideas and increased enthusiasm to make art.  I felt lucky to be around these wonderfully creative people!  Check the SketchCrawl page (the tabs at the top under the banner) here on the blog soon for upcoming photos of our group, and for the next SketchCrawl location.  There is also an online photo gallery at our local paper - Naples News - that you can visit now to see some of the participants and their work.

Detail of a shell mound recreation.

You can click on the images to view them larger, and you can also see them larger on my Flickr photostream.

Thanks for stopping by!

Nature art fun at Grace Place

A serene spot at Grace Place.

Recently I had the opportunity to participate in a visiting artist program at Grace Place, a local community center.  Right now they are having summer camp, but they serve children and families throughout the year.  My participation was solicited and assisted by Kerri Meehan, president of Expression of Art, LLC, and it turned out to be a wonderful experience!

During the previous week the kids came to visit me at Freedom Park, one of my "outdoor studios."  I showed them my nature sketchbooks and sketching kit, and talked to them a bit about what I did and why.  I gave them a quick demonstration of how simple art can be, using watercolor and just a few quick strokes of the aquabrush.  They also received a quick introduction to watercolor pencils, which were a great hit!

When I visited Grace Place, I set up a specimen table with various plants, cones, seedpods, shells, fossil shells, and a piece of an opposum jawbone (complete with teeth!).   A magnifying glass was provided for those who wanted to take a closer view.  I  made sure that the plants I selected were benign, in case of skin reactions.  Once upon a time I broke out into full body hives after weeding a flower bed - yikes!  We didn't want anyone to have a similar reaction.  I also tried to choose things that they might find in nearby woods, parks, or even in theirown  back yard.


Selecting a specimen to draw.



Sharing my thoughts.



To start, I shared my approach to nature journaling.  I discussed drawing as a process - where we enjoy the drawing part and try not to worry about the end result.  Next we talked about observation, and how to be a nature detective.  Using the words who, what, where, when, and how, we explored ways these questions could direct our observations and our drawing process.  Then we added information we could get from our five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.

The next step was to select a subject - either a specimen from the table, or something from memory or the imagination.  Then, the best part: drawing and painting!   In addition to the pencils and watercolor paints provided by Grace Place staff, Kerri contributed colored pencils, and I offered my Kimberly watercolor pencils.  All of the media were popular, and the kids mixed them for some really interesting results.

I was impressed with the process as well as the results!  I saw thoughtful drawing and writing; I saw young artists taking care of their supplies and sharing the popular colors.  Some artists drew habitats after asking questions about their subject; some artists emphasized the colors they saw in the stems and shells which made for wonderful interpretations.  One girl drew various views of the oppossum jawbone, and journalled interesting facts from the field guide I brought along. 

Drawing an apple snail and its habitat.



The next day, we shared our drawings and  participated in a group critique.  At the beginning of the session, I explained how artists often share and comment on each others work, and we set some guidelines: be respectful, be positive, and be thoughtful.  Each sudent took the artist's chair at the head of a semicircle and introduced themselves, then told us why they drew that particular picture.  The artist-of-the-moment then selected from the hands raised to either answer a question or to hear a comment.  We structured comments in this format:   What I like is ______, because _______. They were encouraged to use art words such as color, shape, line, and  value. 

There were four groups of students that day, and each group came up with insightful comments and interesting questions.  I could tell that getting this immediate feedback from staff and peers made our child artists feel supported and valued.  I could also see some of them reconsidering the way they initally viewed their own work.  They certainly made me think, and expanded my own boundaries where art and observation are concerned! 

I'd like to say thank you to Kerri and to the staff and kids at Grace Place for contributing to a wonderful experience!




A proud artist!



Ferns along the boardwalk

Only spread a fern-frond over a man's head

and worldly cares are cast out,

and freedom and beauty and peace come in.

~ John Muir

Patterns in nature have always intrigued me. I focus my camera on a rock or tree bark while others are taking photos of landscapes! While walking on the boardwalk at Freedom Park the other day I was captivated by the fronds of swamp ferns and the patterns the shapes and shadows made. The ferns were lush and a gorgeous shade of green in the late afternoon sun. A sense of wonder and peace fell over me as I mused on its beauty. The quote above by John Muir (the founder of the Sierra Club) captures those feelings in a few succinct words.

I tried to capture the scene in watercolor, but I’m not sure any painting could illustrate the moment. I had to stop my painting to go to work, and when I came back to it, I decided that I liked the unfinished look of it. Somehow I felt that the light area at the bottom reflected a sense of the luminous radiance of light on leaf. Last week I participated as a visiting artist for a local summer camp, and while looking through my sketchbook, one of the children asked if I was going to finish my cormorant pencil sketch. I explained that I had decided that it WAS finished, and that it was okay to leave things a bit wanting.

That interaction started me thinking about the artist’s role as an editor. Sometimes I am so wrapped up in the details (you know me!), that I forget to let the viewer participate. I like the idea of inviting someone into a drawing or painting and letting him (or her) finish the story, so to speak. Having the outside world intrude and limit my painting made me think of other limitations as well. Limitations from the inside (as we edit the things in our drawings), as well as limitations from the outside (not having time or the right paint or color or paper) pushes us into the realm of creative problem solving.

Limitations can be our opportunity. When money and time for art are scarce, we learn to use the materials at hand or invent new ways to create. We learn that a quick drawing from the car can be as rewarding as a hour at the drawing table. Sometimes the limits come from my own expectations – when I’m disappointed in how a sketch turns out or I’ve overlooked a glaring error in perspective.

I’ve found that once I’ve reached that point, a shift in my thinking takes place. Since the art is not what I visualized and therefore “wrong”, I feel much freer to experiment since I can’t possibly make it worse! I open up creatively; the limitations have vanished. And another shift happens...many times (not always!) my willingness to experiment results in a piece that works and has more meaning.

Do you have experiences like this? How do you problem solve in life or as an artist?

Lubber grasshoppers

Southeastern  lubber grasshoppers, click to view larger.

This year these grasshoppers seem to be popping up everywhere. Lubbers are beautifully patterned and colored tropical grasshoppers that enjoy moist areas such as marshes, swamps, ditches, and damp pine flatwoods. They live throughout Florida and range throughout the southeast United States. Stocky and sturdy, lubbers have rudimentary wings that don’t support their bodies, so they hop or walk instead of flying.

This spring I witnessed hundreds of young grasshoppers walking across a gravel road in the Fakahatchee; the small nymphs (about ¾ to 1inch long) were jet black with a yellow lateral stripe. As adults, they sport variable patterns and colors of yellow, red, and black. The bright colors can be considered nature’s warning sign; lubbers have toxins in their blood to discourage predators, and often spit digestive contents laden with the same toxins at attackers.

I read that adult lubbers in northern Florida are mostly black with yellow markings, but in southern Florida they’re mostly yellow with black and red markings. Interesting! I captured these with my camera along the boardwalk at Freedom Park so I could sketch the details without having my subject move around a lot. Even so, the closer I got, the more the wary grasshoppers moved away from me.

As I sketched these fascinating insects, I marveled at the delicate shadings of golden yellow, rose, and black on the wings and body, and how they contrasted with the armor-like exoskeleton. I drew these in my Pentalic Nature Sketch sketchbook (6 x 12 inch size) with a black Pitt Artist Pen in the XS size, and painted them with Daniel Smith watercolors.

If you’d like to read more about our lubber grasshoppers, please visit the links below.

From the University of Florida Entomology Department

And this site has everything you’ve always wanted to know about lubber grasshoppers!

If you’d like to look at more nature sketches from southwestern Florida, please visit my Flickr photostream.