My Compact Sketch Kit

I thought I'd share with you a compact kit I took with me on a recent 3-week trip that served me well, and I will take the same kit on our upcoming 16-day Grand Canyon river trip!

The bag is an Eagle Creek Pack-It Quarter Cube, and has a nice little carrying handle and a mesh cover. In the bottom I fit pens (Platinum Carbon Desk Pen and a Uniball Vision Micro), a mechanical pencil, 2 water brushes (fine and large), travel brushes (daVinci 1573 10 and 5), mini mister, pocket knife, reading glasses, stencil (bristle) brush for spatter, small piece of straw, 1/2 contact lens case holding a piece of kneaded erasure, and two small clips. I have a homemade palette from a Fisherman's Friend cough drop tin. Paper is a few sheets of 4x6" watercolor paper (in this case, Fabriano SP). I keep several more sheets of paper in a separate bag to refill this kit as needed. I have a piece of non-corrugated cardboard as a paper support, lined with contact paper and edged with artist tape. I clip a sheet of paper to the support when I sketch. I made a viewfinder from a piece of 4x6" watercolor paper to help me frame my compositions (I taped embroidery floss for the cross-hairs). The paper, support, and viewfinder are stuffed into an empty Canson watercolor 4x6" block. A Sea-to-Summit X-shot is used as a tiny collapsible water container. I usually I have a water bottle with me. Oh, and let's not forget a piece of Viva paper towel!

For those who are interested in knowing the paints in my palette, they are (starting at upper left): DS Hansa Yellow Medium, DS New Gamboge, DS Organic Vermillion, DS Q. Rose, DS Q. Violet, HB Manganese Blue Nova, DS Cobalt, DS French Ultramarine, DS Phthalo Blue GS, DS Phthalo Green BS, DS Yellow Ochre, DS Q. Burnt Orange, DS Burnt Sienna, WN Winsor Violet.

Here are some sketches I made during that 3-week road and river trip this May through California and Oregon:  

Agate Beach just south of Crescent City, CA

Rafts awaiting rigging along the Rogue River, Oregon

Along the Rogue River, Oregon

Sprekles Temple of Music, San Francisco, CA

Pacific Grove, CA

Joshua Tree National Park, CA

Keeping Motivated for a Daily Art Practice

What keeps you motivated for a daily art practice?  Do you keep a daily Artist's Journal?  I love to keep one where I sketch in pen and watercolor, and it's a great place to paint what inspires you for that day, try out new subjects or techniques, record what you see during an outing...the possibilities are endless!  It's your journal!

For instance, on the day I sketched this dragonfly, I had revisited the old deck of Medicine Cards I hadn't seen in years and blindly selected the Dragonfly card.  Oh, I've always been intending on drawing a dragonfly and that day was as good a day as any!

Many times I am inspired because I have seen a particular subject or technique from an artist online that I want to try.  On my favorite Facebook artist groups I saw a couple folks posting a technique of painting a watercolor wash first, then drawing over the wash in pen.  How fun!  I thought I'd give it a try.  It's a very nice technique for when the subject is rather colorless.  Even ordinary household items suddenly look artistic!

One recent morning I noticed beautiful morning light streaming into the kitchen counter so I grabbed some berries from the refrigerator and took some photos of them in that light (because I knew the light would be gone before I could paint it).  The berries cast wonderfully long shadows.  I wanted to play with painting shadows in watercolor, and this gave me the opportunity.

If it's lovely outside I will step out with my sketch kit and find something that draws my eye to sketch, whether it be a grand landscape or urban scene or the detail of a plant. Of course, if the day involves any kind of errand or outing, it's a prime opportunity to sketch something!  A recent meeting of the Southern Arizona Climber's Coalition at our local Barrio Brewery provided one such opportunity to capture the lovely stained glass faux balcony doors in the room, and get some practice quick-sketching people too!

And if I'm at a loss, I search out my own collection of photos, or I look online at places like morgueFile,  Paint My Photo, or Wikimedia Commons (to avoid copyright infringement) for photos that tweak my interest and sketch those.

It helps to have on-going projects. I am working on some "retrospective" trip journals, sketching photos from past trips I did before I got into sketching. It's a great way to reminisce about wonderful trips you've taken.

I also am in an Artist Trading Card exchange project with fellow artists, and I use my Artist's Journal to explore certain ideas first.


There are so many ways you can keep motivated for a daily art practice, whether in you Artist's Journal or in other journals and art projects too!  I hope you have some ideas and inspiration for your own daily art practice!

A New Challenge: EDiM

I've seen some of my favorite sketchers take on this challenge, and I thought it'd be fun to try it this year!

EDiM = Every Day in May.

This is an organized endeavor, launched by Wendy Shortland.  Wendy has generated a list of subjects to draw for each day, and everyone participating gets to post and share with each other.  The fascinating thing are the many interpretations of the day's instructions.

To join on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/296443287101735/

To join on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/edmeverydayinmay2011/

Zeroing in on a style...maybe?

 I seem to be zeroing in on a style lately, or at least a subject.  I am such a big fan of color, and painting flowers is a natural way to immerse myself in color!  And, why not do some wet-into-wet backgrounds to play with color some more?  These four paintings have been a joy to create...and a joy for me to look at.

Is it okay to admit it when you like your own creations?

(I know I certainly let myself know it when I don't!)

Joshua Tree National Park

Mark and I just got back from an extended weekend of camping, rock climbing, and sketching (!) with a great group of people.  This was our first trip since we've gotten home from our 3-month-long trip to Australia and I was raring to go!

In this first sketch, done from Ryan Campground, are the Saddle Rocks by Ryan Mountain.  There are actually a few rock climbing routes on these rocks, the longest in the Park, including the ever-popular Walk On The Wild Side (5.8).  Mark and I did that climb last time we were in J-tree.






 On our second day climbing, we started at the "Hall of Horrors" area.  Mark and Scotty immediately got on a pumpy sport route called Jane's Addiction, and at 5.11b, was harder than I wanted to get on!  I used the time to sketch and take photos.  Here are a couple sketches from these photos:

On the third climbing day, I actually got some climbing in, but in the afternoon I took the time to do a study of a visiting bird, a Joshua Tree, and a Number 3 Camalot.

Once I got home I was able to go through the photos I took, and draw and paint some of my favorites, including this of a blooming beavertail cactus:

The Sketchbook Brigade - Urban Sketchers Tucson

Agua Caliente Park sketch-out

At our latest meeting of the Sketchbook Brigade (a sketcher's Meetup.com group here in Tucson) I suggested to our leader Robin that we add on to our group name Urban Sketchers Tucson, and she agreed!  There is a global organization called Urban Sketchers, and numerous satellite organizations for local groups of urban sketchers.  The global Urban Sketchers is pretty cool, with their motto, "See the world drawing at a time", and they even have a manifesto which outlines their definition of "urban sketching" (which is basically a sketch of a location--it doesn't have to be in a city--done on location).  This falls right into a major component of Sketchbook Brigade activities!

Our most recent sketch-out was last Sunday at Agua Caliente Park on the far north-east side of Tucson.  It was my first time there and I was amazed at what must be hundreds of mature palm trees.

Another recent sketch-out was at the Sweetwater Wetlands where we tagged-along on a meeting of the Tucson Plein Air Painters Society.  As you can imagine, living in the desert tends to draw us to the few wetland areas in Tucson to sketch the novelty of it.

Sweetwater Wetlands sketch-out

Sketching everyday but slacking in the posting!

Though I do indeed spend many hours a day on art, sketching every day, trying to learn, refining my tools and process, enjoying what other artists post, I've been a slacker in posting!

Well, to start, here is a page from one of my sketchbooks I did today.  I walked outside to a saguaro in our neighborhood that always catches my attention every time we drive by it.  It's got so much character and is not the standard shape for a saguaro.  I've been meaning to sketch it, and this morning I finally did.  I intended it to be a regular plein air sketch, but after I finished drawing the saguaro I didn't want to "ruin" it by drawing the other stuff around it (a mesquite tree devoid of leaves, the roof of a house).  So I wrote my thoughts about the cactus, and the word "resiliency" came to me.  Then I added a border and Q. Burnt Scarlet to fill the frame.  For a finishing touch, I re-drew the border with a fountain pen containing Private Reserve Velvet Black ink (a water-soluble ink), and touched around the border with a damp flat brush to allow the ink to spread.

I have been trying to draw from life more.  It's so tempting to sit comfortably at my desk and sketch from photographs, but people say it's better to draw from life, so that is what I'm trying to do.  Even if it's a vacuum cleaner!

So I've been watching Brenda Swenson's DVD Sketching Techniques With Watercolor, and I am just soaking it up!  Her work is amazing, both her fine art pieces and especially her sketches.  I have to admit that even though I know that tools don't make the artist, I recently ordered some of the tools that Brenda uses.  I ordered that palette she likes, the Heritage (aka Mijello) 18-well sealable palette.  And since I have to fill that palette  with fresh paint, and many of my favorite paint tubes are low or out, I had to order several new tubes of paint (but first I had to decide what paints will make the final 18 for the palette).  Then I noticed the brushes she uses, the Loew-Cornell 7020 Ultra Rounds, so I had to get a set (sizes 14, 10, 6) of those.  Besides, my two rounds are kind of old and can be moved into my plein air kit.  And that flat she uses, the daVinci 5080 20mm, that looks interesting.  I've not used flats hardly at all, but maybe I should.  My only 3/4" flat is 10 years old that I bought from my art teacher at the time.  Maybe the daVinci one is better?

Art Journal or Artist's Journal?

"Nitty-Gritty" artist's journal page,
5.5x8.5" Canson Universal Sketch pad

In a pinned post on the Artist's Journal Workshop Facebook group, Cathy Johnson makes an excellent distinction between an art journal and an artist's journal.  To quote:  "Art journal or artist's journal? We've been talking about our expectations of ourselves and our journals, and that's one reason I make that distinction. An art journal is expected to be ART--an artist's journal is simply your journal, and you are the artist. You can make art in it, if you wish--or you can play or plan or explore or even write your grocery list! The pressure to produce is gone. Give it a try!"

Personally, I like to do both, but primarily I yearn to spend most of my time with an artist's journal.  Someplace where I feel safe and free to sketch, doodle, write, experiment, explore,...whatever!  An artist's journal to me is a chronology of an artist's continually unfolding process of development.  And, well, as an artist I am currently on the steep end of the learning curve!

But in order to feel free, an artist must feel comfortable with the book itself.  For me, even the most inexpensive watercolor sketchbooks are still too intimidating to use as my artist's journal.  Well, I recently found the solution in a post by Alisa Burke!  Besides being an amazingly creative artist, she is also a believer that you don't have to buy expensive materials to make beautiful art.  I was blown away by what she could do in cheap sketchbooks of 65-lb paper, even using watercolors!  Wow!  

The Canson Universal Sketch pad
takes watercolors pretty well!

So I searched what inexpensive sketchbooks out there in the 65-lb range, and I discovered the Canson Universal Sketch.  Reading reviews, people were using watercolors in it with pretty good results.  So on my next order to Amazon, I threw in an order for a 5.5x8.5" Canson Universal Sketch pad, and it's perfect!  This sketchbook holds up surprisingly well with watercolor paints. No bleed-through so I can paint on both sides of the paper. The bright white paper allows colors to be vibrant. 

I know I shouldn't feel stifled by thicker-papered, nicer, more proper watercolor paper sketchbooks to use as my artist's journal, but I do. So to work around my hang-ups, I've found a really great solution for me. Besides, my fountain pen draws so smoothly on this paper, which I also really appreciate.

The first photo illustrates my "nitty-gritty" use of this sketchbook.  While waiting to backup my hard-drive, I sketched the backup drive.  While watching Danny Gregory's interview with Prashant Miranda, I paused the video and sketched Prash--my very first attempt to sketch someone's face!  And while browsing the web I came across a cute illustration of a gecko that I wanted to remember, so I copied it into my sketchbook, and noted the colors I used.

The second photo illustrates an attempt to get some more drawing, painting, and calligraphy practice in my artist's journal.  I got out my stack of reference photos and felt in the mood to sketch a blooming prickly pear.

Sketching Australia

I'm back from 3 months in Australia!  Since I am very much into sketching these days, I made sketching what I saw in Australia a high priority for my time there.  Before I went, I carefully decided what sketchbook, pen, and watercolor pigments to bring.  I decided to try the Stillman & Birn Alpha because it looked like the paper was thick enough to handle watercolor paint yet thin enough to provide an ample number of pages in the book, and allow me to feel freer to write in it too.  It worked out great!  I brought my favorite pen, the Platinum Carbon Desk Pen, and spare Platinum Carbon ink cartridges.  I originally thought I'd bring ink in a little nalgene bottle with a syringe, but didn't want to bother with that.  As it was, I only used 2 ink cartridges for the entire 3 months.

It was of course a wonderful experience to do so much sketching, and I really feel that my skills improved with the almost daily practice.  It wasn't too difficult to find the time to sketch while travelling with a non-sketcher (my husband), as I was able to sketch while he was doing other things.  But still, oh what fun it must be to feel free to sketch where ever, whenever, and for as long as you want when travelling solo or with another sketcher!  Someday I shall have to experience that.

If you care to see more pages from this sketchbook, I created a Facebook album.

Nadia's Tomatoes & My New Flickr Page

I have been doing a daily sketch to keep in practice and here is one I want to share.  My friend Nadia posted a photo onto Facebook of her small balcony tomato garden and I thought it'd be a great subject for today's sketch.  Yes, it is November and tomatoes are growing in Tucson (I love a warm climate)!  Before I sketched I envisioned rich juicy watercolors, and I think I got near my vision.  For the background I dropped in French Ultramarine into each pre-wet area and let the color flow.  I dropped in some Lunar Black as well.  The tomatoes are painted with Holbein colors.  Holbein has a color I just love, Permanent Rose (PR60), but I had stopped using it when I read in www.handprint.com that that pigment is fugitive.  I should use it more, though, since I love it!  I think it's okay to use it for sketching anyway, don't ya think?

So I have long wanted to be more active in the sketching communities on Flickr, but I was hesitant because I didn't want to mix up my sketching activities with my photography activities.  After all, not all of my photography contacts care to see my sketching photostream, contacts, favorites, etc, and vis versa.  So I decided to create a separate Flickr account for just art, called (of course) "Stacy Creates":  http://www.flickr.com/photos/stacycreates.

Find the beauty in the mundane

Inspired by Pete Scully and Larry Marshall, who turn ordinary fire hydrants into amazing works of art, I walked myself kitty-corner across the street to our nearest fire hydrant and sketched it!  It was great fun, so simple yet complex enough to be interesting.  Try it!

Another outing with my sketch-mobile...

Cortaro Bridge over the Santa Cruz river

Tucson and neighboring Marana are doing really great for developing urban bike paths throughout the city, particularly along the major washes and rivers.  Within an easy bike ride from my home is a wonderful bike path along the Santa Cruz river, which actually has water running through it most times of the year!  This morning I hopped on my bike with my sketch kit and sketch stool in a day-pack and rode to a location I had noticed on a previous outing, offering a great view of the Santa Cruz flowing under the bridge at Cortaro Road.  And this is my sketch!

As I was putting the finishing touches on my sketch a man who had been jogging along the path informed me that he spotted a 5-foot rattlesnake a little ways up the path, if I cared to go check it out.  So after I packed up my stuff and I rode to the area he indicated, but the snake apparently had left.  Oh well.

Trouble in Preradise

Like any newbie sketcher (or perhaps some veterans, too!) I cannot resist trying out different art supplies.  Especially pens!  People wrote about sketching with this fountain pen or that, and I was so curious to try different pens.  I started with the Lamy Safari, widely regarded as a "reliable, dependable workhorse", but that has not been my experience at all with it (I've tried two of them!).  I then discovered the Platinum Carbon Desk Pen and I thought my search was done, I loved it!

But then curiosity rose again, and I bought a Noodler's Flex Konrad (what are those flex pens about anyway?).  It was okay, but the line was too thick for my taste.  Then I encountered a blog post from Quebec sketcher Larry Marshall about the Pilot Prera.  I began dreaming about the Prera as a pen that would make up for any deficiencies I perceived in my reigning favorite pen, the Carbon Pen (strange long shape, cap not post-able; I'm aware that I can saw the body shorter but such things are irreversible and what if I don't like the way it handles then?). The Prera looked sturdy, wrote fine, the cap posted, etc.  People seem to like it.  So I bought one (now my most expensive pen!) and I was in Prera-dise.  For awhile...

Now that I've had some experience sketching with the Prera I have found myself growing increasingly frustrated with this pen on the papers I am sketching on these days (Strathmore 400 CP, Aquabee Superdeluxe).  Sometimes the ink just stops flowing and I have to get out a scratch sheet of paper to get it going again, and sometimes even then I would fight the pen.  Yesterday as I used it to draw the Hotel Congress in downtown Tucson, I was fighting with the pen again, and I said to myself, "That's it!  This pen is not working for me!  The Carbon Pen has never failed me so it's time to go back to that!".

But before I purchased a second Carbon Pen (one to keep on my desk, one to keep in my traveling sketch kit), I needed to make sure it was the pen what was the problem and not the ink.  So I flushed my Carbon Pen, installed a Platinum converter that I bought awhile back and never used, and filled the pen with Noodler's Lexington Gray ink, the ink I had been using in my Prera.  It worked wonderfully, as I thought it might.  Nice ink flow, no skipping, even on the relatively rough cold press watercolor paper.  I did a test page on the Strathmore CP watercolor paper and I was convinced the problem was in the Prera, not the Lexington Gray ink.

So made a JetPens order for another Carbon Pen this morning.  That should do me!

Everyday Matters

Sometimes when I want to sketch something, I'm indecisive about what to sketch.  There are so many options (or sometimes nothing seems "right")!  It helps to have guidelines and the Everyday Matters (EDM) challenge list is an excellent source of sketch subject ideas, the best I know of.  I've been aware of it for awhile but have never used it.  The first item, EDM #1, is "Draw a shoe", and while I have already as a matter of course drawn three pairs of shoes, I thought I'd sketch another pair I haven't drawn yet and "officially" start the challenge.

I'm not going to push myself to do one a day, I want to feel free to sketch whatever.  But I can use this list when I feel stuck, indecisive, or uninspired.  I'm not sure if I'll get through the whole thing (likely not, the list is now huge and overwhelming at 328 items and counting), but that's...okay.  It'll always be there when I need it.  

Maiden voyage on my sketch-mobile!

Inspired by the Danny Gregory film "Red Hook" featuring Tommy Kane where he rides his bicycle to sketch the Red Hook bar, I've been recently getting my bicycle in working order (fixing both flat tires, fixing the shifter, tuning the gears, lubing the chain) so I too can have a "sketch-mobile". This morning was my maiden voyage to our local library. It was fun, and I want to do more of it!

Sketching in the High Sierras

I recently spent a week in the Eastern Sierras of California hiking, camping, backpacking, and rock climbing.  Of course, I took what opportunities I could for sketching too!  For the hiking/car-camping portion of the trip I brought my regular sketch kit in my Eagle Creek Pack-it Sac, and got a few sketches in:

Many were done while the men (my husband and a friend) were otherwise occupied (hiking to the summit of Mt Starr while I lingered at Summit Lake and Mono Pass, in one case; I sketched a boulder while they were bouldering in another case).  In a quiet moment at Whitney Portals I also was able to sit by the lake and sketch the store.

From Whitney Portals we backpacked up to Iceberg Lake (12,600 ft) at the base of Mt. Whitney, the highest summit in the contiguous United States (at 14,505 ft).  From there we rock climbed one day up to the top of Mt. Whitney, and on another day up a neighboring peak, Mt. Russell (14,094 ft).  On those climbing days, there wasn't much time to sketch, but on the day we arrived, I did manage to sketch our tent amongst the granite buttresses adjoining Mt. Whitney with my ultra-minimalist sketch kit:

Because I would be camping at 12,600 ft I decided not to bring any of my fountain pens (I thought they might be a bit leaky at high altitude), buy instead brought my Pigma Micron pen.  The sketchbook is one of the single-signature booklets I recently made, containing Aquarius II watercolor paper.  And my watercolor kit is a set of 5 half-pans in a mini-altoids tin containing New Gamboge, DV Red Rose Deep, DV French Ultramarine, Phthalo Green, and Burnt Sienna.  Oh, and to round out the kit is a Pentel Aquash fine-tipped waterbrush.  All contained in a quart-sized zip-lock bag!

So much inspiration in the High Sierras for sketching...now that I am home I'm enjoying sketching from my photos of the trip.

Sailing the Sea of Cortez

We recently returned from a 6-day trip sailing the Sea of Cortez!  Mark and I were invited by an old friend to come to his home in San Carlos, Mexico and take a cruise on his sailboat across the Sea of Cortez to the Baja side and explore the area.  Seas and winds were generally calm, but we finally did have enough wind to sail back to the Mexican mainland on our last day.

Of course I got some watercolor sketching in, but mostly this was a trip where I was able to take some very satisfying photos.  I have a gallery of my photos from this trip at http://www.pbase.com/segan/sancarlos.

Current Project -- Europe 2011 Trip Retrospective Journal

I had started a Retrospective Trip Journal in January, and was making good progress through it (I got through ten years, to 1994!) when I decided to put that project in hibernation and work on our most recent trip, our month-long whirl-wind trip through Europe!  I was feeling the pull to jump to that trip since it was our most recent trip, therefore the most fresh in my mind, and certainly deserving of its own sketchbook.  I decided to use a Fabriano Studio sketchbook I bought recently on sale, and this has 12 sheets of cold press watercolor paper (for a total of 24 pages).  So I constructed a "budget" of how many pages I could allot to a particular place.  In total, we visited 14 places in Europe, so for some places I could only allot 1 page to that place.

Fortunately I took lots of photos on our trip so I have many references to sketch from.  Also, as I remember eating certain delicious foods in Europe, like baguettes, cheese, chocolate, and gelato, I am able to find photos online for reference too.  I also thought I'd include logo sketches, like Trenitalia logo, or the sign for Mary's Hotel in Paris where we stayed at, all easily found online.

For the cover of the book I had photoshopped a line of our train travel route on a map of Europe and pasted it onto the cover:

So we started our trip in Paris, and I ended up using 3 pages for that place, which will force me to reduce to one page for another place:

We next rode to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland and had a wonderful two days there:

I am currently working on finishing up our time at the Cinque Terre region of Italy (one of my favorite places of the trip!):

This project has been a lot of fun, and a great way to reminisce on a truly wonderful trip!

Recent Daily Sketches

I am 59 days into my 75-day sketch challenge and I am finding myself growing a lot more comfortable with the sketching and painting process!  I really do feel freer with it, and I find myself loosening up about it.  And that is wonderful!  I no longer stress as much about being accurate or perfect, but try to have fun with it.  That is the main thing.  I still wonder each day what I am going to sketch, and find a little anxiety about that.  I try to keep it relevant to the day, but that is kinda hard when days get routine.  I do have a big stash of reference photos I can sketch from, though, as I did one recent day:

The reference photos are from one of my Pbase photo galleries, here and here.  I have been very much into nature photography from 2005 through current day, though in recent times my photography has been more for trips only.  And now that I want to incorporate travel sketching into my trips, I am not sure how much photography I'll be doing since I'll want to sketch too!

But I do try and sketch from life when I can, even mundane stuff like running shoes.

 This sketch was one that actually required maybe the most concentration of all I have done so far...all those twisting laces!

Sketching our little Christmas cactus was actually easier than I'd have thought, given all the little pad segments:

So now that I am growing more comfortable with both drawing and painting, I hope to incorporate into my "schema" the ability to use more artistic license in my use of color in my sketches.  It's been difficult to pin down and articulate what I want to grow into, but I have come to understand that it's about choosing personal color rather than local color.  There is a great thread on Wet Canvas started by Virgil Carter on this topic, and I think Virgil's work is a wonderful (if especially vibrant) example of the use of color I'd love to incorporate into my art.  I've seen it before, in the work of John Nieto, Sinclair Stratton, Patrice Federspiel, Jo Lynch, Harriet Peck Taylor, and many others...artists who are not enslaved by local or realistic color, but freely incorporate vibrant and wonderful colors into their work.  I'd love to do that!

Mini Sketch Kit Ready To Go

Next month we are embarking on a long road trip from Arizona to Washington D.C. and even beyond to New York City!  So naturally I want to take along a watercolor sketch kit to do some trip journal-keeping, and I need to keep it small so I can always have it with me when I walk around these cities.  So here is the kit I am going to try, all contained in the Eagle Creek XS Pack-It-Sac.

First is the watercolor sketchbook itself, which I recent made using coptic binding and Strathmore Aquarius II watercolor paper.  The size of the journal is 3 1/2 x 5", which opens nice and flat to a 5 x 7" 2-page spread.  This will be the first time I've worked with this paper, but I chose it because it is nice and thin.  I made the book using four signatures, and each signature has four folios (i.e. 8 pages) each.  So this little sketchbook has  32 pages, comparable to a pocket watercolor Moleskine.  The cover is made with leather scraps, with the holes reinforced by 140lb watercolor paper I glued to the leather.

The watercolor palette comprises 5 half-pans of paint glued using rubber cement to the inside of an Altoids Smalls tin.  The colors I have in the palette are based on the "artist's primaries" palette on handprint.com:  Daniel Smith New Gamboge, DaVinci Red Rose Deep, DaVinci French Ultramarine, Daniel Smith Phthalo Green YS, and Daniel Smith Burnt Sienna.  I used rubber cement to adhere a cut-to-fit piece of a yogurt container to the top of the tin for mixing.

To round out the kit I have a Mini mister spray bottle, a large Niji waterbrush, a Platinum Carbon fountain pen filled with platinum carbon ink, a cuff to an old sock to wipe the waterbrush, a slide holder to help me frame my sketches, and a piece of Yupo paper cut to the size of my sketchbook to use as a color mixing palette.