How to build a compact dry-media kit

This mid-month newsletter grew out of a question I was asked in a recent Zoom session: “If you made a mostly-marker sketch kit, what colors would it have?” (Thank you Elizabeth!)

I looked at the kit I took on my recent travels and realized I packed a LOT of markers but I used only a fraction of them. By eliminating what I didn’t use, I’ve ended up with a compact mainly-marker kit.

So how did I do this?
• First, I went through my recent sketchbooks and found the mostly-marker sketches and swatched out the tools I used in each sketch.

What was interesting is that even the most colorful of these sketches used only eight distinct colors. And I seemed to reach for the same colors all the time.

Next, I collected all the material I used and did a full-color sketch with it.
I ended up adding one more marker: a bright yellow, for sunlit scenes. Then, I added a few colored pencils to the kit. Pencils let me get in to teeny nooks, and draw finer details very quickly.

Here is what my final markers+ other stuff kit contains.

So I now have a full-color, dry-media kit that fits into a compact pen case, with room to spare. I’ll probably add in a sharpener, an eraser and a graphite pencil, and then I’m set to sketch with my pared-down kit.
The exact details of what these supplies are don’t matter. You can use this process to review your sketches and figure what supplies you actually use and create your own pared-down kit!

Thank you for signing up so quickly to fill up the first week of my workshop in Istanbul! Many of you wrote to say you missed signing up, so I have opened a new session of the workshop from October 20th -27th, 2027!

And again, I am sharing discount codes you can use if you sign up now.

EarlyBird discounts exclusively for you:
Painters get a 10% discount using discount code EARLYBIRD
Non-painters get a 20% discount using discount code PARTNER

Read a detailed itinerary and sign up here. Don’t forget to use your Early Bird codes.
https://www.pleinairholidays.com/suhita-in-istanbul

This link has all the details you need. Grab that last spot!
Gateway to India Workshop(s), 2027

Our next online sketching session for paid subscribers is THIS Friday, August 21st and we will sketch bicycles and bicyclists, both of which were so essential to sketching street scenes in Europe this summer. (and, they were SO much fun to sketch once I got over my “I don’t know how to draw a bicycle” notion).

Join us by upgrading your membership at the link below, (You can join live or will receive a recorded video of the session) and I’ll send you a pdf with reference images as well as some tips on how I build up to sketching bicyclists zooting past me in real life!