Traveling Watercolor Kit and a Sketch

I carry a sketchbook and drawing materals with me nearly everywhere I go. You just never know when inspiration will hit or if there will be time to kill that could be spent getting ideas down on paper. I never used to think a sketchbook was essential; even being in an art program didn't convince me. It wasn't until I realized that I had more ideas than time that I started getting them down. Some things are sketches and some are just written. In addition to a regular sketchbook, I've been taking with me a watercolor book and tools.

I found most of these items at Hobby Lobby. Yes, they can be a bit pricey, but I'm a firm believer in buying quality art materials. I do have other travel watercolor kits, but this one is my favorite because of the water brush.

I love this sketch book so much that I went back to Hobby Lobby and bought them out. There are two other sizes (a landscape and a large book) that I picked up as well. I'm sure the cashier thought I was nuts for buying so many of them, but I don't want to run in to a time when they don't sell them anymore. Don't shy away from the price; for the same money you can buy a pad of tear-out watercolor paper that only includes a dozen or so sheets. These are books of 96 quality pages.

This is my travel kit. It's Koi by Sakura. It comes in other sizes. This one cost me about $30 and comes with one of the water brushes.

For traveling, I use mechanical pencils so I don't have to carry a sharpener as well. The pencil is only used for outlines. This one I got from a kit at school when I briefly was considering interior design. I don't like mechanical pencils for other drawing or writing, so these are the only ones I own. I also carry with extra lead and an eraser. For finishing watercolor sketches, I like to add details with pen, so I have a variety. Pictured here is a Micron and a couple Sharpies. I love the water brushes so much that I bought one in each size they offer.

This is something new for me and I haven't tried them out yet. They can be used with any water based medium, so I'm planning on playing with them with acrylics as well.

The current project for my ceramics class is to create a hybrid animal that doesn't already exist. Some examples of existing ones are a centaur, minotaur, jackalope, and so on. My creation is a cross between a hippo and a cheetah. In addition to the handbuilt clay sculpture, we also have to create a story of how this animal came to be and what it does. That will be interesting to hear from everyone. I've already decided to name my animal the cheeto and that he is the second fastest land animal, after the cheetah, of course.

He's a little chubby in my sketch. I haven't decided if I like that, or if I'm going to slim him down a bit when I start making him out of clay. Feel free to weigh in (no pun intended). I live for constructive criticism.