Lobenberg On-The-Go Ink and Splash Plein Air Sketching Materials List:
One kneaded eraser or you may use a regular eraser.
Two double-ended water-soluble, black or dark gray Tombow pens.
One or two Ultra Fine Tip black ink Sharpie pens or any brand of .03 black ink non-water-soluble art pen.
One white chalk marker either round tip or chisel tip (there are many brands of chalk markers on the market. I like Bistro Chalk Markers), one 3/8 inch-wide flat watercolor brush, one 3/4 inch wide flat watercolor brush, and one large round watercolor brush (it should measure around 3/8 of an inch wide where the fibers or hairs go into the ferrule on the brush handle.
One inexpensive pencil sharpener.
One or two Ticonderoga soft office pencils. I like the fat “My First” children’s Ticonderoga pencils. They feel great in the hand.
A Strathmore 9X12 inch, Series 400,140lb. Cold Press Watercolor, sketch pad. We will use this primarily for water-soluble Tombow pen black and white exercises.
About two to three 22 inch by 30 inch, full sheets of Fabriano Artistico bright white cold press watercolor paper. You may also use Arches or any other quality brand of watercolor paper.
A set of about of five primary color tube watercolors. I’d suggest only professional-grade watercolor paint brands. My go-to brand is Sennelier’s l’Aquarelle watercolors. The primary watercolors are: Opera, Alizarin Red, Cadmium Yellow, Phthalo Blue (green shade) or Prussian Blue, and Cobalt Blue (or Ultramarine Blue). If you don’t want to make browns from your set of primary colors, you can add Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, and Burnt Umber.
A small, foldable watercolor palette or, since you will be learning my style of plein air sketching within the confines of the Palette Club studio, any large watercolor palette that has one or more large color mixing areas will do. When out in the field, I like to work with a Holbein aluminum, hand-held palette like the one below. You can order it from Blick Art Supplies for about $35.00. Whatever palette you purchase, make sure you have several flat mixing areas as well as paint wells.
Something that can hold about a quart of water. When outside sketching, I use a thermos bottle, but indoors, you can use whatever can hold about a quart or more of water and that you can easily dip your brushes into.
Not totally necessary, but I would recommend a set of Arteza color liquid chalk markers. Either an 8, 16, or 42 marker set.
A roll or two of absorbent paper towels.
P.S. Before the workshop, you may want to check out and purchase my On-The-Go Ink and Wash how-to booklet at blurb.com. The booklet also comes in a less expensive e-reader format.
PREPARING FOR THE WORKSHOP:
OK, now for your pre-workshop homework – the pre-workshop items consists of reference photographs and associated outline drawings (for tracing purposes). After the outline drawings are enlarged and traced onto sheets of watercolor paper (more about that later). . . and . . . when I am actually there at the Palette Club studio teaching in person, you will learn my On-The-Go Ink and Splash style from inking over your pencil-traced outline drawings to the finished sketch.
Below are the reference photographs and their associated outline drawings.
So, you ask, now what do I do with these ref. photos and outline drawings?– Print each of the reference photographs and outline drawings on your home printer. The majority of the ref. photos will not be that large, but they are large enough to paint from. If your vision is somewhat compromised and you want them larger, go to a print service and make plain paper color enlargements.
Take the outline drawings and enlarge them so that when you trace each one onto individual 11 inch by 15 inch quarter sheets of watercolor paper, they will fit snuggly within the quarter sheet format. Determine whether each image best fits horizontally or vertically. Then using a window during daylight hours or a light table. Tape your enlarged outline drawing down, and then tape your quarter sheet of watercolor paper on top. You can easily see the tracing underneath the watercolor paper, and you are now ready to trace with your Ticonderoga pencil. Trace each all the outline drawings onto quarter sheets. That’s it! You will ink over your tracing (following my style of expressive tracing) during the workshop and not before. Keep in mind that depending on the shape of each outline drawing, you may have some extra space to add remarks or notes like this sketch of mine below. With some scenes, you may have more space or less. It does not matter, just leave those spaces for writing in something during or after the workshop. If you have no space after snuggly fitting in an outline drawing, that’s OK too!
See y-all in September. I look forward to returning to the lone star state and the Midland Palette Club in particular!