//How to Carry and Paint Water Color Sketch on a Trip//

I had so much fun sketching and painting during our last trip to Paris that now I am sharing my tools and how to pack the water color materials to carry a long on a trip.

First you want the materials as small as possible. So let's take a look at below image of water color materials the last time I took on my trip to Paris.

1. A small paint palette. This is important as this one material you need to mix in the paint.

2. A flat water color pan. I love using water color pan rather the one in a tube. I found that a tube will dry faster and no longer can be used.

3. Mechanical pencil and it's refill

4. Various sizes of water color brushes

4. Good eraser. Choose good eraser because some of them leaves smudges on the paper after being used.

5. Small sketch pad - mine is 6 in by 9 in.

6. Brushes and pencil case

7.  Last a fairly large bag to put them all. Mine is a shoes bag given free from the airline.

8. Ideally you will need to bring 2 empty containers for the water but I did not bother to carry these with  me as I figured I can use a cup of glasses from the hotel. Which was what I did.

These water color materials will stay flat in the suit case and place them in the bottom of the suitcase underneath clothes so the paper will not get damaged.

Upon arrival unpack and place your water color bag within reach and where you can see it all the time. Otherwise with all the excitements coming you will forget all about it.

During the first day upon arrival, explore the hotel and the surrounding area. This is the time when you will see a quiet place where you can sketch. It can be in a quiet lobby hotel, in the garden, in a quiet brasserie near by or a garden nearby outside the hotel.

Do not shy to paint with people around you. Usually they won't bother you and won't even come to you to ask what you are doing. And do not hesitate to ask a cup of water from the hotel staff. Or you can use an empty bottle water and cut the neck and fill it with water.

Use your imagination to paint as a subject. It can be a flower in the hotel garden or public garden. Or buy yourself a bouquet of flower from the nearest flower shop like I did. It always makes your hotel room pretty anyways! And do not hesitate to carry the flowers a long with you to the spot where you are going to paint. I brought my flowers around the hotel area to create a photo shoot and a video (here). No one care about it - they looked but usually they just kept on walking a way.

Find the time to do this is the hardest part - because you are on a trip. And you are in your destination to explore the city for sight seeings. So it is up to you how you squeeze your time to do it. For me, I usually get up early morning before we started to go out exploring. And when we came back in the afternoon since the day is longer during summer I still have time to paint and to photograph during late afternoon. And the light during that afternoon is the best light to paint and to do a photography because the sun light is soft.

You can use anything for your subject. And you can also paint in the hotel room. "A window hotel room' is always pretty to paint. "The flower you bought in a cup sitting on the table', "your cosmetics', "your pretty high heel shoes". If outside, you can paint "fruits", "a window", "your pocket book sitting on the chair", "the street", "the building" or "part of the building like door", etc. Do not try to analyze the subject too much. You do not have a lot of time to do this perfectly anyway. So just do a sketching. It is okay if it is not perfect.

Last do not forget to sign, put the date and place where you painted it. Later on it will be nice to see it back with the date and place where you painted the arts.

Keep your book especially to do this so next time when you go on a trip to other places, bring a long this book and paint again.

I painted these peonies in our hotel room sitting by the window. I love painting flowers but what I really like about this is the window wrought iron railing. This painting was a quick sketch and it has not finished but I like it when it is spontaneous like that. The art "love" I painted at home a long time a go. One thing is that I forget to put the date which is not too late to do so since I still remember when I painted this.

I painted these cherries in the hotel garden and the cherries came from the breakfast buffet provided by the hotel. Mentioned in my last post (here).

The next day I painted the apricot and strawberry breakfast fruits from the breakfast buffet. I was going to do the bananas but I have not gotten the time anymore. Mentioned in my last post (here)

This sketch painted in the garden while looking straight at the door and and the window above it. It is the hotel door that leads to the garden where I was sitting and painted this.

The two roses sketches below I did it just yesterday at home. This was a quick sketch. The one on the left was the first and the one on the right I painted it after. I like to repeat the same object to loosen my hand and to see how to manipulate the water. It is a practice.

This is the final roses painting. Although it is far from perfect I started to find the right technique to do it. From there I can add other technique to it. Well, this has nothing to do with the traveling water color subject but I thought I add them on here for you as well.

So I do hope you will bring your sketch pad water color materials and paint during your trip. It is a fun and beautiful way to practice but it is also wonderful to look back when your traveling sketch pad filled with beautiful of your sketches from the trips you went.

Thank you so much for stopping by!