my daily carry art essentials

Most importantly - the sketchbook herself! I'm about 3/4 finished with this, which I'm pleased about – I've never been consistent with a travel sketchbook before. (Wish I'd started years ago! PSA: start now!)

This is a Talens Art Creation. I wish the paper was a little thicker (because I work with mostly wet media) but it's great for what it is.

Most of my art essentials live in this Tom Bihn HLT2 (Handy Little Thing Size 2 - the larger one).

What it looks like inside, packed and ready to go.

This little tin of Neocolor II crayons is the last to go in and the first to come out. I'm having a moment with them. I've had the basic set of 15 for years, and hadn't used them much, but realizing I could buy singles and build my own set has been a game changer. They're one of my most-used supplies in the studio lately as well.

My little Art Toolkit palette with gouache. Most of these are Holbein gouache (not acryla gouache - that doesn't reactivate) but there are a couple of other brands mixed in. Happy to provide details if you're interested.

Those are cheap Amazon travel brushes. I like them, except that the bristles get messed up and squished as I'm putting them away. I'm experimenting with putting a straw around them to keep everything in place.

I don't love waterbrushes, so I carry tiny jars for water. These were previously for jelly at my very beloved coffeeshop/brunch spot, Bintliffs.

Miscellaneous tools: washi, double-sided tape, wite-out, foldable scissors, and a tiny spray bottle for reactivating my palette.

Small ruler, masking tape for sketchbook edges.

Erasable colored pencils - for sketching, in theory, but I don't really use them much. They'll probably come back around to my rotation sometime, though.

I love these Derwent Intense colored pencils. They're water-soluble, which is my thing, clearly. I also have a set of Inktense blocks in my studio, and they are incredible. So pigmented and easy to move around.

Mechanical pencil. A must. I use them all the time for sketching and for mark-making. This is a Sakura SumoGrip and it's very pleasant to hold.

About my artsy day bag:

I've been using a Tom Bihn Nomad 16 because it fits my laptop. I pack all this up before leaving the studio – usually just down to our patio, if we're being real. Kiddo and I spend most of our summer days outside in our yard.

My every day journal. I use this for everything except art-making. I've always been a journal person, and I've kept an everything/junk journal consistently since 2018. This one is from Scribbles that Matter. It's a dot grid version of their Everyday Journal, but it doesn't seem like they're selling them anymore? I bought 3 of these a year or so ago - I wish I'd gotten more. (The Pro pages are thicker than I prefer for an everyday junk journal.) Anyway. I always use an A5 dot grid journal.

I added a second pen loop, and they currently hold a Tombow Fudenosuke and a Pitt Artist Pen (FH).

Journaling favorites: A Tom's Studio Wren (here's a coupon), an assortment of Paper Mate Flairs, and my favorite set of Zebra Mildliners (a gift from my bestie Sara) in the green pouch (a Tom Bihn ghost whale). That pouch also holds a Tombow Monotwin and a Pentel Pocket Brush pen.

Tombow Dual Markers. A classic. They've been in and out of my rotation for well over a decade – they're currently in. I mostly love them for light base layers. Fun Evan Fact: I did not know they were water soluble until about a month ago.

Reading material. I generally carry a few things at a time. My e-reader is a Boox Go 7.

More essentials: airpods (the noise-canceling ones that don't have the little nubs are one of my top 5 favorite things on this earth), bug spray because I live in a tick/mosquito hell, a lighter for the same reason.

and lastly...

cw: i'm about to show you a tiny spider

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little dude who came to hang while I was taking pictures. (Not a regular carry in my art bag, tbh.)