Hi everyone! As I write this I'm in Bocas del Toro, Panama, at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute field station. It is incredible. I've already seen a few creatures that were on my bucket list (stick bugs! sloths! cool tropical tree frogs!) and everyone has been incredible in our group.
My post today is mostly about how I travel with my supplies.
Naturally, I'm traveling with a bunch of scientists who need collection equipment, diving gear, special chemicals--so when they saw my two small bags their eyes just about bugged out of their head.
It's not just because I don't have the stuff they have, I also purposefully travel light. I've traveled enough that I had a pretty good idea what I needed and what I didn't for this trip.
All my art supplies. Really.
I decided for my trip to leave the majority of my technical computer illustration equipment (my laptop and my large drawing tablet) and leaving a lot of drawing tools behind as well.
My supplies (kind of in clockwise order starting at the top left):
- iPad, fully loaded with Creative Cloud software for makin' digital art on the go
- lab notebook
- sketchbook
- water brush
- regular round brush (a number eight)
- my watercolor set
- a monocular (I use this for drawing things that are further away, and basically brought this for bird watching and sloth-finding, so not my actual work)
- a white and a black colored pencil stick
- pencil sharpener
- lucky eraser
- Olloclip 4 in 1 lens for my camera (this thing has already proved to be INCREDILY useful to my collaborators and I--someone just borrowed this to photograph his specimens in lab when his real camera was doing a poor job!)
- Sensu brush (this makes drawing on my tablet so much easier)
- pens and pencils for drawing
That's it. Really.
In other news I'm having a fantastic time here. If you aren't following me on Instagram (@megtopus) you should, because I'm posting all the photos I have there. As a teaser:
Two-toed sloth!
What do you guys have as your must-haves for your artistic travel kit?