Because “I’ll just bring a few supplies” is how you end up with 40 pounds of art stuff and nowhere to sit.
You’re one a trip and sitting somewhere gorgeous (a lake, a canyon, a weird little diner with perfect light) and you think I should sketch this. And then you remember your supplies are a chaotic jumble at the bottom of a duffel bag, your water cup is a gas station coffee lid, and your “travel brush” is a full-sized round you optimistically tossed in three days ago.
That’s where we come in. Whether you want to grab a ready-made kit or build your own, the goal is the same: a compact, grab-and-go setup that makes art-making on the road feel easy instead of like a logistics problem.
Let’s pack.
First Question: Buy or Build?
There’s no wrong answer here, it mostly comes down to how much you want to fuss.
Buy a pre-made kit if you want something expedition-tested, thoughtfully designed, and ready to throw in a bag today. We carry Art Toolkit kits, made just up the road in Port Townsend, and they’re genuinely lovely—rugged, watertight, and small enough to disappear into a jacket pocket or daypack. Their Pocket and Folio Art Toolkits come with a refillable palette, mixing surface, and room for your essentials.
Build your own if you love the tinkering, want to use paints you already own, or just enjoy the deep satisfaction of a custom setup. This is where the metal tins and trays come in (we stock those too), and honestly, half the fun is in the assembling.
Lots of artists do both, a pre-made kit as the daily driver, and a DIY tin for experiments. We’re not here to judge. We’re here to enable.
The DIY Watercolor Tin: A Love Story
The classic move is a small hinged metal tin, think mint-tin energy, but built for paint. Here’s the basic recipe:
The tin. Any small metal tin or tray works. We carry empty ones sized for half-pans and full-pans so you’re not prying the lid off an old candy box with a butter knife. (Been there.)
The pans. Empty plastic or stainless steel pans sit inside the tin (we carry both). Fill them with your favorite tube watercolors, let them dry for a day or two, and you’ve got a custom palette that’s lightweight and won’t leak in your bag. Stainless pans are a step up, they’re magnetic, so they stay put and you can rearrange your colors like a tiny pigment chessboard.
The mixing surface. The inside of the lid usually works, but if it’s not playing nice, a little white enamel paint or a stick-on mixing surface gives you something to blend on.
The colors. This is the part people overthink. You don’t need 24 pigments on a mountainside. A tight travel palette — a warm and cool of each primary, plus an earth tone or two — will mix almost anything you’ll see outdoors. (Want help building one? That’s a whole conversation we love having in person.)
Tiny Tool Hacks That Punch Above Their Weight
The paint portion of the kit is only half the battle. The little stuff is what separates “I made art on my trip” from “I carried art supplies on my trip.”
- Travel brushes. A brush that caps into its own handle protects the bristles and shrinks to half its size. A single good travel round will get you surprisingly far. Add a water brush (the kind with a refillable water-filled handle) and you can paint with zero cups, zero spills, zero fuss, perfect for a moving car or a windy overlook.
- Water, contained. A small leakproof bottle plus a collapsible silicone cup weighs almost nothing and saves you from the eternal “where do I put the dirty water” struggle.
- A rag or sponge clip. Clip a small cloth to your bag strap. You’ll use it constantly and never lose it in your lap.
- A rubber band. Wrap one around your sketchbook to keep pages from flapping in the wind. Genuinely life-changing for the price of nothing.
- A binder clip or two. Holds pages down, clips your kit shut, doubles as a tiny easel prop. The duct tape of the art world.
Sketchbook, But Make It Portable
For travel, smaller is friendlier. A pocket-sized watercolor sketchbook (look for one rated for wet media so it doesn’t pill or buckle) slips into a back pocket and invites you to actually use it. Accordion-fold sketchbooks are a delightful option too. You can paint one continuous panoramic scene, or just flip to a fresh panel without fumbling.
The best travel sketchbook is the one small enough that you’ll actually bring it. A gorgeous heavy hardbound book that stays home does you no good at the trailhead.
Packing It All Without Losing Your Mind
Once you’ve got your pieces, corral them. A small zip pouch or pencil case keeps everything in one grabbable unit, so you’re not digging through your bag for a stray pencil while the perfect light fades. The whole rig (tin, brush, water, sketchbook) should be small enough to grab on instinct. If it requires a packing strategy, it’s too big.
That’s the real secret to outdoor art-making: friction is the enemy. The easier your kit is to deploy, the more you’ll use it, and the more you use it, the better your trip sketchbook becomes.
Come Build Yours With Us
Whether you want to walk out with a ready-made kit or assemble a DIY tin from scratch, we’d love to help you put it together. We can talk you through travel palettes, show you which tins fit which pans, and help you avoid the rookie mistakes (RIP to every brush we’ve crushed in a bag). Come see us! Bring your trip plans, and we’ll help you pack for them.
Planning a trip and not sure what to pack? Come visit us. We’ll help you build a travel art kit that’s small enough to actually bring along, whether that’s a ready-made or a custom tin you assemble yourself. Bring your trip plans; we’ll help you pack for them. Have a kit you’ve created with us? Tag us on Instagram to share!
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