Top six tools to use for figure drawing outside1!

Do you want to do life drawing on the go and draw human beings in a place that’s not a stuffy classroom or your dirty bedroom? Well I have the tools to help achieve that crazy dream! Here are the top tools and programs that’s great for drawing on the go!

(all images from etchr labs)

1)      The Etchr-Etchr  is an art bag designed by artists and made by artists. This bag has everything you need to draw on the go! Do you need an easel to draw but don’t want to lug around a heavy bulky object? Just bring a small tripod, attach it to the bag, and you have an amazing easel! Need a computer bag for doing digital art at the coffee shop? Just open the back zipper and you have a snug place to fit your computer! Want to bring your entire studio space and compact it into a small modular bag? The etcher is exactly what you need. This bag is amazing! Every bag comes with many modular straps and tons of Velcro, so you can customize your bags set up with ease. I use the Velcro straps to hold my sketch book in place to draw as well as using them to hold my pencils! go get yours today!

((All images from procreate website)

2)      Pro Create + Apple Pencil  procreate is an amazing painting app for the iPad. It’s a great program to draw on the go due to its simple UI design and tons of brushes that simulate traditional mediums! I even used to procreate for my step by step figure drawing guide located here. Procreate is great for painting as well as line arting with its many ink brushes. These brushes automatically correct your lines while you draw so you will always produce super clean lines instead of a wobbly mess! On the painting side procreate blends colors well and has brushes that simulate acrylic, graphite, pastels and oil colors. The only con about this program is the fact that it does not have a clipping mask feature that’s prevalent in Photoshop and paint tool sai. This makes digital layer organization and coloring in the lines a lot harder than in other programs. Using the apple pencil with this program is a must or you will never obtain that sweet sweet pressure sensitivity aka your lines will forever hold the same weight! The apple pencil is great and has a nice soft plastic tip that won’t scratch up your iPad. You can also charge it on the go as simply plugging the pencil into your iPad will charge your pencil. Other than the layer problems and needing to use the apple pencil, please give procreate a try!

(art by Anna Cattish)

3)      Gouache paints  Gouche is a very traditional tool that is useful on the go. Gouache is super pigmented paints that are between acrylics due to how opaque they are, and watercolors. Gouache is great for painting on the go due to its easy clean up and set up. Everything about these paints are water soluble so you can easily clean up the mess you make after painting. Another plus about this medium are its reactivation properties. Gouache is the only medium that will let you blend your colors together even after they have dried! That means you can stop midway in a painting and simply pick up where you left off without any of the grievances that acrylics have due to drying way to fast as well as not being able to reactivate and oil colors that take way too long to dry. The only downside about gouache paints is the fact that they are very expensive for only 5ml tubes of paint. The typical price is 10-20 and up for a tube of paint depending on the color.

((images from utretcht art supplies)

4)      Moleskin Sketchbook Moleskins are small yet high quality sketchbooks great for travel. Most sketchbooks are big and bulky, but Moleskins can fit into wallets purses and even wallets. Moleskins also come in different varieties. 

  . Like to write? Get the lined paper Moleskins . Love to draw and use graphite, buy the standard Moleskin

! I use my Moleskin watercolor sketchbook on the daily, due to be such good quality. The binding has never fallen apart on me and the leather covers feel nice to touch! Moleskins ever con with a book bank that can help keep your sketchbook closed, or you can use it as a book mark to keep your place!

((images from jet pens and tanukiartshop)

5)      Copic Ciao markers The price may be high for these art markers, but they’re blend-ability and portability cannot be beat. Typical markers give you streak lines and its hard to put down solid colors. Since Copic marker are alcohol based, you’ll never have this problem until your marker runs out of ink. Copic ciao markers are the smaller versions of the bigger Copic markers, so they are even more portable than normal and easily fit into pockets and small bags. The only down side is that the portability goes down the more colors you want to have on your person. I always recommend bringing only monochromatic colors with you when you are drawing on the go. That way you still have a nice range of values, without bring the entire rainbow of markers with you for travel. Check out the Copic Ciao

(Image from Jetpens.com)
(

6)     Pentel Pocket Brush Pen If your just outside for some simple sketches this brush pen is perfect for you. Small portable and can fit in your pants pocket, this brush pen holds the darkest of Indian ink, just so you can draw on the go. You don’t have to deal with the messy process of dip pens when the ink is in small easy to change out cartridges! You can find a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen  online!

Hopefully I have expanded your already long list of need to grab art supplies! Tell me how these supplies have worked for you in the comments below!