Guides & Tutorials

This is a culmination of several passions of mine. I am an avid hiker and backpacker, an artist, and compulsive DIYer. Trained as an oil painter, a part of me has always been frustrated that oils were too heavy and messy to pack into the backcountry with me. Inspired by the peerless James Gurney’s sketch easel design, I set out to build an ultra portable, ultra lightweight setup. My goal? A minimum functional weight of under one pound. Welcome to the One Pound Painting Project: an ultra portable, extremely lightweight, backpacking easel and gouache paint kit. It isn’t pretty, [...]

An amazing, ultra portable sketch easel needs an equally appropriate sketchbook. There is a long tradition of painting with gouache on toned paper, but unfortunately the smallest premade sketchbook I could find was still 6x8”. With a little DIY spirit though, we can change that and have the perfect 4x6” gouache sketchbook (3x6” paintable surface). Materials Strathmore 462-206 400 Series Toned Tan Mixed Media Pad, 6x8"  - 15 Sheet 3/4" book rings Recommended Tools Razor Paper punch (preferred) or hole punch Drill & small bit Pencil Ruler Instructions [...]

Unlike the One Pound Painting Project easel and sketchbook pages, this is less a “how-to” and more of a “why” page. What else do I bring and what is my reasoning behind them. MEEDEN Empty Watercolor Palette with Half Pans It is incredibly inexpensive, lightweight, and carries more than its fair share. It comes with a dozen half-pans but will hold any standard half or full watercolor pan. You can fit up an extra half pan in each row for a total of 14 pans while retaining the brush storage in the center, or sacrifice the [...]