Supplies

  • Anna Barnes Supplies List

    For Sydney Classes you will need a basic sketch kit comprising of:

    your favourite sketchbook

    a small travel palette with a few watercolour 1/2 pans (yellow, red and blue minimum)

    a few watercolour (aquarelle) pencils

    a black waterproof pigment pen

    a size 4 or 6 paintbrush (or water brush)

    small water container with screw top lid

    Please avoid Montmartre, Jasart, and Born brands. If you are unsure, see the more detailed list with links below.

    • This is what Anna takes overseas when going on a sketching holiday

    • Anna travels with “carry on” luggage ONLY. No checked in luggage.

    • It is the recommended list when learning Travel Sketching with Anna overseas.

    • Supplies can be ordered online at ArtSup an Australian based art supply store.

    • (If you have booked a trip with Anna as the host but you are learning from another Artist Teacher, please see their supplies list on the TUTORS page.)

    SKETCHBOOK

    -Travelers Notebook (brand) with Cream MD Paper Insert

    OR

    -A5 Stillman & Birn Gamma Series sketchbook with softcover in portrait orientation.

    PENCILS

    -Albrecht Durer Faber-Castell colours of your choice (water soluble pencils)

    -Prismacolor Premiere Pencils (just a few, PC1078 Black Cherry is my favourite)

    -Pencil Sharpener

    PENS

    -Uni-ball EYE fine (or micro) black waterproof (made in Japan)

    -Pentel brush pen (black)

    -Posca pen PCF-350 brush (white)

    -Posca pen PCF-350 brush (black)

    -Lamy Safari Fountain Pen with converter (optional)

    -Platinum Carbon Ink (optional for fountain pens)

    BRUSHES

    -Escoda Reserva Travel Brushes size 4 & 6

    -Small Bottle with screw top lid (for water)

    PAINT

    -Small Metal Foldable Travel Palette filled with 1/2 pans of your own preferences of Daniel Smith Watercolors squeezed from the tubes. Dont carry tubes overseas. Fill 1/2 pans 1/3 at a time, let them dry and blu tack them securely into the palette)

    OR

    -Travel Watercolour set, Winsor & Newtown Cotmans Pocket Plus (12 x 1/2 pans)

    Daniel Smith Watercolors

    (you choose your favourites, you need at least 1 blue, red and yellow. You do not need all these for your first trip)

    Shadow Colours:

    Moonglow

    Lunar Blue

    Raw Umber Violet

    Indigo

    Greens:

    Perylene Green

    Green Apatite Genuine

    Undersea Green

    Deep Sap Green

    Sap green 

    Fun Colours:

    Buff Titanium

    Potter’s Pink 

    Opera Pink (or Winsor & Newton Opera Rose)

    Reds & Oranges:

    Rose of Ultramarine

    Permanent Alzarin Crimson

    Carbazole Violet

    Transparent Pyrrol orange

    Yellows:

    Nickel Azo Yello

    New Gamboge

    Aussie Red Gold

    Browns:

    Van Dyck Brown

    Transparent Brown Oxide

    Raw Sienna

    Burnt Sienna

    Yellow Ochre

    Blues:

    Cobalt Teal Blue

    Manganese Blue Hue

    Cerulean Blue Chromium

    French Ultramarine

    Prussian Blue

  • For Overseas Experiences:

    Chairs on a packing list are generally part of the urban sketching supply list. Do you usually carry one with you? Do you urban sketch already? Most urban sketchers like to carry their own chair, they are very small and light and can fit in a backpack. Usually it is a 3 legged stool from camping shops etc. 

    I highly recommend you choose yourself whether to bring one or not.

    Here is the reason…

    There are millions of chairs in Vietnam and SE Asia, and they are available to use easily. Simply order a coffee or a snack from a vendor and use their chair. It helps with connection to the culture and environment.

    However….

    Not having a chair/stool will reduce your view points and “perfect sketching” angles, because you are restricted by sketching what is near your chair and within your line of sight.

    So while not having one greatly increases your connection with the local culture, it will over time limit your sketching and ability to grow as an artist. You may find yourself (as I did) sketching your cafe drink over and over, whilst wishing you were in the street challenging yourself with a bigger view.

    Also when you have a significant amount of time to sketch, but are using a street vendors chair to sketch long after your drink/bowl of noodles are finished, the pressure to hurry up and move on will also affect the quality of your work.

    NB: If you are a larger body type, or extra errrr…. “Heavy”, then you may have difficulty with market stools and local cafe chairs in Vietnam. They are very very small and plastic, also they can be very low to the ground. I have had guests on previous trips struggle with getting down so low, and also being too heavy for the chairs and feeling like they might break them. If this will be your concern, you will want to find a public street bench or a more upmarket cafe or restaurant designed for foreign tourists to sit in. This might also be a reason to bring your own.

    Anna does not travel with a chair. Anna prefers connecting with culture by interacting with vendors and competing sketches in the time it takes to eat a bowl of noodles.

    Please reach out if you cant decide what is best for you, and we can have a discussion about your unique needs.

When you learn to travel sketch with Anna Barnes or participate on any of our Art, Food & Culture Experiences a small portable sketch kit is imperative. If you are booked with one of our tutors please see their supplies list on the tutors page.

“I will cut adrift—I will sit on pavements and drink coffee—I will dream; I will take my mind out of its iron cage and let it swim—this fine October.” — Virginia Woolf