Last night, I took a sketchbook that was 5.5″ x 7″ and my new watercolor kit to the bookstore coffee shop to test drive it.  I found that holding the sketchbook and kit in one hand strained my hand and I couldn’t do it very long comfortably.  Most people probably would have just “sucked it up” and strengthened their hands.  I, however, decided to modify the kit.  I found an old CD case and mounted all of the necessary equipment into it and ouah la, a mini portable studio.  I have spent much of this evening customizing this.  My wife says I need therapy.  She says that as though she were the sane one.

I didn’t take many pictures before I started, but I did take a few as I began customizing this mini sketch kit.  As I said above, I started with the watercolor kit.  I’m not sure now whether it was Reeves, Winsor & Newton, or Koi, but it and many more like it are readily available at any art supply store or website.  I also had a 5.5″ x 7″ sketch pad with 90# paper in it.

I decided that I wanted to carry these things in an old CD case that I had lying around.   The sketchbook didn’t quite fit into the cd case, so I took it to Office Max and asked them to  cut it to fit.  This was what I took to the coffee shop.  The problems I had were that the book kept trying to flop down, and the watercolors weren’t stable.  I decided to add velcro to the bottom of the watercolors.

I had an old drawing board that had become ruined with water damage.  I popped the rivets off of the clip and super-glued it into the case.  Then I needed a way to carry it.  I had an old gym bag that had been ruined by a cat.  I took the shoulder strap off of it.  I found some old canvase webbing and bought stainless steel rings from Wal*Mart.  I super-glued these into the case and held them in place with clothes pins while the glue cured.  I through in a waterbrush and a clip on LED light and an hour later and I had a mini portable studio that I could sling over my shoulder and take anywhere I want to go.