Make a Travel Art Kit for Creating on the Go

A travel art kit is a handy thing to have if you keep an art journal or notebook that you doodle and create in. Keeping some basic supplies with you on the go is an antidote to scrolling on your phone and helps you cement your creative practice by allowing you to do it wherever you are.

Considerations for a Travel Art Kit

Having a travel art kit is not about packing every supply you might use. It’s about thinking about the things you use most, what you might reach for when you’re in a hurry and just want to make something, or the basics that you turn to time and again.

It might be limiting your color palette to your most-used colors, or even just including a pencil and pen and you can add color later.

You might make it a creative challenge by only including one kind of pen or marker where normally you’d use a whole arsenal.

Creating on the go isn’t about using the same level of detail or precision that you might with all your tools and more time. It’s about gathering impressions, keeping images to remember them, perhaps to be used in a more detailed work later, or just to enjoy as they are.

Art Kit Basics

With all that in mind (not to mention how much you are willing/able to carry), it’s hard to give recommendations as to what to put in your travel art kit. But I would say the very basics are:

• Some kind of paper: a sketch book, art journal, blank postcards or index cards.
• Something to make marks: if you’re a pencil person, bring a couple of pencils. If you like pen marks, grab a pen or two.
• Something to add color: whether it’s markers, gel pens or a tiny watercolor kit, it’s fun to have color options if you have space.
• Ephemera: paper crafting is its own thing that needs a different set of supplies, but I think it’s fun to have some stickers, scraps of paper or other little bits to add to your creations if space permits.
• Adhesive: if you’re including ephemera in your kit or tend to grab found objects to add to your art, glue dots or a tape dispenser are great to have.
• Other tools: if you use watercolors, you’ll need a water brush, for example. With paper you might want a small pair of scissors or you can always tear things.

What’s in My Art Kit

I just pulled together some supplies for a travel art kit to go with my new art journal so this is very a work in progress but this is what I have right now.

Years ago I got this set of little sticker pages in a metal box (the box is like this one) and it still has some of those stickers in it as well as some ephemera from other places, a tiny collage on a piece of cardboard, a little piece of fabric for some reason, that kind of thing. If you don’t already have a little box you can use am empty mint tin for this purpose.

I will always have a pen and a pencil. Right now that’s a size F graphite pencil (because that’s what I had handy when I was pulling this together) and a black Micron 08 (0.5 mm). I also threw in most of a set of Prismacolor erasable colored pencils I stole from my daughter, who has all the best art supplies.

Gel pens would be another fun option. I think I’ll rotate supplies from time to time so it doesn’t get boring.

I also have some larger pieces of paper, index cards of various sizes, a paperboard gift tag, a glue stick and a roll of washi tape (which I use as much for making circles as I do taping things down.

The index cards I like because I can do a little thing and then stick it in the journal on a page that’s already been started. Or they can become cards, bookmarks or whatever else.

I don’t have any scissors right now but that might change.

Everything except the journal itself fits in this little bag I knit that’s easy to throw in my backpack or whatever bag I’m carrying.

Do you keep a travel art kit? I’d love to hear what you keep in yours!