Seems like we were just in Santo Domingo -- but amazingly a whole year has already gone by and it's time for the 4th International Urban Sketching Symposium ... in Barcelona!



Thank goodness for the long holiday weekend, giving me time to plan what I'm taking along. In addition to my usual watercolor kits, fountain pens and sketchbooks, I'm taking pens loaded with various *non-waterproof* inks, a selection of colored pencils, some Neocolor II crayons, a bamboo pen and extra ink. The pens and pencils fit into my Niji wrap, and the extra ink (and a small container of salt) is in a kayaking dry bag to prevent any accidents in transit. For water containers, I have a collapsible dog bowl and an H2O4K9 dog water bottle with the bowl in the cap, both of which attach to my bag with carabiners. (Oh, plus a laptop and scanner so I can blog during the symposium!)

Speaking of bags ... all the warnings about pickpockets got to me, so I went out and got a Pacsafe Metrosafe 200 GII anti-theft bag. It's a fairly lightweight daypack and can fit my 7"x10" sketchbooks and paper blocks. I figure it will be useful in other places as well.

To keep a few materials at hand, I took this gardening apron from Terrain and machine-sewed some pen pockets into it. That way I can keep a small sketchbook and a few pens/pencils within reach. I was inspired by a something similar that Inma Serrano had in Santo Domingo.




I also "pre-colored" some sketchbook pages with India ink and shellac-based ink, so I can draw on top.



So... what are *you* bringing to Barcelona?