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New bit of kit for sketching (1 Viewer)

Den

Well-known member
I prefer sketching in the field (or hide) using a scope. I usually use pencil but sometimes I want to use a bit of watercolour. I find it a pain to get the fieldbox out with brushes and water etc, especially in a hide. I've discovered a Brush pen from Pentel that you can fill with water and us as a combined brush/watercontainer. It's called an 'Aquabrush'. Cheap and very versatile if you just want to colour in sketches. All I carry now is a field box of paints and the Aquabrush along with pencil and pad.
 

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I'll make a note of this aquabrush - sounds like a handy bit of kit to carry around in my rucksack.
I'll normally have a small sketchbook, 2B/3B & 6B pencils, sharpener and perhaps a small selection of watercolour pencils to make a quick note of colours...doesn't take up much space or weigh too much to carry around all day.

GILL
 
Den said:
I prefer sketching in the field (or hide) using a scope. I usually use pencil but sometimes I want to use a bit of watercolour. I find it a pain to get the fieldbox out with brushes and water etc, especially in a hide. I've discovered a Brush pen from Pentel that you can fill with water and us as a combined brush/watercontainer. It's called an 'Aquabrush'. Cheap and very versatile if you just want to colour in sketches. All I carry now is a field box of paints and the Aquabrush along with pencil and pad.

This sounds very good indeed. Where can you buy it from Den?
 
That does sound very handy to have. I hate dragging a cup for water everywhere too!
 
Karl J said:
Sounds a neat little device, does it actually work as well as it's supposed to ?
It's good for sketching with watercolour pencils or as a brush with tradisional watercolours. In bad weather I sketch using a Karisma Aquarelle Soluble Graphite pencil and use the Aquabrush to add tone to the drawing. This makes for a simple wet-weather kit as I only need the Karisma pencil and Aquabrush to continue sketching even in the rain!
 
Thank you very much for this tip. I'd seen the brush in the US, and pondered its field uses, but had not considered that just one brush could be so useful. Are you using the water in the tiny barrel of the brush to change colors on your brush, too? Just how far can one barrel of water in the brush go? How big are your sketches using this brush? How many different colors? I'm just trying to imagine how to use this technique. My trick for field keeping wet in wet actually wet ...is to carry a traveler's perfume spray bottle 3"x1/2"round and spray the zone ... the smaller spray limits the wet area ... These bottles are hard to find, admittedly. But keep in mind this option when you travel around and see those racks of travel containers.
 
Gave it a go

Thought I would give the brush pen a go and worked well. The first one was just a small sketch and I used the brush to soften water soluble pencil and add a little color. Second sketch was a little more ambitious to see how well it would put down more pigment. Picked up pigment easily from colour pans (I use Winsor and Newton artist colours).
Bit tricky at first getting used to the 'flow' of water as it is controlled by squeezing the barrel, but I found putting it upright and squeezing the brush with some absorbent paper easily cleared pigment and/or surplus water from the brush.
Surprised how far the water reservoir went and one fill would certainly let you do a number of sketches.
Well worth a go - thanks for the tip!!
 

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