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We all love to travel!

You love to travel and I love to travel.  If you are creative like me travelling to new places is often a great way to gain new creative inspiration.  You see so many new inspiring things that your creative juices just overflow from all the stimulation.

This is the precise time when you will need the best watercolor travel set!

Did you now that all sorts of famous painters took their paints and brushes with them so they could paint whenever they had the itch?  In fact, even Winston Churchill, who was quite an accomplished painter, never left home on a trip without his paints!  I am actually amazed that he was able to produce as many paintings as he did considering all the other things that would have taken up his time, like WWII for instance!

So in addition to being able to paint while you are on holidays when you are inspired, a watercolor paint travel kit will also help you with de-stressing while on your holidays and we all know that when you are most relaxed and peaceful is when some of your best art comes out of you.

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Here are the things I think you need to make the best watercolor travel kit.

Notepad

A watercolor paint travel kit is not complete if it doesn’t include something to paint on.  Instead of bringing pieces of huge watercolor paper I prefer for a kit to have a nice watercolor notepad.  A notepad is much more manageable to travel with and when you are ready to start a new painting all you have to do is flip the page!

If you have read my other post about my home watercolor paint setup you will know that I prefer a heavier paper.   That is why I like the Canson XL Series 140 pound watercolor textured paper pad.  This pad comes in 9 X 12 dimension with 30 sheets of paper.  You can get it here.

Paints

You will need paints, obviously.  One of the things you can do on the cheap if you already have watercolor paints is just to pare down the paints you already have.  Maybe just pick  a dozen colors that you want to take and you can be more of a minimalist.  If you don’t have paints already than consider buying a set just for travelling with.

I like these Winsor and Newton Cotman watercolor painting plus set.  It’s great because I love Winsor and Newton paints, it comes with 24 different colors all in a nice easy to carry case (the lid also doubles as a palette) and it also comes with a Cotman Series 111 No.3 brush!

If that kit is too big for you than you don’t worry they have many other smaller kits to choose from right down to their pocket watercolor paint kit.  These kits are pretty reasonably priced in my opinion.  You can check out the Winsor and Newton kits here.

Brushes

Well if you buy a Winsor and Newton Kit you will have at least one brush because they come with one.  I like to have one large brush and one fine brush.  That should be enough to do all you want to do.  The point is to travel as light as you can.  So if you have brushes already than just grab a couple from your personal collection.  If not than you can buy another brush to go with the one you got in your Winsor and Newton Kit.

Kris prefers professional brushes but they can be expensive and you want to take care of them to make them last a long time which may not be possible wherever you are travelling.  In light of that you may want to buy cheaper brushes that you don’t have to worry about as much however you might not get the same results in your painting if your brush does not hold shape.

Here are some fairly cheap brushes and here are some more expensive brushes.

The Rest

You’ve got your paper pad, brushes and paints.  Those are all things that will readily fit into a suitcase or carry-on bag.  Depending on where you are going you may want to consider bringing a couple of mason jars however to us this seems like it wouldn’t be very travel friendly.  Instead, perhaps where you are staying will have some cups or mugs you can use.  Or just buy a couple of cheap solo cups when you get there.  We are sure you can figure out how to get a couple of cups or jars to rinse your brushes.

So there you have it!  Your very own watercolor paint travel kit that will serve you well for many trips and allow you to paint some of the amazing scenes you find on your travels.  If you want to read even more about watercolor painting check out 7 Tools To Make Watercolor Clipart I Can’t Live Without!

Go here if you need watercolor graphics for commercial use.

Happy Creating,

Pretty Little Lines