Plein Air Painting Preparation for a Trip to Alaska
After many years of wanting to visit Alaska, I finally planned a trip lasting 10-days across several different towns - Anchorage, Denali, Girdwood and Seward being the bulk of the trip. In the past, I took a road trip in August 2017 through the Eastern Sierras in California and brought my oil painting gear, which was a bit of a hassle since it filled up my entire backpack. For this trip, I’m flying - so that complicates but also simplifies things a bit. I’ve decided to go with watercolors and sketches for this trip and minimized my materials for ease of use when traveling.
Materials I’m Packing
I narrowed down my materials to the bare minimum of what I think I will need while traveling - to do pen & pencil sketches and watercolor sketches. I originally thought about bringing the actual tubes of watercolor but decided against it due to the possibility of it being a problem at the airport, since I’m only bringing carry-on bags. So I filled up my palette with a lot of paint and added more amounts of White, Yellows and Blues mostly, since I’ll be painting landscapes - I won’t be needing much of Red or Magenta. I’ll most likely have more than enough paint for the entire 10 days.
Here’s a full list of my materials (click links below to view on Amazon):
Brushes
Pencil Sharpener
Erasers
Pens - White & Black
Paper Towels
What I Hope to Accomplish
I’m hoping to fill up the entire 24-page, watercolor sketchbook with Alaskan landscapes and keep it as a visual journal of my travels. With the toned tan sketchbook, I’m bringing it to do quick black and white sketches when I may not have enough time to do a watercolor sketch. I don’t have many activities planned for this trip which leaves plenty of time for painting and relaxing.
And from what I’ve read online, sunset won’t be until 10:35 PM - which will be kind of weird, but it’ll give me plenty of daylight to paint later in the evening if I wish.
Stay tuned for future posts, as I plan on sharing some of my sketches, watercolors, and photos from the trip.
[UPDATE]: Here’s what I accomplished on my trip: Alaska Plein Air Painting Trip Recap
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