Canson Montval wire-bound watercolor pads (5.5” x 8.5″) or Moleskine’s pocket watercolor notebooks

Derwent sketching pencils, specifically with a hardness of HB

Extra soft vinyl erasers, such as this Faber-Castell dust-free eraser

Waterproof drawing pens, such as Faber-Castell Pitt artist pens (superfine nibs)

Winsor & Newton Cotman Compact Set or their professional-grade Artists’ Watercolor Compact Set

Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolor brushes (round size 2 & 4) or a synthetic squirrel hair brush (size 6)

A portable water container, such as the Faber-Castell Clic & Go Water Pot

A small canvas or plastic pouch for storing supplies, such as these mesh zipper bags from Blick Art Supplies

This helps make it easier to gradually transition from sketching indoors to sketching in a public space full of people. Rather than heading to a bustling café on a Saturday morning, you might enjoy sketching in a park or quiet museum courtyard instead.

Starting in a less crowded setting outdoors will help you adjust to the challenges and rewards of sketching on-location — i.e. finding a comfortable place to sit, working with the weather, looking for inspiration — but without needing to manage unplanned encounters and conversations at the same time.

If you haven’t had many encounters through sketching, it can be hard to imagine what kind of people will approach you during a sketching session — and so of course, we tend to imagine the worst, don’t we? “What if a professional artist comes up to me and immediately points out how I got the perspective wrong?”

But in our experience, we’ve discovered there are generally two types of people who approach you while you’re out sketching on-location: People who want to sketch, and people who already sketch and simply want to connect with another artist. Trust that the people looking to engage with you in a meaningful way are most often people who will share in your joy, not take away from it.

During those serendipitous sketching encounters, we’ve found that one of the most common refrains we hear from people is how much they wish they could sketch, or how much they loved drawing when they were younger. We always jump at the chance to share how much we’ve grown as artists simply through consistent practice, because you never know how a few words of encouragement could be just the push someone needs to get back into art themselves.

As you’re out sketching, keep in mind that you, too, are an ambassador for the rewards of sketching — because the more open we are about our journeys as sketch artists, the more we can encourage others to begin their own journey.

If we can help with any other questions about how to start sketching, get in touch via our contact page. You can also connect with our Moment Sketchers community on Instagram at @momentsketchers.