Assemble Your Best Travel Watercolor Kit

Watercolor is a great medium to use while traveling: It has a quick drying time, doesn't require any elaborate set-up, and cleanup is easy. Let's make it as portable as possible by keeping it small and eliminating the need for open cups of water!

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Choose a Small Pan Set

Using half-pans (as opposed to tubed watercolor) while on-the-go is best, in my opinion. This is because you don't have to carry a separate palette and set of tubes. All your colors are neatly in one case, and you typically will also have space in the lid or in empty pans to mix colors.

My QOR set with the travel brush swiped from the Cotman set.

My absolute favorite half-pan set is the QOR Mini 12 Half-Pan Set. I'll warn you: It's a little pricey. But if you decide you like watercolor, it's well worth the investment. The colors are intense and highly pigmented, meaning they'll work better and last longer. Every color you need is covered and there's nothing I feel needs to be added to this palette if you're working transparently, as I do. (IE: There's no opaque white in this set.)

If you want to start at a lower price point, I would get the Winsor & Newton Cotman Landscape 8 Pan Set. Even though it's technically a student grade paint, it still uses quality pigments, just with a lower pigment load. 

This is the Winsor & Newton Cotman Landscape 8 Pan Set along with the series of bookmarks I created while traveling in Portugal & Spain.

I took this set with me on a recent trip to Europe and it served me well, though I found that I was limited by Ultramarine Blue being the only blue included in the set. If you add a turquoise type of blue to this set such as this Half Pan of Cotman Turquoise or this Half Pan of Cotman Cerulean Blue Hue, then it'll be perfect! 

If you already have tubed watercolors or prefer them, you could make your own half-pan travel kit: There are plenty of empty half pan kits out there to add your own paints to, such as this Meeden Empty Watercolor Paint Palette or these cute Mini Portable Watercolor Palette Sets or you could even get some Empty Half Pans and tuck them in an old Altoids tin!

Use Water Brushes

If you're used to using standard watercolor brushes, it might take some time to get used to the way water slowly seeps from these brushes. I actually have come to prefer it since on the positive, your mixtures get slightly lighter as you paint. This can be quite useful! 

The biggest reason we want to use water brushes when traveling, though, is that it removes the need for open containers of water which can spill and require a stable surface to rest on. When you're using a waterbrush, you can simply squeeze a little water into a mixing well or just pick up paint directly from the pan with your wet brush!

The one I've been using the most is a Kuretake Water Brush, but I've used other brands as well and they work just fine.

That said, I do like to keep the tiny travel brush included with the Cotman set (mentioned above) just in case I need to put in a little detail.

Small Watercolor Papers

While you can technically work at any size, I like having small watercolor pads since they're easy to tuck in with my other supplies. Plus, it takes less time to complete a small sketch than a large one, and time is often at a premium when traveling or painting en plein aire.

4" x 6" is an ideal size, and you can find this size as a postcard pad such as this Strathmore Watercolor Postcard Pad. If you're into the functional idea, check out this Watercolor Bookmark Pad by Hahnemuhle, which I also took to Europe and created a little series of vignettes of each town I visited.

A Few More Items

You have the most important parts of your kit now, and you just need a few more things:

- A mechanical pencil (no sharpening!)
- A black pen
- A couple pieces of paper towel, or pick up a napkin with a logo on the airplane or hotel to make it a little more fun!
- A container that fits everything (You can see mine pictured behind all the other items in my kit.)

For the latter, I am currently using a Global Art (now Speedball) Storage Case that I had lying around, but you could use any container you please: A different pencil case like this one, an old cigar box, or a small messenger bag. One thing that I do really like about using this pencil case is that when you open it, it creates a nice surface to place all your stuff on. It's the prefect size for a lap or a small table at a cafe.

Watercolor Landscapes Weekend Workshop

Now that you have your kit all assembled, you're ready for this fun 2 day workshop! It's all focused on creating small landscape sketches and capturing that feeling of distance that cameras can't quite catch. You'll learn some basic watercolor techniques, how to layer watercolor and slowly build up to details, and the essentials of atmospheric perspective to add depth to your work. I'll share some of my favorite vacation photos with you for inspiration, but feel free to bring your own!

Watercolor Landscape Painting
Saturday & Sunday 10am-12:30pm CT
September 20th & 21st, 2025

~Happy Painting!~