Our Newest Team Members’ Toolkits

Brooke, Gina, and Tammy showcase the contents of their toolkits and share some art!

By The Art Toolkit Team

A closed orange and black art supply case, unzipped to reveal two compartments, sits alongside a green pencil, a tube of blue paint, a set of watercolors with red, black, blue, white, and yellow sections, and a metallic pen.

Brooke Weber

Brooke Weber started working for Art Toolkit last fall as Retail Manager for the flagship Art Toolkit Retail Shop, located in historic and quirky downtown Port Townsend.

A person with curly hair and glasses smiles while leaning against a tree with golden foliage. They are wearing a colorful tank top and brown hiking pants, with a black backpack on their back. The background features a natural landscape with greenery and trees.

A silhouette of a person walking on wet sand at sunset, with golden light streaming through trees in the background. The coast features rock formations and the horizon glows orange and pink.

A ten-year resident of the Olympic Peninsula, she originally hails from the dry high deserts of Arizona. All these years later, the sea still makes her say, “What the heck’s THAT doing there?” on a daily basis. Brooke loves wondering and wandering, often at the same time. She thinks a lot about poetry. When not playing with words she paints large with acrylics, small with watercolors, and generally avoids the world by reading. You may find her out walking at night, because she loves all the qualities of light found in the dark.

For the past six years, one of Brooke’s dear friends has made both of them tiny sketchbooks for the month of Artober. Brooke didn’t finish hers in October this year, so she’s had it tucked away in her toolkit for opportune moments to paint.

A woman sits on a sofa, holding a baby swaddled in a blanket. She smiles while wearing a black tank top. In the foreground, two bare feet are visible, one with painted toenails, resting on a green surface. The scene is depicted in watercolor. — Pages from Brooke’s handmade sketchbook for Artober.

Brooke’s Supplies

Brooke carries a Duotone Desert Pocket Art Toolkit with the following supplies:

Sketchbooks: Handmade sketchbook, Moleskine Pocket Watercolor Album.
Palettes: Explore Palette.
Brushes: Aquash Medium Water Brush.
Pens & Pencils: Pentel Twist-Erase Pencil in Celadon Green, Sakura Gelly Roll Pens, Copic Multiliner, Sakura Pigma Micron Pens.
Additional Supplies: Daniel Smith Titanium White Gouache, Daniel Smith Cobalt Teal Blue Gouache, Pocket Mister.

An arrangement of art supplies including sketchbooks, pens, watercolor tubes, a water brush, and a portable watercolor set, all in a zippered organizer.

Gina Vickrey

Gina Vickrey joined us as a Logistics Assistant last fall, when we immediately discovered her love for Halloween (fact #1 below).

A woman in a bright orange tank top and black cap smiles in the foreground, with a scenic view of a lighthouse on a rocky coastline behind her. Lush green grass and cloudy skies add to the picturesque landscape.

My favorite holiday is Halloween.

I taught HS/MS math and science for over 20 years prior to moving to Port Townsend. In my spare time, I enjoy pinhole photography, traveling, and hanging out with my husband, Eric, and cats, Edgar and Ralphie.

I am very new to watercolor painting, and my favorite thing (my only thing!) to paint is ghosts.

—Gina, Logistics Assistant

A flat lay of various art supplies including a zippered pouch, pens, a ruler, watercolor sets, a syringe, a light blue note, a blue card, and a small drawing of a ghost.

Gina’s Supplies

Gina carries a Duotone Desert Pocket Art Toolkit which includes the following supplies:

Sketchbook: Trail Tiles.
Palettes: A Black Pocket Palette for gouache and an Explore Palette for watercolors.
Brushes: Princeton Aqua Elite brushes.
Pens & Pencils: Fine Sharpie Pen, Helvetica Gray Mechanical Pencil.
Additional Supplies: Triad Template, Refill Syringe, a small piece of Magic Eraser, ruler, shop towel.

Gina’s gouache palette contains the following Daniel Smith colors: Lamp Black Gouache, Pyrrol Red Gouache, Ultramarine Blue Gouache, Titanium White Gouache, Hansa Yellow Medium Gouache.

A simple watercolor painting features a small, ghost-like figure in reddish tones set against a soft blue-gray background. The figure has two small black eyes.

A whimsical ghost figure in shades of pink floats in a soft, abstract background of yellow, orange, and light blue geometric shapes.

Tammy Xiao

Tammy Xiao joined us last fall as a Marketing Assistant, originally hailing from Boston. Read more from them below.

In Utsetøya, Norway.

A hand holds a watercolor sketch in front of a large ornate red building. The sketch depicts a similar architectural style. People are standing near the building, and the scene is bathed in natural light. — Sketch of a Greek Orthodox school in Istanbul.

I think I was born to paint. I remember in elementary school being mesmerized by my classmate’s Crayola Box of 96 Crayons; with names like Goldenrod, Robin’s Egg Blue, and Wisteria, each crayon seemed like a portal to its own world. In high school, I’d go to hardware stores after school to collect their printed paint samples and create palettes online.

My family wasn’t financially resourced and my parents didn’t see art as something that was necessary or important, so it wasn’t until after I moved to Japan on the JET Program that I bought my first set of watercolors at the age of 22. I also took my first watercolor class at around the same time, with a local jazz pianist and hanga painter who ran an upstairs art classroom for kids. I think I was his oldest student, and yet I remember feeling a deep sense of calm quietly mixing colors with him in what was a stressful point in my life.

Since then, I have taken that travel set of watercolors with me everywhere, from Tuscany to Taipei, from Glasgow to Goa, until I lost them on a bus in Portugal last winter. Thankfully, I’m never in short supply of travel watercolor palettes working at Art Toolkit!

—Tammy, Marketing Assistant

Art supplies arranged flat lay. Items include paintbrushes, watercolors in a palette, a sketchbook, a roll of tape, a container with a lid, a pencil, binder clips, and a pencil case, all set against a white background.

Tammy’s Supplies

Tammy carries a Blue Pocket Art Toolkit which includes the following supplies:

Sketchbook: Traveler’s Notebook Insert.
Palettes: A Black Pocket Palette.
Brushes: Utrecht Size 14 Round, Rosemary & Co R20 Short Flat, Medium Aquash Water Brush.
Pens & Pencils: Caran d’Ache Pablo Colored Pencil in Olive, Sakura Gelly Roll Pen
Extras: Stickers from the Marine Science Center and Imprint Bookshop, Washi Tape, circular knitting needles, Pocket Mister, binder clip.

Two women smile in a waterfront setting during sunset. One holds an open book showcasing a colorful illustration of women in a café scene. The background features boats and a hazy sky. — With Suhita Shirodkar at Urban Sketchers Goa.

A hand holds an open sketchbook showing a watercolor drawing of a cow. In the background, two cows walk along a street lined with shops. — Sketch of a cow in Rishikesh, India.

Thank you, Brooke, Gina, and Tammy, for sharing the contents of your Art Toolkits with us! See more of our recent staff toolkits here: Jemma and Michael, Ron and Lexi, Chelsea and Morgan, and find more on the Art Toolkit Blog!

What’s inside your Art Toolkit? Tag us on Instagram with your unique sketching tool curations!