A Travel Checklist for Art Adventures

In the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to travel quite a bit. If you’ve been following along with my travels to Morocco and Greece, you know I love to paint on-site. I’m also familiar with the frustration of forgetting something small—for example, climbing to the top of a mountain to paint a beautiful scene, only to discover I’ve left my eraser behind.

A checklist titled "Watercolor Checklists on the Go" featuring items for art, including A5 art toolkit, eraser, palette with paint-filled pans, various art supplies, and watercolor paper. — Download the checklist!

A maroon pencil case is open and displayed on a stone surface, revealing various colored pencils and pens inside. Surrounding it are watercolor paint sets, a small bottle of ink, a spare eraser, tape, and a stone with an engraving. Other items include a circular peace symbol and a box labeled "Stonehenge." — My travel supplies, including an A5 Art Toolkit.

That’s where my checklist comes in. With it, everything has a place, and nothing gets left behind, even when I switch out bags for different occasions! This spring, I visited Spain and Italy and used this list to ensure I had everything I needed for the trip.

Travel Checklist

If this is your first time traveling with your Art Toolkit, I hope this post can help you pack with confidence.

A5 Art Toolkit
Folio Palette to experiment with the color palette of a new place
Triad Template
Masking Tape
Paint Brushes
Sketchbook
Watercolor Paper: lightweight, loose sheets
Watercolor Postcard Blanks, perfect for painting my own postcards and sending them off at the local post office
Watercolor Pencils for quick sketching in crowded spaces
Gold Winsor and Newton Ink for adding small, luminous highlights
Micron Pens
Pencil
Ruler
Eraser
Portable Water Cup
Paper Clip to keep pages from flipping in the wind

This list is quite long, and I don’t necessarily take everything. Sometimes I’ll leave my A5 Art Toolkit and heavy sketchbook behind and just slip loose paper, a pencil, brush, eraser, and my Folio Palette into my bag. Having the checklist means nothing important gets forgotten, such as an eraser or a paper clip.

A note for museum visits: some places like the Vatican restrict bags, but I found that loose paper or a Strathmore watercolor postcard fits perfectly in my 5.1" × 2.0" × 5.5" fanny pack.

Spain

Barcelona

I had hoped to sketch more inside the Sagrada Família, but it was crowded. That’s where my watercolor pencils came in handy; with them, I created a quick 1–2 minute sketch that I could paint later. I spent a good amount of time observing Gaudí’s tree-like pillars.

A hand holds a sketchbook open to show a drawn design, with vibrant stained glass and tall, colorful columns of a cathedral in the background. — Quick watercolor pencil sketches inside the Sagrada Família and capturing Gaudí’s branching pillars in just 1–2 minutes.

A stunning interior view of a grand cathedral, featuring soaring pillars and intricate arches. Colorful stained glass windows cast vibrant hues of orange, yellow, and red throughout the space, creating a warm and ethereal atmosphere. The intricate design elements highlight artistic craftsmanship and architectural beauty. — The warm orange and red stained glass flooding the interior with golden evening light gave endless color inspiration.

Supplies used: Mini watercolor paper pads and watercolor pencils.

The stained glass was breathtaking, especially how the evening light softened everything into the warmest glow. The stained glass inspired me to paint with patterns and play with different colors, as seen in the painting below.

A vibrant watercolor artwork featuring a geometric pattern of triangles in various colors, including pinks, blues, yellows, and greens, displayed on textured white paper. — Watercolor painting inspired by stainless windows and geometric shapes and completed upon my return to Seattle.

Mallorca

After a day and a half in Barcelona, we flew to Mallorca, ready to slow down. What’s lovely about Spain is that all beaches are public. Mallorca’s coastline did not disappoint—the island is also known for its cycling hills and wild goats! At the beach, I knew I would sit outside for a couple hours, so carrying my A5 Art Toolkit with the above supplies helped keep the sand out of my supplies.

A hand holds an open watercolor palette and a sketchbook displaying a light, dreamy landscape with a lake and mountains. In the background, a serene beach and blue sky can be seen.

Supplies used: Watercolor postcards, Folio Palette, pencil, eraser, and paint brushes carried in my A5 Art Toolkit.

Deià

After two days by the water, we drove to the mountain village of Deià, where the air smelled of jasmine, orange blossoms, and olives. Another reason I love traveling is the color you find in unexpected places.

I practiced painting with complementary colors by studying olives.

A watercolor palette with various colors sits beside a sketchbook displaying a floral painting with red berries and leaves. A can of green olives with a spoon is placed nearby. — Laying in red under-painting before adding green on top.

A watercolor painting of leaves and olives on a textured paper, surrounded by two palettes filled with vibrant watercolor paints and a bowl of olives. — Finished olive branch watercolor with my palettes!

Supplies used: Sketchbook, Folio Palette, pencil, eraser, and paint brushes.

A hand holds an open sketchbook featuring a colorful drawing of a scenic landscape with mountains, palm trees, and a building near a pool. In the corner, there's a decorative page with a tree illustration. The background shows a beautiful hotel with lush foliage and vibrant flowers. — Poolside views in Deià.

A scenic view of a lush valley surrounded by mountains, dotted with small villages and dense greenery under a partly cloudy blue sky. — Olive groves in the valleys.

After a five-hour hike up Muntanya del Voltor, I became completely obsessed with the wild branched asphodel flowers growing from the rocky limestone. My husband went back up for one more summit photo while I stayed behind in Valldemossa to sketch.

A flowering plant with pinkish buds stands prominently on a rocky cliff, overlooking the blue ocean under a partly cloudy sky. — Wild branched asphodel flowers.

A rustic stone building with green shutters, featuring a partially weathered facade and a gravel pathway leading to it. Clear blue sky overhead and patches of grass and plants surrounding the entrance. — The rocky walls and green shutters of a building in Valldemossa.

Given that the hike up Muntanya del Voltor was quite long. I traveled light with my fanny pack and left my Art Toolkit back at the hotel.

Italy

We started our morning early to beat the lines to the Vatican Museums. Having studied Michelangelo and Raphael in school, I found seeing their work in person extraordinary—especially the Sistine Chapel. I also loved studying the tile floors. Having traveled to Morocco and Istanbul, I found it fascinating to spot shared patterns and geometric motifs, such as the circle, woven through very different cultures.

Black and white sneakers on a patterned blue and green tiled floor, featuring geometric shapes and intricate designs. — The stunning geometric tile floor of the Vatican Museums — the star and diamond patterns immediately called to mind the zellige tile work I’d seen in Morocco and Istanbul.

Rome

After the Vatican, we made our way to St. Peter’s Basilica and then to the Pantheon. We couldn’t get tickets that day, so I took the opportunity to do a light sketch outside, which I filled in when we returned the next morning. Having the checklist helped me identify the basic tools I needed for a quick sketch before adding color later.

A hand holds a sketch of the Pantheon, with the actual Pantheon building visible in the background. Clear blue sky above and a crowd of people can be seen in front of the historic structure. — The completed Pantheon sketch, drawn on-site and finished the following day. Almost 2,000 years old and still standing.

A circular dome with a central oculus opening that lets in natural light, featuring a textured surface and geometric patterns along the walls. — The Pantheon’s open air oculus is 27' wide, and the coffered concrete dome is still the world’s largest of its kind.

Supplies used: Watercolor postcards, pencil, and eraser.

The Pantheon oculus was one of my favorite architectural curiosities of the whole trip. It’s completely open: when it rains, rainwater pours straight through. I also learned that the Romans engineered the dome using varying concrete densities: heavier at the base, progressively lighter toward the top.

The last stop was the Colosseum, which is over 1,946 years old. It was incredible to see that every modern stadium essentially replicates the same principles: the crowd-flow engineering still works perfectly today.

A hand holds a sketchbook featuring a drawing of the Colosseum, with colored pencils resting alongside it. The background shows the interior of the Colosseum filled with visitors, under a partly cloudy sky. — A quick pencil sketch of the Colosseum interior’s tiered arches and the extraordinary scale of this venue, with a note: “Modern stadiums were built after the Colosseum.”

A woman stands at the Colosseum, holding brochures and looking at them. The ancient structure is visible behind her, with visitors exploring the arena and clouds in the blue sky above. — Sketching inside the Colosseum, absorbed in the view—the perfect example of how a simple pencil and postcard can turn observation into memory.

Supplies used: Watercolor postcards, pencil, eraser, and watercolor pencils.

Knowing the Colosseum would be crowded, and that I'd have about an hour to sketch, I reviewed my checklist beforehand and packed only what I'd actually use, keeping it light and focused.

This trip genuinely reignited my love for watercolor pencils. The texture and precision you can get with them is unlike any other medium, and I love that they give you two options: keep the pencil sketch as it is, or add water later to turn it into a quick watercolor painting. That flexibility is exactly why they earned a permanent spot on my checklist.

Final Thoughts

After standing inside a 2,000-year-old structure, I felt strange coming home to Seattle, where our oldest building is less than 200 years old. I’m grateful that art gives me a reason to slow down and really look—not just at beauty, but at the details that connect us across time and difference.

I hope you find this reflection and checklist helpful, and that they give you a better understanding of why I chose to bring these items on my trip!

May watercolors become your companion for observing the small details that make life so grand. Whether it’s getting out to paint outdoors this summer locally or on a trip to another destination, I hope you get to tap into the joys of painting with watercolors!

Sophia Trinh
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