What Makes a Sketch? - Part Two - Little Extras

There are many little extras that can be added to my minimal small sketchbook and pen or pencil. Some of the stuff I frequently take out with me on "spec" includes:

• An alternative pen or pencil, either to use with the main drawing tool or simply to ring the changes. It's remarkable how effective soft graphite is in combination with black ink.

An alternative pen.
This is a drawing - using Molotow paint markers - of my Japanese Calligraphy pen.
I have converted it to a fountain pen, which allows me to run any suitable ink though it;
here, it contains Indigo. The bent nib allows for an effect that mimics a brush

• A small collection of  coloured pens or pencils.There are a few "collections" that I have prepacked into small pencil cases - the Inktense pencils, with a waterbrush, are shown in the illustration above.

Other collections include:

Six earth-toned Derwent Drawing pencils, two graphite sticks (4B, 6B), an HB pencil and a black pen.

A small tin with six watercolour pencils in it. They are rather nice watercolour pencils - Caran D'Ache Museum Auarelle - and consist of two sets of primaries - a cool red/blue/yellow, and a warm one.

The remnants of a prepacked Sketching Set from WHSmith's. It still contains a graphite stick, a carbon pencil, a sketching white pencil, a sanguine oil pencil, a very short sepia pastel pencil, a sanguine pastel stick, and a richly dark carbon stick.
("Carbon" refers to an amorphous form of the element, also known as "lamp black". It is, effectively, soot - nice soot. It is the same sort of thing used to make Indian Ink.)

A selection of rollerball pens, in as many different colours as possible.

A pencil case full of Molotow paint markers.

• A small watercolour set. This is a bit more ambitious and would normally require the further addition of a more appropriate sketchpad (with heavier paper) and a small bottle of clean water.

There will be more on watercolour as a sketching medium in a future post.