Sketch anywhere, anytime! Compact tools for sketching: the Art Toolkit, Pocket Palette, and field-tested accessories. Created by .
Located in Port Townsend, Washington.
08/18/2025
Inspired by the Wild Wonder Weekend August 23rd-24th, we are excited to offer a limited quantity of customizable Pocket and Folio Palettes in a lovely summer green.* We invite local visitors to come to our retail shop in downtown Port Townsend to personalize yours with paint pans of your choice.
• August 23rd at 1pm: Nature Journaling Demo
• August 24th at 9am: Sketch Walk on the Beach
*In-store only. Mixing Pans sold separately.
08/17/2025
Join us for a special weekend in Port Townsend with naturalist, artist, scientist, author, and educator John Muir Laws (also known as Jack), the president and co-founder of the Wild Wonder Foundation.
Mark your calendars for Saturday, August 23rd, and Sunday, August 24th for three sketch demos led by Jack and joined by Art Toolkit, one of which includes a book-signing opportunity! We will have Explore Palettes for you to borrow as we learn about the creative practice of nature journaling.
• Saturday, August 23rd: Nature Journaling Demo with John Muir Laws
Location: Tyler Street Plaza, next to Art Toolkit
Time: 1pm–2:30pm
• Saturday, August 23rd: Book Signing and Nature Journaling Presentation with John Muir Laws. *Update: We are at capacity for this event. Please join us for the others!
• Sunday, August 24th: Sketch Walk on the Beach with John Muir Laws
Location: Fort Worden Marine Science Center Dock
Time: 9am-11am
Visit our retail shop to browse a special selection of Jack’s favorite sketching tools, as well as his award-winning book, The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling, with signed copies available after his visit and while supplies last.
08/15/2025
New to our shop!
In The Sketchnote Handbook: The Illustrated Guide to Visual Note Taking, designer and illustrator Mike Rohde outlines an accessible and fun approach to sketchnoting, a practical way to translate simple and complex ideas into easily-recalled bits of information. You’ll learn how to capture your thinking visually, remember key information clearly, and share what you’ve learned with others. Through written explanations and a myriad of sketched examples, Mike shares his passion and lifelong habit of recording concepts through sketching and doodling, inviting you to “have fun taking notes again!”
Launch special: The first 100 copies sold include a custom-designed bookmark, signed by the author.
08/15/2025
New to our Books page!
The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling is a comprehensive reference for observing and recording the natural world, including animals, wildflowers, landscapes, skies, and more. Section by section, author and illustrator John Muir Laws (Jack) shares practical tutorials and philosophical guidance that offer a joyful and curious framework for nature journaling. Jack covers the use of various media from colored pencil and pen to watercolor and gouache, inspiring readers to explore the natural world through art and reflection. In the words of Jack, “Keeping a nature journal is a learnable skill that can change our lives forever, opening doors to mindful attention, curiosity, wonder, beauty, connection, peace, and joy.”
Launch special: The first 100 copies sold include a custom-designed bookmark, signed by the author.
08/14/2025
We are happy to share the debut of our new Books page! We’re starting small this month with three from artist friends of ours—including Samantha Dion Baker— and will be expanding over the course of the year. https://arttoolkit.com/supplies/books/
Draw Your Adventures is an illustrated guide to approaching your daily life through an explorer’s lens. Author and illustrator Samantha Dion Baker shares prompts, reflections, and inspiration with a focus on adventure, in every sense of the word. Through expressive, colorful art, she shares ideas such as scavenger hunts, art challenges, and personalized sketchbook pages. Whether you’re heading off on a big trip or simply walking out your front door, this book encourages you to pause, notice, and draw what you see. Draw Your Adventures is a perfect book to spark your creativity as you explore the world around you.
In celebration of the release of Draw Your Adventures, Samantha Dion Baker’s latest book in her Draw Your– series, we collaborated to curate a limited-edition set of essential travel sketching tools to get you started, with a custom-designed bookmark signed by Samantha.
With cover art to match her book and a short bio and signature on the back, these special keepsakes are a handy way to hold your page between reads.
Today, we’re thrilled to announce a special limited-edition* collaboration, The Draw Your Adventures Set, with author and illustrator Samantha Dion Baker! When she reached out to us about her new book, Draw Your Adventures, we knew it was a perfect fit with our shared passions for adventures, big and small, and having the right supplies for them.
This set features Samantha’s book and includes a fineliner pen, Blackwing Pearl pencil, Aquash Water Brush, travel sketchbook by Stillman & Birn, and our versatile Explore Palette with a custom-printed drawstring bag—everything you need to take on your next adventure!
The Draw Your Adventures Set is available online and in our retail shop while supplies last, and Draw Your Adventures can be found on our new Books page!
These Sets are going fast: subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to hear about limited-edition collaborations and news!
08/07/2025
Our compact paint palettes feature a high-quality mixing surface and magnetic tray to mix-and-match five sizes of stainless steel refillable pans and three sizes of Mixing Pans. Pick a palette size, an assortment of pans, and fill your own with paint!
If you prefer a paint-filled option, the Explore Palette is here to get you started. The Explore Palette is includes 12 watercolors by Da Vinci Co. that are made from concentrated, professional-grade pigments with a high degree of lightfastness.
The Explore Palette is an expanded, 12-color version of the Demi Explore Palette in a Pocket Palette, with four additional useful hues for painting quickly on the go. This Palette features two Large Mixing Pans, maximizing mixing space.
Join us for a special weekend, Saturday, August 23rd, and Sunday, August 24th, with naturalist, artist, scientist, author, and educator John Muir Laws (Jack), the president and co-founder of the Wild Wonder Foundation! We are overjoyed to welcome Jack to Port Townsend for a special book signing of The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling, and excited for the three sketch demos he will lead on nature journaling.
Visit our retail shop to browse a selection of Jack’s favorite sketching tools, plus some special goodies the week of his visit. Check out the full weekend schedule on our Events page, and we hope to see you in a few short weeks!
08/06/2025
Ohn Mar Win is a watercolor artist, illustrator, and sketchbook lover with a background in food and editorial illustration. She has been painting in sketchbooks for over a decade, filling more than 60 of them with everyday observations, especially food, florals, and travel scenes. Her process is all about staying loose and expressive by capturing the essence of a subject rather than fussing over every detail. “My motto is, ‘don’t faff’—it’s a UK term for not overworking,” she says.
Her favorite tools are a quill brush, a Pocket Palette with one pan filled with opera rose watercolour, and a sketchbook that can handle juicy washes and mixed media. She often works on the go, and a couple of color pencils and brush pens help her stay creative and quick wherever she is.
“One unexpected gift art has brought me is connection, not just to places and moments, but to people all over the world,” Ohn Mar shared with us.
“Through teaching over 170,000 students online and at in-person workshops and retreats, I’ve realized how sketching can be a bridge between cultures, no matter your skill level or background.”
Thank you so much for sharing your work with us, Ohn Mar! You can follow Ohn Mar Win on Instagram and on her website: https://www.artwithohnmarwin.com/.
08/04/2025
Year three at Sketcher Fest was great fun! Outreach Coordinator Cole Morreale and Retail and Shipping Specialist Ron Ransom staffed the Art Toolkit table at this year’s Sketchbook Fair & Art Market and had a fantastic time meeting attendees in person.
Pictured: Colorful Art Toolkits ready to restock; Cole assists market attendees; The ferry docked in Edmonds in time for a quick table set-up at the Waterfront Center.
07/31/2025
We invite you to join us in person for downtown Port Townsend’s monthly Gallery Walk! Our doors will be open on Saturday, August 2nd from 10:00am to 8:00pm for this beloved tradition where local galleries, shops, and artists open their doors for extended evening hours, creating a vibrant community celebration of art and culture. During these hours, you may browse art supplies or sketch with others.
The summer months are especially sweet, as warm nights and light skies bring contrast to the breezy, dark Gallery Walks of wintertime (which we also love dearly). Come out for an early evening of sketching this weekend, and learn more about upcoming events on our Events Page.
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At Art Toolkit, we believe that art can be not only a tool for self-expression, but for communication, exploration, and scientific inquiry. Our purpose is to empower and inspire our customers to create art every day by providing well-designed tools and materials.
In 2004, upon graduating from Carleton College, artist Maria Coryell-Martin embarked on a year-long Watson Fellowship to explore remote landscapes through art. This experience inspired a resolve to continue working as an expeditionary artist with a focus on polar and glacier science, and to inspire environmental awareness in audiences of all ages.
Maria’s travels have brought her face-to-face with polar bears, leopard seals, emperor penguins, and narwhals. She was inspired to create a more compact sketching and painting kit after a memorable experience juggling clumsy sketching tools while crawling in the sand for hours to monitor walruses on a small island in eastern Greenland.
Many prototypes, field-tests, and customer reviews later, the Art Toolkit and Pocket Palette have evolved into a versatile sketching and painting system for artists of all ages and skill-levels.
In 2019, Maria’s sweetheart and collaborator Darin joined the business full-time, and we moved Art Toolkit out of a back room of our house and into a beautiful studio space in Port Townsend, a seaside arts and boat-building community in Washington State.
Looking ahead, we are excited to continue to innovate and refine our stable of field painting and sketching supplies.
You can read more about Maria’s adventures on the Expeditionary Art blog.
