Sketch anywhere, anytime! Compact tools for sketching: the Art Toolkit, Pocket Palette, and field-tested accessories. Created by .
Located in Port Townsend, Washington.
10/03/2025
This summer, we shared the debut of our Books page, featuring three titles: Draw Your Adventures, The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling, and The Sketchnote Handbook by artist friends and collaborators. Today, as we welcome fall with open arms, we are happy to announce the expansion of our Books page! https://arttoolkit.com/supplies/books/
We delight in the tangible pleasure of sitting with a hot drink, paging through notes with focused attention, and finding inspiration in the illustrations and words of others. With the addition of nine titles this week, we invite you to browse topics ranging from urban sketching and note-taking inspiration to stories and how-to guides for connecting with nature through art.
10/01/2025
In Bethan Burton’s workshop this fall, Garden Journaling: Delight in the Details of Nature, you will create a vibrant journal page with examples from Bethan’s home garden. Fill your page with written observations, qualitative data, and colorful illustrations that highlight the unique features of a botanical subject
Take a look at Bethan’s recommended supplies list—there is still time to place an order in advance of the live event! You will need a pencil and waterproof finerliner for this workshop. We recommend a Blackwing Pencil or Helvetica Mechanical Pencil and a Copic Multiliner. Bethan asks everyone to bring their favorite watercolors, brushes, and either your field sketchbook or some loose watercolor paper to follow along. We carry a variety of sketchbooks, and recommend the Alpha Series Softcover Sketchbooks, the Beta Series Softcover Sketchbooks, or, for an even lighter carry, try Travel Booklets.
In Mike Rohde’s upcoming workshop, Sketchnoting: Capture Information Visually, you will learn the basics of sketchnoting: a visual note-taking method that blends handwritten text, drawings, and layout to capture the information you are learning and want to remember.
The supplies list is fairly straighforward: Mike recommends using a black pen and a pencil for this workshop. We carry a variety of pens and pencils for you to choose from, ranging from Copic Multiliners and Helvetica Ballpoint Pens to Blackwing Pencil Sets and Helvetica Mechanical Pencils. Having a fountain pen or brush pen on hand can be a fun addition! In addition, Mike suggests you bring some loose sheets of scratch paper
for practicing, in addition to your field sketchbook! We recommend the Alpha Series Soft Cover Sketchbooks and Hahnemühle Travel Booklets and Sketch & Notes.
Registration for our live workshop Finding Focus with Genine Carvalheira, is open one more week, through Friday, October 3rd at noon Pacific, so head to our website and reserve a seat today, and join us next Saturday to learn how to capture complex scenes in your sketchbook using selective linework, contrast, and limited color to create balanced compositions! Until then, check out Genine’s list of recommended supplies on the workshop page, which includes fountain and fineliner pens, watercolor paper sketchbooks, a range of waterproof inks, and much more.
In this workshop, you will create a vibrant journal page with examples from Bethan’s home garden. Fill your page with written observations, qualitative data, and colorful illustrations that highlight the unique features of a botanical subject without painting every detail.
Bethan reflects that garden journaling has not only helped her become a better gardener but also a more connected and joyful steward of her home patch. At the end of the workshop, Bethan will share a playful technique for celebrating your harvest, right on the pages of your garden journal.
We hope to see you there!
About Bethan | Bethan Burton is an artist and environmental educator from Brisbane, Australia. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Conservation Biology and a Master of Environment in Education for Sustainability. Bethan is the founder of International Nature Journaling Week and the host of the podcast Journaling with Nature. She teaches nature journaling to all age groups and is passionate about connecting people with the natural world. Bethan loves to combine creativity with her passion for gardening and has found that garden journaling has not only helped her become a better gardener but also a more connected and joyful steward of her home patch.
Visit Bethan’s website journalingwithnature.com for a gallery of journal pages and latest news, or find her on Instagram .
In this workshop, you will learn the basics of sketchnoting: a visual note-taking method that blends handwritten text, drawings, and layout to capture the information you are learning and want to remember.
Mike will guide us on how to use this tool for various learning practices, such as workshops or nature journaling classes, introducing a library of learning materials that you can refer to again and again. From sketchnoting techniques to best practices for capturing information, this workshop will prepare you to fill your journals with sketchnotes and introduce a fresh perspective for engaging with the material that fascinates you.
We hope to see you there!
About Mike | Mike Rohde is a veteran designer who creates usable, compelling design solutions for software and web applications. Mike presents workshops around the world that encourage people to use visual thinking skills to generate, capture, and share ideas more effectively. During his career, he has been commissioned to create live sketchnotes for conferences and events, including SXSW Interactive, An Event Apart, Summit Series, World Domination Summit, and The Storyline Conference. Mike is the author of bestselling books The Sketchnote Handbook (2012) and The Sketchnote Workbook (2014), and lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with his wife and three children.
Visit Mike’s website rohdesign.com to learn about his books, workshops, and other news, or find him on Instagram .
09/22/2025
Join us online on Saturday, October 4th from 10am–12:30pm Pacific for Finding Focus: Simplify Complex Scenes into Balanced Compositions with Genine Carvalheira! Register here—her live workshop is only two weeks away! https://arttoolkit.com/workshops/finding-focus-with-genine-carvalheira/
In this workshop, you will learn how to capture complex scenes in your sketchbook by identifying a focal point and making intentional decisions about what to include or leave out.
You will explore techniques for using selective linework, contrast, and limited color to create balanced compositions that emphasize the subject while giving just enough context to the viewer. Experiment with fountain and fineliner pens, exploring inks of various shades and watercolor washes to document the world around you. By the end of the workshop, you will have a set of practical tools for approaching busy scenes with more clarity and confidence.
We hope to see you there!
About Genine | Genine Carvalheira is an artist, Interior & Industrial Designer, and avid traveler from the US, now living in Canada after several years in Colombia. She has participated in eleven Urban Sketchers symposiums and served in various roles on the organization’s executive board. Since 2007, Genine has filled over 85 sketchbooks, documenting her life and travels across 30+ countries. Her sketchbooks serve as a visual journal, recording the quiet beauty of everyday moments alongside the captivating scenes from her global travels, always ready to capture life as it unfolds.
Visit Genine’s website geninecarvalheira.com for upcoming classes, a link to her shop, and a peek inside her sketchbook, or find her on Instagram .
09/19/2025
Are you looking for a way to kick off the autumn season with sketching? Look no further: Registration for our Fall Workshop Series is open! https://arttoolkit.com/workshops/
Join live (limited seats available) or select Recorded Access and follow along at your own pace with instructors Genine Carvalheira, Mike Rohde, and Bethan Burton.
🔎 Finding Focus: Simplify Complex Scenes into Balanced Compositions with Genine Carvalheira
🖊️ Sketchnoting: Capture Information Visually with Mike Rohde
🌿 Garden Journaling: Delight in the Details of Nature with Bethan Burton
Pictured garden kale sketch courtesy of Bethan Burton.
09/16/2025
After a lifetime of painting, Ambassador Sophia Trinh is still learning. What is more, she wants her students to see that even as a teacher, she’s still a student. In a recent reflection piece, “The Art of Teaching and Learning Along the Way,” Sophia shares about her journey as an artist and her experience leading watercolor classes.
During a recent workshop at Refuge Outdoor Festival, an outdoor recreation and camping experience geared toward people of color, Ambassador Sophia Trinh not only shared her supplies—an Art Toolkit and Folio Palette allow her to paint anywhere—but her philosophies around letting go of perfection and the power of sharing your work.
In Sophia’s words, “Something I always remind my students: watercolor isn’t just about what you see, it’s about what you feel. Before we start painting, I want them to experience the tools.” Students dip their brushes in water and press them into their palm; she passes around a variety of watercolor papers, because texture matters.
“Feeling the materials connects you to the process before you even touch paint.” – Sophia Trinh
Thank you so much for sharing about your process of learning and teaching, Sophia! Humans are naturally curious, and creative expression is a safe and limitless way to nurture that lifelong learner in all of us. Read the full piece, ”The Art of Teaching and Learning Along the Way,“ on the Art Toolkit Blog: https://arttoolkit.com/blog/2025/09/the-art-of-teaching-and-learning-along-the-way/
09/15/2025
Have you ever wondered what a “warm blue” or a “cool red” is? You’re probably already familiar with thinking about reds, oranges, and yellows as warm, and greens, blues, and purples as cool.
In the video demonstration “Warm and Cool Colors,” (https://arttoolkit.com/blog/2024/06/warm-and-cool-colors/) we shared how hues within each color can lean cooler or warmer through swatching paints, creating a color wheel, and sharing an example Demi Palette of six paints (listed below). Having a warm and cool of each primary color can create a well-rounded, versatile palette.
Inspired by this lesson, we are sharing inspiration for a Pocket Palette-sized version, pictured below, with plenty of room for mixing. To recreate this palette, you will need a Silver Pocket Palette, (1) Pack of 8 Standard Pans, and (1) XL Mixing Pan.
Paint List
Row 1: Hansa Yellow Light, New Gamboge
Row 2: Quinacridone Rose, Pyrrol Scarlet
Row 3: Cobalt Teal Blue, Ultramarine Blue
09/13/2025
Join expeditionary artist and Art Toolkit founder Maria Coryell-Martin for an adventure sketching demo on Sunday, September 28th from 12:30pm–2pm aboard the Port Townsend-Coupeville ferry!
We’ll practice gesture, contour, and thumbnail sketches to quickly capture a sense of place. Bring your own sketching supplies, and we’ll also have Art Toolkit travel palettes and brushes available to borrow. Join us for the round trip or one way!
We’ll be on the 12:30pm sailing from Port Townsend and on the 1:15pm Coupeville ferry. Participants will need to purchase their own walk-on passenger tickets from the ferry terminals on either side.
All levels are welcome, and we hope to see you for this unique and fun in-person event to close out the summer!
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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.
