Pochade is French for Quick Sketch - if you make one of these handy boxes you will be able to sketch on location in your choice of media - from watercolor to pastel to oil paint!

Pochade painting is ideal for times when you are enjoying another activity and either want to commemorate the occasion or just capture something neat that caught your eye.

This is the first of a series of articles that both reviews the art of painting on location (also called plein air painting) and shows you how to do it yourself.

In art, as with most things, practice makes a difference, and once you have your own portable art studio, you won't have an excuse to avoid getting better and better at whatever is your passion!

I'm going to tell you how to make your own pochade box with much less effort and fewer tools. The boxes I make are smaller and more portable, and can be made with only a few purchases.

Here's a quick list of what you need:

Your media - preferably a second set because if you are going out on location, your materials could get a little roughed up.

Your accessories - brushes, pencils, cloth, solvents - everything else you need to use your media

Supports - this refers to what you draw or paint on.

Something to hold everything you need - this is the pochade box. I am going to show you a number of ways of constructing a box that not only will hold your supplies, but also will keep them at hand in such a way as to facilitate your working in the field with the least hassle.

In my mind your box should hold everything you need to paint or draw - if you have to carry something outside the box then it is possible to lose or break it. Also, if you can just grab your box and go that makes it more likely that you will paint more often - that's GOOD!

Above you can see some of the ingredients used for various pochade boxes I have made or am making. Clockwise from the upper left, a pochade box made from a plastic candy box, a paintbox of sennelier watercolor paints, plastic chopping mats (for palettes), candy tins, tube watercolors, brushes, a watercolor pad and a set of acrylic paints.

I don't recommend the cheap paints for anything other than throwaway or experimentation; I used the watercolors to experiment with box construction and the acrylics for the containers. The brushes are medium to low cost brushes. I recommend medium cost simply because if your box falls off the mountain you don't want to instinctively dive after it...

I did use inexpensive paper for field testing; that's because it's no different to cut cheap paper vs expensive until you make a mistake. You may need to cut paper depending on what you use to make your box and whether you decide to abide by the rule that everything must fit in the box. I have violated that rule by carrying a paint box like the sennelier box and a watercolor pad in my bag, but I have also been caught without the pad on several occasions. The same goes for brushes: the smaller your box, the more likely you are to have to cut down your brushes. I make one exception here: there are watercolor brushes that have their own water supply - they work well for sketching but won't fit in a candy tin. They will fit in a larger box such as the candy box pictured above; see below for the box opened.

Water can be carried in something as small as a plastic eyedropper; I haven't got hold of one so there isn't one in the picture, but they can be had at any drugstore or pharmacy. Other solvents may not fit in the smaller tins.

Here you can see some of the steps in making a pochade box out of a candy tin. I measured the tin, then cut a piece of plastic chopping mat to fit. The part cut out of the end is to facilitate getting it out of the box. I also cut a brush and some watercolor paper to fit. I use watercolor paper for both watercolor and acrylic, but you can buy acrylic paper or even use real canvas as long as you glue it to something sturdy like cardboard. If you don't, it will warp. Watercolor paper has a tendency to warp as well, but less so if you use a heavier weight paper, and not if all you're doing is sketching. I used hardware store magnets to hold the paper, but binder clips worked just as well and didn't cover as much of the painting surface. You could also use a rubber band around the top of the lid. Others have suggested what I call poster gum - it is plastic temporary gum that holds posters to walls - but I wasn't sure it would affect the painting surface so I didn't try that.

I tried putting the paints directly onto the palette, and they worked well - I was able to carry the box in my pocket and paint a tiny sketch with no problem. But the wonderful thing about using the chopping mat is that nothing sticks to it. Within a day of using the box the paints all fell off!

So I borrowed an idea I saw on another set of pochade box instructions and constructed wells from polymer clay. I put paints in the wells and let them dry and they worked just fine.

You can see here where I put in the colors - I am a fan of the limited palette - I used colors that can be mixed to make others with one exception - I like to use burnt umber for preliminary sketches so there was a well included for that. And since I use a lot of green I included a well for that color too. The other well you see is for water. I tested this and found that for just sketching, that much actually is quite enough. When I was done I stuck a tissue in, soaked up the water, used the tissue to wipe my brushes and I was done with cleanup!

There is an article on making a pochade box out of a mint tin, but I found that the candy tins were just perfect for making artist trading cards - the box is exactly the right size to store and paint them. These instructions should be enough to inspire you to make your own pochade box. Then your studio can go with you anywhere you go - the woods, the beach, or tomorrow's traffic jam.

So take your studio with you and CREATE!

And in case you'd rather collect than create, I have included links to sites that sell cards - called Artist Collectors Editions and Originals. You can also find them on Ebay. ENJOY!