Description
How it came about…
I’ve been an artist all my life, and I’ve been sketching on location all over the world since 2012, when I was living on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.
When I first fell in love with sketching on the spot in ink & watercolour, I would bring a huge amount of kit with me. I whittled it down over the years, but no matter what sketching bag I used, I was always faced with an ongoing problem: I could not sketch and then add watercolour while standing up, and would always need to sit to reach my water. Bags that did allow that were heavy or utilitarian in appearance, and I like my bags to coordinate with my outfit.
So I started experimenting with patterns, and the first bag I made was cute but all wrong for my needs. It was too small, wasn’t hands-free, the pockets faced the wrong way…I realised I would have to start again from scratch. Within a few months my studio was a mess of canvas, wadding, threads and zips, and under the chaos you could just about make out ten versions of my bag in different fabrics, shapes and sizes. I still have all those versions, some still with pins sticking out.
While I have been sewing since I was very small, this project was rapidly evolving to another level, and I realised I needed help. Luck stepped in just when i needed it, and I met an incredible team of designers and manufacturers whose skills have left me in awe and gratitude.
With their help, some valuable input from my global sketching community and many more tweaks to the design, I finally came up with a bag that is perfect for my needs as a sketcher, and, I hope, for yours.
Then there was the question of fabric: would canvas be durable enough? I wasn’t convinced. I decided to use leather, but I wanted to use something other than animal leather. In my search for an alternative, I came across many plant-based leathers. My favourite by far was cactus leather for its appearance and performance (it’s made from the nopal cactus in Mexico, which needs no watering or fertilising). It’s smooth and strong and looks beautiful.
Nowadays I never leave the house without my SketchPocket. I keep my phone and wallet in the front pocket, my bank or travel cards in the back, and then when I am ready to sketch I just unzip it, get out my sketchbook and pens, and have a fully-painted sketch completed in no time, with zero mess. In a café, on the beach, on a train, out on a hike or sitting at home, I am sketching more than ever. I can capture any beautiful sight that inspires me, meaning I am slowing down while still getting through everything that needs to be done. I’m using my black one at the moment, but I look forward to using the off-white one with summer outfits on a visit to a warmer climate next year…
Size – What can a SketchPocket fit?
- There are 5 slots + pockets for pens and 4 slots for water brushes.
- There are two pockets on the bottom (when in use), one for a box of 12 half-pans and one for an A6 sketchbook.
- Behind the elastics and pockets for pens and brushes is a pocket for an A5 or A6 sketchbook.
- On the outside of the bag at the back is a flat pocket with space for a flat item (such as your collapsible water container) and two credit-card sized slots, which will remain secure against your body.
- Also on the outside in the front is a separate zipped pocket that fits a phone (note: it will be a little wider than you see in these photos, to accommodate larger phones comfortably)
- While the bag is primarily intended for use with an A6 sketchbook, it also fits an A5 200g Watercolour Sketchbook by Hahnemühle. However, if you put BOTH an A5 and an A6, and all your pens and brushes, it’s going to be a very tight squeeze. I recommend bringing one sketchbook only when you head out, OR bringing loose sheets in both sizes.
Returns
You can return your purchase within 14 days of receipt, but we cannot cover return postage, unfortunately. All packaging must be returned and the bag must be in an unused condition with labels attached, the art products unopened and unused and any paper material included.
Shipping
I use a courier to ship anywhere outside of the EU and it’s fast and reliable. Shipping anywhere in the world is free.
Guarantee
Your SketchPocket is guaranteed for 12 months from the date of purchase. If it breaks during normal use I will cover the cost of repair – preferably locally to save shipping costs.
Update December 2025: I still use my SketchPocket wherever I go and have done since October 2024 when the first bags left the factory. They have been sold to happy customers all over the world and the reviews are spectacular (I really must find them and post them)! My SketchPocket has come with me to Greece, France, Spain, Britain, Malta, Poland and Switzerland this year alone, as well as all across Ireland. It has helped me sketch before work, at the breakfast table, in train stations and on the train, on the plane, at the edge of a stormy sea and anywhere else a small bag can fit, because the SketchPocket allows you to sketch standing up wherever you are.
There is one thing I would do differently if I were designing it all again, but I can’t see how I could have thought of it: the SketchPocket is very slightly more suited to left-handed people than right-handed people. Simply switching the direction of the pocket on the top half (when open) would have fixed that! It just means that the lefties can overfill their bag with pens but if we righties do, a pen or two might fall out. That’s because the “hang” of the bag is affected according to which side you wear it, and on the right it tilts slightly one way, on the left it tilts slightly the other way. But I usually have five or more pens in mine and they don’t fall out, so you really have to go crazy for them to be overfull – and besides, as one lefty SketchPocket purchaser said to me, “it’s about time something was better for us!”
After more than a year using mine all the time my bag still looks like new. I have gifted my beautiful bags to artist friends of mine, and artist family members, who say they can’t believe how their work rate has increased. It’s like your phone – when it’s with you all the time, you use it a lot.
Take the plunge – and with 20% off until 19th December 2025 you are getting something very special for yourself or a loved one at a truly excellent price.
