Monday, March 30, 2015

Mar30Art

An easy, breezy page after a long day today.  My new art bag 'The Nomad' came in the mail today, I like that it will attach to a tripod, or allow me to draw standing up.  It has these rather heavy boards with straps all over to hold your pens or whatever.  I've tried loading up a palette and some pens and my clip on water cups, along with a sketchbook… problem is it won't close… hum?  So I'm going to have to carry a tripod or ditch that idea (which allows the removal of the tripod connection piece) take just water brushes and leave the water container, and paint brushes home.  Remove one of the boards, since my sketchbook needs the space where it goes… I think that is how I'll make this work.  There are pockets that my iPad and/or Galaxy note (or both) would fit in, but carrying those would add more weight and bulk.  It is a very narrow design, without much give for extra stuff… which is good, because I tend to carry too much and then wear myself out lugging all of it around.

6 comments:

  1. Elaine, I just got my Nomad and I am also having trouble figuring out how to get it to work,for me. I put a Cheap Joes American Journey watercolor journal in my Nomad and could barely get it to zip, without any tools or anything else in the satchel. I'm letting the Nomad rest with the journal zipped inside it in the hope that the fabric will relax a bit. If that fails, I am going the Circa route ala Glenn Vilppu from his plein air video using,the Nomad. We'll get this gear figured out, the Nomad is just too cool not to!

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    1. That's a good idea, I have a large Strathmore (8 1/2 x 11) journal that I want to carry in the NOMAD, had not thought of trying to get it to stretch a bit.

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  2. Please ignore all the extra commas. Typing on ipad is such a humbling experience, LOL!

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    1. Yes I know RaSonya, I have an iPad and know the challenges of typing on it :-)

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  3. Have you looked at James Gurneys plain-air setup? It seems very portable and light weight. I am getting stuff together to make a similar setup.

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    1. Oh yes Bill Wagner, I subscribe to James Gurneys blog posts.. and he's featured to the right in my favorite blogs here. I do like his set up, but I'm not handy with tools, and I'd imagine those plywood boards he uses could be heavy. I've tried to use plastic foam core boards but while very light weight not study enough to use on a tri-pod, that's what I found appealing about the Nomad… I can use it on a tri-pod or leave the tri-pod home and just use the Nomad standing, or in my lap sitting. I have to avoid the pack rat in me that wants to carry everything, and realize I'm an old lady with a bad back that can only haul so much weight around.

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