My 2024 Nature Spots Challenge Kit

The second annual Nature Spot Challenge starts tomorrow — are you in? I spent some time today putting together my kit and thought I’d share.

Sketchbook

This year I decided to switch things up and do the challenge in a sketchbook — it’s the Paul Rubens 100% cotton hot press sketchbook — will see how it goes! I’m not that familiar with hot press paper so I thought the challenge would be a low pressure way to try it out. Last year I made a little book from Arches cold press paper and that worked great. (Find a tutorial here.)

Palette

I’ll be using my Art Toolkit x Traveler’s Notebook Pocket Palette — love the green color and thought it would be fun to use with the pink sketchbook!

Paints are Daniel Smith unless noted (H = Holbein, WN = Winsor and Newton):

• First row: Chinese white, hansa yellow medium, yellow ochre (H)
• Second row: quinacridone rose, quinacridone coral, transparent red oxide
• Third row: chromium green oxide, cobalt turquoise light (WN), peacock green (H, it’s pthalo blue + phthalo green)
• Forth row: ultramarine blue, Van Dyck brown, and neutral tint (H)
• The top right mixing pan has a blob of yellow and will be for mixing greens — no more dirtying up my pan of yellow paint yay!
• Lower left mixing pan will be for sky color
• The lower right has a blob of ultramarine blue and a blob of transparent red oxide for mixing browns and greys

See this palette in action here on Instagram!

Waterbrush and Pen

I usually use a large nib Pentel waterbrush, but I found out last year that I kept having to refill it — and sometimes I’d forget before I headed out the door! So this year I’m going to try the Niji waterbrush with the large nib. I’ve heard so many good things about Niji waterbrushes and I’ve always wanted to put one to the test.

I also added a blush pitaya Kaweco sport with an extra fine nib to my kit — yeah, I couldn’t resist it! It’s so small and compact — plus strawberry pitayas are one of my favorite cacti. I think the extra fine nibs might be sold out, but I still see some fine points available.

There you have it — just let me know if you have any questions. I’d love to hear about your kits, too!