How to Build the Perfect Watercolor Travel Kit (Pack Light, Paint More)
By Dalton Scolman
There's something about being somewhere new that makes you want to make things. A cafe in a city you've never been to. A window seat on a long flight. A lazy afternoon in a hotel room with nowhere to be until dinner. These are the moments that make you think "I really should have brought my paints."
And then you remember how much your paints weigh. And how the water jar tipped over in your bag last time. And how your palette needs fifteen minutes of rehydrating before it actually works. And suddenly the moment passes.
Here's the good news: it genuinely doesn't have to be that complicated. Building a watercolor travel kit that you'll actually use is mostly about stripping everything back to what you really need and choosing a format that works with travel instead of against it.
This guide will walk you through exactly that.
The Golden Rule of Travel Art Supplies
Before we get into specifics, let's establish the one rule that applies to every single item in a travel kit: if it creates friction, it won't happen.
Heavy bag? You'll leave it at the hotel. Complicated setup? You'll skip it when you find a great spot. Anything that could spill? One anxious moment going through security and it's staying home forever.
The best travel watercolor kit is the one that's so easy and so light that you forget it's in your bag until suddenly there it is, ready to go, and you actually use it. That's the goal.
The Core Four: What Your Kit Actually Needs
Paint. Compact, lightweight, no liquids if possible. More on formats in a moment.
A brush or waterbrush. One is usually enough for travel. Waterbrushes (the kind with a barrel that holds water) are the single best thing to happen to travel painting because they eliminate the need for a water jar entirely.
A small sketchbook. Something with watercolor-appropriate paper, a hard cover to lean on, and a size that fits in your day bag without taking it over.
Something to paint. Which is everywhere you go. You're already sorted on this one.
That's genuinely the complete list. Everything else is optional.
Choosing Your Paint Format for Travel
This is the biggest decision in your travel kit, and the one most people get wrong by defaulting to whatever they use at home.
Pan sets are the traditional travel watercolor format and they're a solid choice. A small metal tin of half pans fits easily in a bag, the paints are solid so they clear security without any issues, and the tin lid usually doubles as a mixing area. The main downsides: quality pan sets can be heavy, cheaper ones produce chalky color, and you need a few minutes of wetting time before the color is really vibrant.
Tube paints are great in a studio but genuinely awkward for travel. You need a separate palette to squeeze them onto, they're technically considered a liquid by TSA (so carry-on tubes need to follow the 3.4oz rule), and an uncapped tube in your bag is a very bad day. They're better off staying home.
Liquid watercolors are fun and vivid but also count as liquids, which means security lines become more complicated and you always risk a leak. Fine for checked luggage packed carefully, but stressful as a carry-on.
DryColor sheets are genuinely the underrated hero of travel painting. Nicholson's Peerless Watercolors has been making these since 1885 and they've never made more sense than they do right now. They're flat cards coated in highly concentrated watercolor that activates the moment a wet brush touches them. No liquid, no paste, no mess. They sail through security without a second glance. The Sidekick palette fits 45 colors into something the size of a checkbook. You can slide it into a jacket pocket and forget it's there until you want it.
For travel specifically, the DryColor format removes almost every friction point that makes travel painting feel like a hassle. No waiting for paint to rehydrate. No spill risk. No liquid restrictions. No heavy tin. Just flat, lightweight, vibrant color whenever you want it.
Your Waterbrush: The Water Jar You Never Have to Carry
If you haven't used a waterbrush yet, stop what you're doing and add one to your life immediately. It's a brush with a reservoir in the handle that you fill with water. Squeeze gently and water flows into the bristles. No jar, no separate water container, no spills in your bag.
For travel, this is basically non-negotiable. The Pentel Aquash is reliable and inexpensive. The Kuretake Bimoji has a softer, more flexible tip that's lovely for expressive work. Either one will change how you think about painting on the go.
One tip: fill it with water after you get through security, not before. Empty waterbrushes are a non-issue at the checkpoint.
Your Sketchbook: Small, Hard Cover, Good Paper
The instinct is to pack your favorite sketchbook, but for travel you actually want something a little more specific.
Size matters more on the road than it does at home. A5 (roughly 5x8 inches) is the sweet spot: satisfying to paint in, small enough to hold in one hand, light enough to forget it's in your bag. Anything bigger and it starts feeling like something you have to plan around rather than something you just use.
Hard cover is worth prioritizing because it doubles as your painting support. No table? No problem. You can hold the book in one hand and paint with the other. A soft-cover book requires a separate board underneath, which is one more thing to carry.
Paper weight of at least 140lb (300gsm) is important so your pages don't buckle badly under wet washes. A dedicated watercolor sketchbook handles this well. Some mixed media books also work fine for lighter washes.
Good options in a compact travel format include the Hahnemuhle watercolor book, the Stillman and Birn Alpha in a smaller size, and the Leuchtturm watercolor notebook. If you're newer to watercolor, something like the Moleskine watercolor journal is more affordable and perfectly decent for travel sketching.
What to Honestly Leave at Home
A full palette system. Unless you're going on a dedicated painting trip, you will not use 40 colors. Ten is plenty. Five is often enough.
Multiple brushes. You need one, maybe two. A waterbrush plus one small round brush covers almost everything.
A water jar. Waterbrush. You're done.
Masking fluid. It's awkward to use on the go and the fumes aren't exactly what you want in a small hotel room.
Expensive paper. Travel paintings get rolled, folded, squished. Use something good enough to paint on but not so precious you're nervous about it.
A Sample Travel Kit That Fits in a Tote Bag
Here's what a genuinely packable, genuinely usable watercolor travel kit looks like:
Peerless Sidekick palette (45 colors, checkbook size, zero liquid). One Pentel Aquash waterbrush. A5 watercolor sketchbook with a hard cover. Two Sakura Pigma Micron fineliners in 0.3 and 0.5 if you like doing line work first. A small piece of scrap paper for testing colors. A kneaded eraser.
Total weight: barely anything. Total size: fits in the side pocket of a tote bag with room for your phone and your snacks. Setup time at a cafe table or a window seat: about 30 seconds.
Flying with Watercolors: What You Need to Know
This comes up a lot and the answer is simpler than most people expect.
Solid watercolors (pans, dry sheets) have no restrictions. They're not liquid, they're not hazardous, they don't go in your quart bag and they don't get a second look. They fly in your carry-on just like any other solid object.
Liquid watercolors and tube watercolors are treated as liquids by the TSA, so carry-on containers need to be 3.4oz (100ml) or smaller and fit in your quart-size liquids bag. In checked luggage there's more flexibility, but pack them in a sealed bag in case anything leaks.
Waterbrushes are fine in carry-on. Just empty them before you go through security and refill at a water fountain on the other side.
Basically: if your travel kit is built around dry or solid formats, flying is completely stress-free. Which is yet another reason the DryColor sheet format is such a natural fit for travel.
The Moments a Travel Kit Is Made For
You don't have to be going somewhere exotic to use a travel watercolor kit. It's for the long wait at the airport gate. The afternoon in a park on a work trip. The hotel room on a rainy evening when you've already seen the main sights and you just want to sit with something quiet and creative for an hour.
It's for the fact that painting something, even something small and imperfect and done on your lap, connects you to wherever you are in a way that a photo never quite does. You notice the light differently when you're trying to paint it. You sit in one place long enough to actually see it.
That's worth making space in your bag for.
FAQ: Travel Watercolor Kit Questions
Can you bring watercolor paints on a plane?
Yes. Solid watercolors like pans and DryColor sheets have no restrictions and can go in your carry-on without any issues. Liquid watercolors and tubes are treated as liquids, so in carry-on they need to be 3.4oz or smaller and fit in your quart bag. Solid formats are genuinely the easiest for flying.
What is the lightest possible watercolor travel kit?
A DryColor sheet format like the Peerless Sidekick plus a waterbrush is about as light as it gets. No water jar, no heavy tin palette, no liquid concerns. The Sidekick is roughly checkbook-sized and fits in a jacket pocket. Add a small hard-cover sketchbook and you have a complete kit that weighs almost nothing.
Do I need a water jar for travel watercolor painting?
Not if you use a waterbrush. Waterbrushes have a water reservoir built into the handle, so you never need a separate jar. This is one of the biggest quality-of-life upgrades for anyone painting on the go.
What size sketchbook is best for travel painting?
A5 (approximately 5x8 inches) is the sweet spot for most travel painters. Big enough to paint something satisfying, small enough to hold in one hand and fit in a day bag. A hard cover is worth prioritizing because it doubles as a painting support.
How do I keep paint from drying out in a travel palette?
With traditional pan or tube palettes, you'd mist them with a spray bottle before you start. With DryColor sheets, this isn't an issue at all since the format is inherently dry and activates on contact with your brush. Each color is always ready whenever you are.
Is Peerless Watercolors good for travel?
Really good, actually. The DryColor sheet format was ahead of its time for travel painting. No liquid, no rehydrating, no spill risk, incredibly concentrated color, and the Sidekick packs 45 colors into checkbook size. It's one of those products that makes more sense the more you think about the travel context specifically.
Ready to Pack Your Kit?
The perfect travel watercolor kit is the one that's so easy to grab that you never leave it behind. That means light, simple, and built around formats that work with your life on the road.
If you want to start with the best possible foundation for a travel kit, The Sidekick is genuinely hard to beat. Forty-five colors. Checkbook size. Fits in a pocket. No fuss.
Pack it. Forget it's there. Find yourself painting in places you never expected to.