I have been using a French Resistance pochade box for my sketching outdoors and at home. With the need to carry my paints with me around the house to keep an eye on the children or simply sketch around my family, and to be able to quickly close the sketch box and put it all away (as when the baby monitor goes "wahhh"...), this has become a convenient setup to buy me more time to paint.
The box mounts on any of my tripods, but it takes the Velbon to make it really stable. My En Plein Air Pro easel is more convenient outdoors, but to paint from the car, or a home on a table or on my lap, the pochade box works better. I carry it with me in the trunk of the car. It is pretty convenient and it takes only a minute to open it and get ready to paint, and even less to close it up and put it away.
I've been carrying a 7x10 sketch book in the storage compartment of the box, and have water, brushes and pocket brushes, and a folding plastic palette with my colors. The photos show both the use with a sketchbook, and with a loose sheet of paper, using the cover of the storage compartment as a support for a gentler angle.The photo also shows a recent sketch of a house down the street, as seen from my back yard gate.
that French Resistance box looks so functional! I am sooo seduced by easels and pochades....I think I need professional help!!! Your sketch is wonderful, btw! I recently saw the wooden Mabef easel in a David Curtis DVD and it now has caught my eye.....oy....do I really need more?!?!? yes, of course!
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