I’m enjoying a week at the beach, and thought I’d share what notebooks and pens and art supplies I brought with me. Since I traveled by car, I didn’t have to worry about packing light!

First, here’s what is in my bag every day, which of course I didn’t change for my vacation:

There is an almost-full Moleskine sketchbook, a squared Moleskine used for daily notes and journaling, and my Nolty diary/planner/logbook. My daily carry writing implements are a couple of Uniball Signo RT 0.38s, a Uniball StyleFit multi-pen, and a Caran d’Ache mechanical pencil used mainly for drawing.

The rest of my supplies are in these small cases, which I keep in a large tote bag along with my laptop, chargers and books/magazines.

The small orange case holds my fountain pens. I refilled them all before I left, but I haven’t actually been using them yet on this vacation– I go through phases where I use some of them a lot, and then phases when I don’t. From left, these are a vintage Waterman, a Pilot Metropolitan, a Daiso pen given to me by a friend, a Pilot Justus, a Pilot Falcon SF, another Pilot Metropolitan, a Platinum Preppy, a TWSBI Eco, two Lamy Safaris, and another Platinum Preppy. Most of these are used in my notebook review pen tests.

This small black case is what I usually use for a stripped-down drawing kit. I keep changing what pens and pencils I keep in it. Currently, it’s a wide Uniball Signo, some Faber Castell pencils, one of which is water-soluble for blending, some Pigma Micron pens, a Kaweco lead holder, a Zebra extra fine brush pen, and a mechanical pencil from Daiso. A ruler from Muji has also crept in there.

The larger mesh pouch holds a pretty random assortment of supplies, and sometimes I stuff the other small cases in there too. There’s a Winsor and Newton watercolor set, a replacement half pan of a color I use a lot, a small bottle for water, some erasers, a fude nib fountain pen, a mop brush, a water brush, some binder clips, a pencil sharpener, some Post-It flags, a Muji glue stick and some refills for the Daiso mechanical pencil. There is also a little bag with a lens cleaning cloth in it– not sure why, as I usually keep that with a separate bag of camera accessories.

Also in my totebag: some additional notebooks. The Moleskine watercolor sketchbook (bottom left) only has one spread left empty, so I also brought a Pen & Ink watercolor book (top left) that I had started a little when I did a watercolor sketchbook comparison review. My regular Moleskine Sketchbook is also almost finished, so I brought a new one, which I may or may not need to use before the end of the trip. I was also going to bring a spare squared Moleskine, but that notebook is only about 2/3 done so I guess I decided I wasn’t likely to need it. Although now that I’ve realized it isn’t with me, I feel a little nervous!

All in all, I feel like I have more stuff with me than I need. I’d like to have a more simplified kit, but I’m always trying different things to see what I like best. What notebooks and supplies do you carry with you?