A slightly different version of this article originally appeared in my monthly newsletter, Notes from the Studio, if you’re interested in getting my newsletter, which is a roundup of what I’ve been up to each month, upcoming events and random other bits and bobs, pop over here to subscribe.

It can be hard to keep up a creative practice with life pulling you this way and that way, but it’s important to have one if you want to stay connected to your practice and improve your skills. When I was working in advertising, another lifetime ago, my creative director (who now happens to be my husband) would always say you have to “meet the client where they are.”

I’ve left advertising for the most part, but that sentence still resonates with me. When I was a new parent struggling to keep creative amongst the chaos of early babyhood it was hard to find time and space to sit down at my desk and be creative. And so that sentence crept back into my mind. “Meet them there.” Well, I was not where I wanted to be, but could I be creative where I was? With those thoughts rambling through my head, my original couch kit was born.

I am out of the baby phase but it can still be hard to find time for my personal creative practice, especially with young kids running around and life throwing punches left and right that leave me with little energy to create. Enter the couch kit once again.

My couch kit, as the name suggests, sits next to the couch. It is a box of simple materials and a sketchbook. Easily accessible when I am sitting on the couch with my family, watching TV or (sadly) zoning out and scrolling. Having my materials next to the couch makes it much easier to put down the phone and pick up a pencil for awhile. Something that is far more beneficial than mindless scrolling!

If you’ve been feeling detached from your creativity and need to ease yourself back in, I highly recommend setting up a couch kit. Somehow, sitting on the couch with a sketchbook makes everything seem lower stakes. I don’t feel like I need to create a masterpiece when I’m sitting on the couch. Some mindless, relaxing doodling (or drawing toy cars for one of my kids to color) is enough. It’s low stakes creativity and in some seasons of life that is exactly what is needed.

*Minimal and Maximal couch kit. I try to stay minimal, but I am a maximalist.*

Making a couch kit is pretty easy, but here’s a bit more about how I put mine together and what is in it.

What you need for a couch kit:

A Sketchbook. You could technically keep loose paper in your kit, but I find a sketchbook easier to maintain. I like Talens Art Creations sketchbooks because they come in all sorts of different sizes and colors plus they are cheap enough that you don’t have to feel precious about them – these are the sketchbooks I use for most things.

Materials. I try to think about what I like drawing with the most and what is easy to use (and not too messy!) on the couch. You could argue that watercolors don’t fit the bill, but with a self-contained water brush they end up being pretty easy to use and not too messy. The contents of my box varies but I always keep watercolors, a waterbrush, a fountain pen with waterproof ink, a grey or blue-grey marker to use for shading, a pencil and a sharpener. But…as you can see, things do get a bit messy and I end up cramming a bunch of stuff in.

A container to keep it all in. Mine is a vintage cigar box I bought off of Etsy, but yours could be a shoebox, a bag, really anything. I wanted something with a lid to keep my kiddos out (they have their own materials next to the couch!), but if you don’t have curious kiddos (or pets!) something without a top could work too! First, I measured the size of the sketchbook I wanted to keep in it (I like a roughly 8x5” sketchbook) and then I searched until I found a box that was the right dimensions.

That’s it. Now put it wherever you like to hang out – for me that’s next to the couch where I know I will inevitably end up at the end of the day, but it could be your kitchen table or your bedside table, or somewhere else – you could also make a mobile kit (I have one of those too!) and take it with you when you are on the go.

*On the first page of my couch kit sketchbook I illustrate the materials in the box…which is usually different than what I end up with at the end of my sketchbook.*

I set silly rules for myself and my couch kit.

I use the first page to draw the materials in my kit. When I finish a couch sketchbook, I clear out the box and add new materials to use for the next one. Some things always stay, like a fountain pen with waterproof ink and my watercolors, but the actual colors inside my watercolor tin and all the other materials, those are up in the air. Then, once my materials are “set”, I try to keep them the same for the entire sketchbook – although extra things inevitably creep in….as you can see from the drawing above vs. the images at the top.

You don’t need to make silly rules for your couch kit or you can make different silly rules, whatever feels right to you and encourages you to break out your materials and draw!

Just for fun, here’s a previous version of my couch kit.

Sketching where you are, wherever that is.