Alaska 2012: Bits and Pieces

Alaska 2012: Process, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

While in Sitka I hiked along the river filled with salmon going up. It's a monumental event but I found it very stressful to watch and draw. Mostly because so many fish are dead, many are dying as you draw them, many are winning and moving ahead through dead bodies. The river is alive, many birds are screeching and feeding on the river. And while I sketched and contemplated this event a little voice in my head kept reminding me "bears are here - somewhere here - tasty fish... tasty sketcher". There was sighting of a bear in the city park a day before my hike - so I kept singing while drawing and... I am not sure it scared bears away but worked on some people ;)


There were many questions about my tools for this trip and how I kept everything dry. "Dry" is a relative term but a few things were very useful and I recorded them for my reference as well as to share my experience.


Mostly my notes on the pictures will tell you all that there is to know about my gear on this trip - but there were two things that helped me to sketch on this trip more:

Rite-in-the-Rain sketchbook and LOKSAK bags (they are basically super sturdy, element proof zip-lock bags).
 
Most of my equipment was protected by the dry bag - but alone it would not be enough - I used 6x12" and 13x11" aLOKSAK most - and these super heroes kept my camera, sketchbook, loose paper and sketches, bag with all my art materials safe. I also used 3x6" for my phone and it was great as it was working even without unzipping a bag and when I needed to snap a picture I would slide only one end for a second, click and hide it back :)