Underwater Sketching Kit

Between my previous experiences of sketching while scuba-diving and some new ideas, I created a whole set of tools that I wanted to try on this trip. They included several papers to try, several pencils to try, and a new way to add color: oil pastel! While getting ready for this adventure I went to a refresher class for scuba diving (our last trip was before the pandemic) and that is where I tested my oil pastels set-up and was super excited to bring them with me! I knew that there would be at least 15 dives so I planned to try one tool at a dive first and then pick what worked the best and continue with that set-up till the end of vacation.

Here is what the plan for the tools looked like:

Three Papers: 

1. Right in the rain all weather notebook (Plain. This is what I've been using before in all my scuba diving sketching but I am not sure it is still available so the link goes to the closest thing I found).

2. Terra Slate Waterproof paper, 5 mm - I  got a pack of loose sheets and folded them in half for my support board. This paper was recommended to me by a Rory O'Keefe | SURVEY DOWN - an amazing underwater cave cartographer. 

3. Wire-Bound Stone Paper Notebook which I cut to match my support board (which is based on the size of my scuba diving pocket). 

Oil Pastels were a collection that I created from several sets - but Faber Castell box was plastic and convenient for both transporting and keeping them in place underwater.

Pencils:

Color pencils were two no-name multicolor ones (presents from friends actually!), double-pencil is Mitsubishi Vermilion and Prussian Blue and others are short prismacolor pencils. 

Graphite Pencils were chosen for all-plastic body which means they would not rust. And here is some info about them:

1. Pilot Croquis 6B (Pilot AP-CR4-6B Croquis 6B Sketch Pen - this is a closest link I found through it leads to a very pricy version - I got mine for $6 at some point) - a pleasure of soft graphite cannot be underestimated but at depth not too many pencils keep it - this one does! 

2. Morning Glory Sketch Mechanical Pencil provided a lovely option of making thin and thin lines by having a rectangular lead 1.8 mm flat,

3. Aqua Pencil from Reef Check - picked up at the local dive shop in a pre-pandemic life. 

4. Stabilo all Aquarellable Pencil - which writes on all sorts of surfaces 

5. Carpenter pencil allows for a wide variety of marks and I used wooded ones before - this was an experiment with an all-plastic housing - Swanson Tool Co CP216 AlwaysSharp Refillable Mechanical Carpenter Pencil. The pencil is too long for my comfort and I did not get to actually test it under water. 

However, things didn't go as planned. While preparing for scuba-diving in Maldives I looked up all sorts of information about aquatic life I might encounter, water temperature, and famous diving sites. But I did not register the fact that the Maldives are a place known for the abundance of currents, sometimes treacherous. We did not encounter anything worth mentioning ourselves but got a lot of warning during dive briefings. And there were many sites with current strong enough to take my mind off any drawing - we used hooks to stay in place or move in the direction where our guide would be going. And he would always be moving - which was also not conducive for drawing. Sticking with the guide was important as the boat was tracking groups of divers, and surfacing with the guide was key to ensuring we were picked up by our vessel. As a result, I did not go through all my sketching tools and did not get to try oil pastels. So they will have to wait for my next scuba-diving adventure :) 

Here what I actually used:

Here is how my tools looked after one of the dives where I got to sketch:

Note how my wood pencils cracked (I think that water pressure at 100 feet depth plus saltwater working on the glue which holds pencils together made this happen). The mechanical pencils that I tested performed excellently, and I will keep them in my tool set.

And paper notes you can see in these images:

What is in the pictures but might not be obvious is a plastic board for support and subber bands of all sorts - to hold paper in place and to hold my drawing tools.