How to Make a POCHADE BOX for Painting Plein Air with Watercolor in 14 Easy Steps
January 3, 2010 by Jan
Filed under Painting Plein Air
Pochade means `quick sketch’.
Plein Air means `open air’ and refers to painting on location outdoors.
A pochade box is very useful for plein air painting because it is lightweight, portable and convenient.
1. Cigar boxes come in all sizes and shapes. Find a cigar box that has room for holding a small watercolor block in the lid. It needs to have a clasp closure and be sturdy.
This one is 8.75” x 6.5”x 2.25”.
2. Purchase small inexpensive empty watercolor pans from an art supply store. They are available as half or full sized empty pans and come in a pack of ten. Or you can purchase paints in these small individual pans.
3. Purchase a small plastic palette that will fit into the box and leave room for the paint pans and a few brushes.
This 9 well 3 5/8” x 7 1/8” plastic tray palette was purchased for less than a dollar.
4. Play with different arrangements of the pans and palette until you get a layout that works well for you. Consider how many colors you are going to want on your palette
5 Purchase small 5”x 7” or 4” x 6” blocks of watercolor paper. These will fit in the lid of the pochade box.
6. Purchase a small inexpensive plastic cup to hold water. This one comes with a lid and fits in one of the sections of the palette. 
Paper towels or a highly absorbent camping towel can be used (and reused) to control the dampness of your brush.
Find some watercolor brushes that are compact enough to fit into the box. Travel brushes are compact and have a handle that encloses the brush when they are not being used.
8. Make sure that you have left room to keep some brushes and possibly a pencil and eraser in the side of the box.
Decide on the best arrangement and glue the empty pans to the box bottom. Leave the palette loose so it can be removed and easily washed.
9. The camping towels can be cut into the size of the cigar box so it covers the paints when the box is closed and prevents leakage.
10. Choose the watercolors (in tubes) that you want to put in the empty pans.
11. Decide on the order of the colors and exactly how you want them arranged.
12. Fill the pans and write the colors down so you can fill them easily in the future.
13. The towel can be place behind the paper with as much of it hanging out over the edge so you can wipe your brush on it.
14. This is the best step of all! Take your pochade box outside and go PAINT!
The pochade box will give you a handy tool for plein air painting. The watercolors can be rewet with a small water spray bottle. The box will gather stains and interesting color like this one that was made several years ago.
Altoid boxes? That is a fun idea. It doesn’t give you the room to paint like a cigar box but it would give you a very compact little painting set. Fun! Thanks for sharing the idea.
I just found this after I asked my question on your latest post. I had ordered some empty pans from Daniel Smith to put in Altoids boxes. for small kits
Thanks and keep painting
Check with any cigar/tobacco store. They often have empty cigar boxes for sale for a few dollars. They sometimes want you to buy the last 1-2 cigars. I have also found them at garage sales. I have heard that you can get them on ebay. I love the smell of cigars too. I collect any sturdy cigar box that I can find, not just the size described in this post. They are useful for all sorts of different things. Check out Lori McNee’s website. She has good instructions for a different kind of pochade box: http://www.finearttips.com/?p=66
Thank you Jan! This is a really good how to do it! I’m always so unorganized when I try to go plein air. Where do you find the cigar boxes? Are they for real and smell of cigars? I love the smell of cigars….