I get questions from time to time about where the drawings on the site come from, or how they are done. 
The drawing I had in one of last week’s posts is a good example of one that can raise questions, partly because you don’t get a sense of scale after I’ve done a scan and cropped off the notebook edges and so forth. Also, people are not expecting much in the way of colour from drawing on location. Anyway, the answer is, yes I drew it, and yes it was drawn on location. I was just sitting on a balcony, chose which part of the view I wanted to represent on the page, and went for it. I wanted to spread across two pages of my notebook and make something of a tall sketch. See above right (click for larger view.) A quick light pencil rough helped me place things, and then a black micron 03 pen for finishing the drawing using waterproof ink followed (see left). 
Then I switched to watercolour pencils for some colours, and finally, a waterbrush to make it all flow and get the desired textures and richness at the end. And yes, I usually have much of that equipment with me when out and about*. (Maybe not a full set of watercolour pencils all the time, but I had some with me on that trip. A small set of some key colours and a refillable waterbrush are very useful – remember I had some on my hike in Aspen? See here and here.) Definitely, pens and my notebook are almost always in my bag, for sure, since I also do physics calculations, designs for projects, and shopping lists (etc) in them. You never know what you’ll find in my notebooks when you turn the page.
Thanks for asking, readers! Let me know if you have any more questions.
-cvj
*I’m just a dabbler. Real masters of this can be found at Urban Sketchers. Their motto: “See the world, one drawing at a time”, which I love! Go to their site for more.
