In my quest to downsize my travel gear, I was looking for a smaller sketching bag to carry my journals, brushes, paints, and pens on my Polar adventure to Svalbard.

My go-to sling bag has been Patagonia’s Atom 8L. I love this bag but it was a bit too big and I wanted a better fit for the smaller Hahnemuhle watercolor journals I would be bringing.

So I decided on the Osprey Daylite Sling. This bag has a 6 liter capacity, it can be worn on the left or right shoulder (I prefer the right), and it has two wide U-zipper mouths to allow access to the interior.

This is my fourth Osprey bag. They are quality built and very comfortable to carry and as an added bonus they were founded just down River Street from my cabin in Santa Cruz.

I did a spread about my new bag featuring a little auk or dovekie modeling the bag. This is one of three lifers I could get in Svalbard (barnacle goose and ivory gull are the other two). The chances of seeing little auk are high because they are the most populous bird in Svalbard.