What Supplies Do I Need To Bring With Me?

Bring the following materials.

Note on plane travel:
There is no problem bringing any of these materials on the plane, except turpentine (see note at the bottom on this). If you are asked about the colors, always refer to them as oil colors (do not refer to them as paint). Then you will have no problem. There is a form in Process Unit 6-1 - (Oils/Acrylics) Plein Air Painting Equipment: CHECKLIST: PACKING LIST - SUPERLIGHT TRAVEL that you can print out and put with your oil colors in your checked baggage just to be extra cautious. It will explain to the airport staff that the oil colors are perfectly safe to take on the plane.

Colors to bring
You only need one small tube of each color, but two big tubes of white.

• Cadmium lemon or cadmium yellow light
• Cadmium red light
• Alizarin crimson
• Ultramarine blue
• Platinum Violet
• Cerulean blue or Phthalo Blue
• Viridian green
• Black
• Burnt Umber
• Titanium white (oil, acrylic, or alkyd).
  
  For oil painters use alkyd white instead of titanium white to make painting dry quicker if you don't have a drying box. You can also use water-based oil paints (from Winsor & Newton), which are easier to clean up, but still take the same amount of time to dry. Don't worry about that though, because the idea is to learn, not to create a finished painting so it doesn't matter if you scrape the painting off afterwards. Acrylics are more difficult to use than oils outdoors because they dry so quickly, but they are okay if you are used to them. You can also use watercolors.

Brushes to bring

Natural bristle (hogs hair for oils or acrylics). Use filbert or flats (not brights). Filberts and flats have long bristles. Brights on the other had have short bristles. Bring brushes in the following sizes (the sizes refer to the width of the bristles):

• one brush 0.7 cm wide
• two brushes 1.0 cm wide
• two brushes 1.5 cm wide
• two  brushes 2-2.5 cm wide

For watercolors bring a large brush, middle size and a small brush.

Panels to bring

Loose pieces of linen or canvas is the most portable and lightweight. Bring a board and some masking tape so you can tape the canvas to the board. You can pre-cut some of the canvas to the following sizes:

• morning painting sessions: three small painting surfaces for each morning of the workshop 6"x8 (15X20cm), 8X10" (20X25cm) , or 9x12" (23X30cm) (see the course unit on Getting Organized Outdoors for details of how to make lightweight painting surfaces)
• (afternoon painting sessions) you may stick with one or two of the same sized panels as the morning sessions, or use one or two additional medium sized panels in the afternoon: either 11x14" (28X36cm), or 12x16" (30X40cm)

To learn how to use and prepare your panels I've put a booklet together in the Process  Unit 6-2 Painting Supports - Lightweight

Easel and Palette

• easel or tripod and pochade. Avoid the tripod easels that force you to hold your palette in your hand. These are no good!
• palette (the larger the palette the better)
• drying box

Everything you need to know about traveling lightweight is written up in Process Unit 6-1 Plein Air Equipment. Read the sections on

• EASEL SYSTEMS: SUPERLIGHT
• DECISION: WHICH OUTDOOR EASEL TO USE FOR SUPERLIGHT TRAVEL
• TECHNIQUE: CARRYING LOOSE CANVAS
• TECHNIQUE: DRYING PAINTINGS QUICKLY
• DECISION: WHICH MOUNTING BOARD AND DRYING BOX TO USE
• STEP-BY-STEP: HOW TO MAKE A PALETTE CARRIER Note: make it smaller just to carry your palette - you don't need to carry a stretched canvas. Disassemble it to pack it in a suitcase, and bring some duct tape to put it back to together again when you arrive.
• STEP-BY-STEP: HOW TO DEAL WITH WET PAINT

Turpentine
You cannot bring turpentine or mineral spirits of course on the plane, but you do not need it. I use olive oil (or any vegetable oil) to clean my brushes when travelling and it works quite well. You can bring a small plastic bottle with some oil in it, or buy some when you get here.

If you paints are stiff, bring a small bottle of linseed oil, or any oil painting medium to thin them.

Other things to bring

• brush cleaner (if you can find it, bring Brush Flush since it is safe to bring on the plane.
• paper towels
• a viewfinder (a piece of card with a 2” by 1.5” rectangular hole cut in it)
• notebook & pen or pencil for making notes
• notan set. For specific information on what to bring for doing your Notan sketches see Notan supplies
• Print out Process: Oils/Acrylic Unit One Alla Prima Painting Approach, and/or Process: Watercolors - Unit One Watercolor Step-by-Step because you will need to refer to this during the painting demonstration.