Richard McKinley Plein Air Workshop
Supply List

PASTELS
The largest set of soft pastels you can afford. Richard uses a large assortment of SCHMINCKE, supplemented with SENNELIER, TERRY LUDWIG PASTELS and GREAT AMERICAN. These are soft and facilitate his technique. For harder pastels, he uses GIRAULT.

NO OIL PASTELS.

Prepare your pastels for painting by breaking the full stick into thirds. Arrange them by color family and value. These will become your palette. Richard’s pastel palette in a large open box with a lid for transport. The one he uses is the Heilman Box, available from Marge and John Heilman, (530) 778-3080 or www.heilmandesigns.com. He strongly recommends their pastel box for field work.

PAPER
WALLIS Paper. Use the white museum grade Wallis Paper and the Belgium mist professional grade, cut to size. Richard uses more of the white than the gray. A full sheet is 24x36 in size 1/4 and 1/8 sheets work well.

It is recommended to have it mounted in advance. Richard’s paper is archivally mounted to 4-ply museum board, leaving at least 1-inch boarder all around. Then tape these to a drawing board for stability on location. Sheets of tracing paper or glassine may be used to protect the surface.

Packets of mounted paper can be ordered from Central Art Supply, 1-800-863-1444. Mention Richard’s name to get a great price.

SUPPORT
A smooth drawing board or surface to attach the paper to. MASONITE hardboard or GATOR-BOARD works well.

EASEL
Field Easel to hold drawing board and pastels. A folding Table and folding A-frame easel are fine. Richard uses a French Easel; the extended drawer holds his Heilman pastel case. A half French Easel will work fine with a smaller pastel case. An umbrella setup is strongly recommended. Either a strong clamp-on or a tripod-umbrella setup.

MISC.
Tape to attach paper (masking tape for hardboard, drafting tape for gator-board), Spray Workable Fixative, four 2b Pencils, pencil sharpener, hard Vine Charcoal, Note Book, old Bristle Brushes, Odorless Paint Thinner, Paper Towels, Camera, Wide Brimmed Hat, Bug Spray, Sun Screen and adequate WATER supply.

Note: A small palette of watercolors and brushes might be useful for some experimenting with under-staining, but is not compulsory. Richard will be demonstrating how he uses watercolor as an under-painting for some of his pastels (note: mounted Wallis paper is necessary for this).