Primer for Plein Air: Part 2 / Tools and Stuff

What should I take?

Here are some useful tools to take. Top left and clockwise: Composition Finder, ViewCatcher, Pocket Color Wheel, Red Decoder Glasses, 35 mm slide mount (to use as a cropping tool.)

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Okay, you've got your easel and paint box sorted. What else do you need? Well, let's take a quick look at your studio.

An indoor studio, whether it's a converted two-car garage complete with fancy lights and studio furniture or simply the dining room where you can barely fit an easel and toolbox for supplies, is where most of us cut our teeth on the craft of painting. (I highly recommend to students that they first learn the basics in a controlled, indoor environment; the outdoors, what with challenges like unexpected wind gusts, ever-moving shadows, biting insects and curious interlopers, isn't the place to learn how to hold a brush.) In your studio, you have your full arsenal of tools and materials to create a masterpiece.