When you go outside to paint for the first time, you’ll be interested to know what you need.

In my online course at Domestika Pleinair Painting for Beginners I show you all this in detail and also explain in detail how I mix my colors.

Everyone who wants to do a workshop with me (no matter which provider) will receive a discount link from me if they are interested, then the almost 4-hour course will cost significantly less than € 10. Just send me an e-mail to receive this link.

Here is a list of everything I recommend as minimum basic equipment, linked for a more detailed explanation:

• Painting board to paint on (painting cardboard)
• Panel holder (optional clipboard, better: easel) and pochade boxes
• Mixing pallet
• Colors (reduced palette!)
• Painting medium
• Container for painting medium (pallet plug)
• Paper towels
• Brush/spatula
• Wet Panel Transport
• Optional: Umbrella

For anyone who wants to know what I take with me outside, I’ll show you the contents of my painting backpack here. I’ve optimized my equipment over the years and prepared for all eventualities – that doesn’t mean you have to get it all before your first painting trip, of course!

Although I try to limit myself to the essentials, it still adds up to quite a lot. Without the water, it weighs around 7 kilos on average – so it’s important to find a good rucksack with straps that don’t cut in. Mine also has straps on the side with which I can attach the easel and the umbrella, so I have my hands free. I added the solar panel myself. It’s super handy to be able to charge your cell phone or connect the LED light to the battery even when you’re far away from the nearest power socket. (The page references in the list refer to my book, in which I go into much more detail).

Painting boards

There are many surfaces you can paint on. I personally only use painting boards or painting cardboard. They are not expensive, they are available in all formats and they are easy to cut with a cutter. They are available in cardboard or MDF, laminated with different canvases (white or natural) or unlaminated without texture.

I now almost exclusively use painting boards without texture, as I can wipe or scrape the paint off their smooth surface completely if necessary without it getting stuck in the pores of the canvas.

Almost all painting boards on the market are already primed and ready to paint, so you can start painting on them straight away or you can prime them yourself as required (also in color). As the primer of many painting panels (usually a kind of gesso) “soaks in” the first coat of paint too much for me personally and I therefore need too much paint, I prime them with a less absorbent primer: I can recommend the oil primer from Gamblin. If I don’t have time to let this primer dry for a week, I use normal acrylic paint instead.

I never take only colored primed painting boards outside, in case the color does not match the motif and I would otherwise have to “paint” against it all the time – I always have white ones with me.

Don’t take on too large a format, especially at the beginning: you only have about 1-2 hours to finish your painting when plein air painting. Approximately DinA 4 is a good guide as an upper limit. This will also make it easier for you to transport the painting.

Mixing pallet

My mixing paletteconsists of a ready-bought white palette that I have primed with a neutral medium gray. This makes it easier to judge the brightness of the mixed color. On white, even very light tones often appear too dark, and on a wooden palette, the warm wood color distorts the color temperatures.

I also put a thin sheet of Plexiglas on top – this way the gray always stays gray and cleaning is much easier.

I use all three primary colors in a warm and cold variant. Warm here means yellow or red-tinged, or cold: blue-tinged in relation(!) to the comparison color.

This results in a “double” color wheel:

I can use it to mix almost all colors as brightly as possible – regardless of whether they are warm or cool tones.
A warm yellow and a warm red can be used to mix wonderfully bright orange tones.
The cool red mixed with the warm blue, which has a red tint, produces beautiful violet tones.
The lemony yellow mixed with the cool blue makes the green tones shine beautifully.

The saturation can then be easily broken with the respective complimentary color.

I then use two different shades of white for brightening: zinc white and titanium white. Both whites have different properties, which is why both are important. I don’t use black at all, because it creates dead black holes in the picture on its own, and it doesn’t really do any color any good when mixed. It makes them darker, but it always makes them dirty. That’s why I have two very dark shades on my palette instead of black: Van Dyck brown and Paynes gray. I chose these two shades using the same logic as my primary colors: The brown is a warmer, more yellow-toned shade, while the gray is blue-toned and therefore cooler. As a result, these two tones also complement each other.

In total, I have ten tubes that I always have with me. (I have kept the color names as general as possible so that they are transferable to all brands).

1. Zinc white (neutral, semi-opaque)
2. Titanium white (cold, opaque)
3. Lemon yellow (cold)
4. Cadmium yellow light, Naples or Indian yellow (warm)
5. Vermilion, cadmium or madder light (warm)
6. Magenta or ruby red (cold)
7. Cyan or cerulean blue (cold)
8. Ultramarine or cobalt blue (warm)
9. Van Dyck brown (warm)
10. Paynes gray (cold)

The picture shows my choice of paints from Schmincke (Norma):
I also work with these paints in my workshops and can highly recommend them as basic oil paint equipment!

Paint transport

Pillbox

If I know that I’m going to be painting more often in the near future, I fill my chosen paints into small airtight jars to save weight. I use pill boxes for this (these are from MUJI), in which the oil paints stay moist for up to 2 weeks.

Depending on the landscape, I treat myself to a few extra colors if they are particularly common there.

UDATE:
The tins are practical, but unfortunately not easy to clean. That’s why I now use a color square:

Paint Tube

I had seen this super good patent from a student and immediately copied it:

I portion my oil paints onto an angle (in this case self-made from plastic, but there are also angles made from aluminum in DIY stores). It fits exactly into a small brush tube (35mm Ø). The tube is available here, I made it as airtight as possible (with a “sealing ring” made of adhesive tape). At the bottom is a natural sponge with a few drops of clove oil, which is an antioxidant and prevents the oil paints from oxidizing/hardening. They actually stay moist in the tube for several weeks. Stored in the fridge for even longer …

I attach the bracket to my pochade box with a magnet (because of the wind in Brittany).

With both the pill boxes and this color angle, I not only save weight, but also the tiresome task of loading palettes with 10x tube open/tube closed before I can start painting.

Painting medium (for oil paints)

There are an incredible number of painting mediums: they all change the properties of the oil paint. They make it dry faster or slower, dilute it, make it smoother or more pasty. Apart from the oils, they are all (sometimes more, sometimes less) harmful to health and most of them smell very strongly.

I only use thinner (for the very first coat of paint, which dries quickly and can be painted over, and to clean the brush during painting) and oil (very rarely and then only very little, to make the paint smoother if necessary).

Nothing else.

The oil is purified linseed oil or linseed oil, which I mix with thinner in a ratio of 5:1. My preferred thinner is the odorless Gamsol from Gamblin. The thinner from Zest-it is also very good . An interesting new discovery (for me) is the Spikeoil from Chelsea Classicalbut this smells very strongly of lavender.
As the first two thinners mentioned are not currently available in Germany, I recommend the alternative Diluent N from Schmincke as an alternative. It is odorless and above all aromatic-free, so it is not quite as harmful to health as other thinners.

If you can’t get any, you can also use balsamic turpentine oil if necessary. However, this smells very strong, which I find unpleasant even outdoors.

I also tested the odorless Green for Oil thinner from Sennelier: for me personally, it dries too slowly in the first paint application.

The following low-aromatic thinners also sound interesting, but I have not (yet) tested them myself:

Izosol from Kama Pigment

Shellsot T from Jackson’s

If possible, do not use white spirit, turpentine or similar. These substances are very harmful to health! Even turpentine, which is almost odorless, is very harmful to health – which in the worst case scenario you won’t even notice due to the lack of smell!

Incidentally, I keep the remains of my thinner in a screw-top jar and use it again and again. Under no circumstances should it be poured down the sink!

Brushes and spatula

These are the brushes that I currently use regularly. They vary from time to time, but basically they are never particularly expensive brushes, rather inexpensive hobby brushes. Initially, I didn’t want to buy expensive brushes because I don’t always clean my brushes immediately after painting – I was afraid of ruining them. I also quickly realized that my inexpensive brushes do everything they are supposed to – and last an amazingly long time! I only use synthetic brushes. My favorite shape is a flat brush with long, soft “hairs” that form a sharp edge at the top. This allows me to create fine lines when I use them vertically.

I always try to paint with the largest possible brush: when painting plein air, it’s very important to be quick before the light changes too much. And this is only possible if I apply the paint over as large an area as possible, not too small. I only rarely use finer brushes (under 10 mm) for a few details in the painting.
I always have palette knives with me, which I use for mixing and also for applying paint. Silicone “shapers” are very helpful for removing paint from the canvas.

+Update+
It was only after my book was finished that I discovered the wide flat brushes from Panart Global (Echo Synthetic). They also have synthetic bristles, but are of a much higher quality than my previous brushes (in Germany they are now available from Peters Art Shop ).

So I have to revise my opinion a little: These brushes are great and make painting a lot easier for me than my hobby brushes. However, this effect is rather subtle – I wouldn’t have appreciated the difference in quality a few years ago and probably wouldn’t even have noticed it. As with the paints, the better you get, the more you will appreciate better quality.

Also not included in the book is my new discovery of the two brush cleaners from Chelsea Classical and from Sennelier – Green for Oils. I am currently testing them at my leisure and will report back*… But this much can already be revealed: I get my brushes clean faster with both than with the liquid brush soap (as described in the book) and both dry out the brushes less than if I simply clean the brushes with Gamsol.
As with Gamsol, the “dirt” in the used liquid settles at the bottom of both cleaners after a while: if I then carefully pour the clear liquid from the top into a clean screw-top jar, I can use it again and again. This is sustainable and protects the environment.
* I have now used both for a while and find the one from Sennelier slightly better. Above all, it smells of almost nothing (similar to the Gamsol), the cleaner from Chelsea Classical smells quite strong (lemony or lavendery chemical, depending on the variety).

Finally: how do I transport my wet painting?

Many people shy away from painting outside with oil paints because the pictures dry so slowly. One of the questions I am asked most often is: “Is it even possible to transport such wet paintings without smearing the entire surface?” Sure, you can! Of course, the picture has to be covered to get it home in one piece. The trick is to ensure that the cover and the fresh paint do not touch over the entire surface. Such spacers can be made with thumbtacks, for example . You can either put them on a piece of cardboard and place it on the picture before you put it in a folder, or you can attach the pins directly to the inside of the folder cover. Of course, you shouldn’t put too much pressure on the cover, but not too little either, because it shouldn’t slip in the folder either can. From time to time it happens that in the fresh picture but then you can see very small marks (or scratches from slipping): But I can simply cover them up again with the oil paint while it’s still wet.

UPDATE:
As I am almost always on the road with my bike and only a rucksack, I no longer use such “Fakir folders”: there have been too many accidents due to too much pressure on the folder lid.

There is a safer way to protect the wet surface of the oil painting during transportation: the “sandwich”. Here, 2 equally sized painting panels are placed on top of each other with a spacer and fixed with rubber or masking tape so that they cannot slip. I use matchsticks as spacers for small panels and 4×4 mm squared timber (2 cm long) for larger ones. This package is then placed in a folder. Of course, you shouldn’t press on them too hard, otherwise they will touch in the middle.

The pressure marks in the wet paint in the corners of the picture may then have to be tightened at home with a brush.
With this patent you always need at least 2 equally sized painting boards, but if necessary you can also build stacks of 3 (or even higher towers!) from them.

And how do I transport several wet oil paintings or even a whole week’s worth of paintings?

That’s a bit of handicraft work:
To do this, I have mounted sliding strips made of wooden sliding strips in a folder or in a drawing case: As spacers 4×4 mm squared timber (balsa wood strips) are used here. Sometimes a little paint smudges when sliding in and out, but because it is still damp at home, you can simply “wipe it off” again.

The half roundwoods I found for my drawing case are great: they minimize the contact points of painting and rail – this means that hardly any paint is smeared on the sides. The best way to save space is to always fit two panels back to back in a gap.

I have built such folders and cases for different panel formats.