PACKING FOR AIR TRAVEL WITH OIL PAINTS, Part 5, Putting it All Together

Time to actually PACK the stuff.

From Right to left:  A plastic tube for a brush holder (packaging from some product or other), Pencil, pen, hook for the brush holder, palette knife, Brushes: bristle flats # 8, 6, 6, 4, white nylon flat #2, synthetic sable round, brush bag, and underneath the sketch book.  1 lb.

An Open Box M pochade, and a light tripod.  This is a really light-weight kit that won't stand up to any wind.  It's mostly useful just for holding stuff still and keeping my painting out of the sand.  5.8 lbs.

Oil colors, detailed here.  Packed in a plastic pencil box.  MSDS attached with flash point highlighted.  Sheet attached which says:   The enclosed materials are artist’s colors made from vegetable oil.  They have a flash point above 550 degrees and are not flammable.  (I write the same thing in the language of any foreign country I travel to.)  2.5 lbs.

A couple of mediums, detailed here.  A small jar of baby oil for brush cleaning.  More can be purchased at my destination.  Instructions for BRUSH CLEANING WITHOUT SOLVENT. This is packed with the MSDS, with flash points highlighted.   .8 lbs.

Miscellaneous stuff.  A couple of bungee cords.  A car sunshade, which might clip to the easel and add some shade for the canvas.  A small roll of paper towels or TP for brush cleaning, and a grocery bag for garbage... just enough for my first day.  Thumb tacks for attaching canvas to stretchers, A couple of pencils and a tiny sketch book. A value scale.  A roll of narrow painter's tape for marking off paintings, Command adhesive for hanging paintings to dry, ATG tape for temporarily sticking canvas to cardboard.  All of this in a stuff sack.  1.1 lbs.

Canvas, as detailed here.  For three weeks I am packing what you see above.  If I need more, I'll get it there and paint on acrylic ground.  Some of this will go in my carry-on to spread the weight around a bit.  If there's too much weight in my bags, I'll leave behind the largest canvas (and miss it when I'm there.) 10.3 lbs of painting supports.

When I get to my destination, this stuff will pack into my carry-on backpack to take wherever I want to paint.

Things I will buy or acquire at my destination:  Grass mats for laying painting supplies on the sand.  Plastic grocery sacks for garbage.  Paper towels or tp to clean brushes with. Mineral oil for brush cleaning.  Jar lids for putting medium in.  If I run out of paint or other supplies, I can buy something there.

Here's a comprehensive resource for any questions I haven't answered.  Making a Mark

Enough packing.  Time to paint!

MY TROPICAL PALETTE

These are the oil colors I take to the tropics:

Titanium White:  A large tube
Cadmium Yellow Medium (Sometimes I carry Cadmium Yellow Light instead.)
Cadmium Red Light (A small tube of this is enough.)
Quinacridone Red (A moderately small tube is enough.)
Anthraquinone Red  (I could travel without this.  It is a darker version of Quinacridone Red, and a shortcut.)
Ultramarine Blue
Pthalo Blue (Essential for tropical water)
Pthalo Emerald  (Also essential for tropical water, and useful in skies)

And if I feel like it and I have room:
Transparent Red Iron Oxide (A shortcut for creating warm darks)
Cadmium Green (Useful in skies.)

PACKING FOR AIR TRAVEL WITH OIL PAINTS, Part 4, Making a Lap Box

If you have limited room in your luggage and you're on a budget, you might want to make a lap box to use in place of an easel.  Here's how:

1.  Purchase a plastic project case.  They cost a few bucks at an office supply store.  The case should be large enough to hold your canvas attached to cardboard or your canvas panel, plus your plastic or paper palette, flat on the inside.  My box is large enough for 9 x 12.

2.  Spray paint the entire inside of the box black.  This will shade your painting and palette from direct sunlight if you sit with the box facing toward the sun.

3.  With a small drill or a nail, make holes 3 or 4 inches from the hinge, on both sides of the top and the bottom of the box.  Feed a string through the holes, and tie it so that the string holds the lid of the box up, at just a little more than 90 degrees.  (If it is less, the box will close on you when you don't want it to.)

4.  Get a piece of plexiglass that fits in the bottom of the box.  Spray paint the back side of it gray.

5.  Cover the back with duct tape so that the gray paint won't scratch off.

6.  Place your palette in the bottom of the box.  Clip the canvas on cardboard or the panel to the top with clips that you can get at a hardware store.  You can also carry a bungee cord, which is useful for fastening the lap box to picnic benches, etc.  This box weighs 1.6 lbs with a single canvas and cardboard.

7.  You can close the lap box with paint in it, and store it in the freezer in between paintings.

8.  The watercolor version can be made without the string hinge, so your paper can lie flat.  If you wish, you can hot-glue your watercolor palette into the bottom of the box. This box weighs 1.3 lbs.

HAPPY PAINTING!

PACKING FOR AIR TRAVEL WITH OIL PAINTS, Part 3, Medium

It’s probably not a great idea to change oil painting medium for a trip. Having said that, some oil painting mediums just won’t fly. Here’s what I mean: Flammable liquids (defined for airline purposes as any liquid with a flash point below 141 degrees) are prohibited in your carry-on and checked luggage.

It’s perfectly possible to paint with just the oil paint and no medium at all. But if you’re accustomed to painting with medium, you might want to match, as closely as possible, the working properties of the medium you are accustomed to using. You might want to bring medium to alter working properties, speed or slow drying time, or affect the final look of the paint after it is dry. There are many mediums on the market, all with their special properties. Some of them will be possible to bring in your luggage on an airplane. Others you might be able to purchase at your destination.

Generally for air travel it is nice to have your paintings as dry as possible before you transport them home, so it’s best to choose a medium with as short a drying time as possible, but still slow enough for you to complete your work on location. If you’re travelling to a cool climate, the only mediums that might be too quick would be something like Galkyd, which gets tacky pretty soon after leaving the bottle. If you are travelling to a hot desert, your paintings will dry pretty quickly, and you may not need any medium at all to speed the drying. For those of you joining me in MAUI, unless you will be in a damp area or you will be unable to leave your paintings in your car for drying, a moderately speedy medium is plenty quick. Unfortunately, in general the faster drying a medium is, the lower the flash point. That means that you cannot transport them on a plane. If you wish to work with a really fast-drying medium, you will probably have to purchase it at your destination.

SOLVENTS. If you are accustomed to starting your painting with paint thinned with solvent, you will need to either paint differently when you travel by air, or buy solvent when you reach your location, as nearly all solvents are not allowed in your luggage.

ALKYDS AND GELS. Alkyd Gels impart a particular working property to your paint that is very pleasant to work with outdoors. Most gels shorten drying time considerably. Liquin, with a flash point of 70 degrees is not flyable. Gamblin’s Neo Megilp, at 137 degrees, is barely not flyable. Seems like they should oughta fix that. Galkyd Gel (147 degrees) can fly. Liquid alkyds shorten drying time, increase the fluidity of your paint, and shorten drying time. Those with the shortest drying times are not flyable. Galkyd Slow Dry (147 degrees) is flyable, as is M. Graham’s Walnut/alkyd medium (215 degrees.)

DAMAR. Damar, and other varnish-type mediums are made with solvent, and are generally not flyable. You might be able to bring some of the components and purchase the solvent at your destination.

DRYING OILS. It is also possible to thin your paints with a drying oil (an oil that will oxidize into an oil paint film). This generally adds fluidity to your paint, and gloss to the final paint film. Generally, drying oils are flyable. For tropical locations, such as MAUI, the oil in your paint will be very fluid in the heat, and unless you are using the drier end of a tube of cadmium, for example, you probably don’t need to add oil to your paint to make it more fluid.

PACKING YOUR MEDIUM. Medium should travel in your checked luggage. It’s best to pack it in the manufacturer’s packaging. Whenever possible I pack unopened bottles, to prevent odors from escaping into the luggage. As with all liquids, surround it with tissue and pack in a ziplock bag in case pressure changes affect the package. Around this, I wrap the printed MSDS with the flash point highlighted.


TO FIND OUT IF YOUR MEDIUM IS FLYABLE:
Go to the manufacture’s web page.
Look for the Materials Safety Data Sheet. (And print it out for packing.)
Look on the sheet for the FLASH POINT.
If it is above 141 degrees, the medium is flyable.

SOME FLYABLE MEDIUMS AND OILS, from fastest drying to slowest drying:
Gamblin Galkyd Gel (147 degrees) (This medium becomes tacky pretty quickly in hot weather.)
Gamblin Galkyd Slow Dry (142 degrees)
M. Graham’s Walnut/Alkyd Medium (215 degrees)
Linseed oil
Safflower oil
Poppyseed oil
Walnut Oil

For those traveling with me to MAUI, the nearest art supply store to our workshop locations is inside the Ace Hardware Store in Lahaina.  If you want to check whether they carry your favorite medium or other supplies, their phone number is:  (808) 662-7051

Bon Voyage!

PACKING FOR AIR TRAVEL WITH WATERCOLORS, part 1, PAINT

Choosing a travel kit that gets BRILLIANT COLORS.

  There are a hundred little watercolor kits on the market that are easy to pack, convenient, and simple to use for painting small paintings. Some include virtually everything you need except the papers. At first glance, perfect for air travel.

These kits have a few problems, though, the biggest being the difficulty of getting rich color from the paints provided in the pans. You’ve probably experienced this: scrubbing your paintbrush over a dry cake, trying to get the color on your brush, only to produce a thin, anemic wash. Higher quality pan paints are better, but still not as rich as the tubes. Here are some things you can do to get richer color.

PACK YOUR OWN KIT, WITH PAINT TUBES. You can build your own kit with a few tubes of paint that will give you a versatile range of color. The above is a minimal kit, with paint tubes, a palette with a thumb hole, a water spritzer, and a paint brush.  There are several advantages to packing tubes. Even with small paint tubes, you will end up with a lot more paint, a definite plus if you paint a lot. The paint will be easier to manipulate, and more like the paint you use in your studio. The paint on your palette will always be fresh. And the color will be the richest possible, giving you the most control over your paint.

CREATE YOUR OWN PANS. In the above picture, you see blue and yellow commercial pans, and red and green hand-filled pans.  If you already have a kit with dry pans, take the dry caked paint out of some. You can remove some of the used-up colors, or remove colors that you don’t like to use. Fill each pan with a different color of tube paint. Let the paint dry for a few days, until it shrinks down into the pan. Add another layer of paint on top. Repeat, until the pan stays pretty full. You want to do this a week or two before your trip, but not months before, so that the paint doesn’t dry out completely, because tube paints are not make to rewet very easily. Even though this paint is dry-ish, you will still get richer color from these semi-dry pans than from the totally dry cakes.  The pans below are a little too dry.

PREWET YOUR PAINT ON LOCATION. Whatever type of pans you are using you can get more color from them if the paint is softened before you begin to paint from the dry cake. Before you begin painting, spritz your pans with some water, so that the paint can begin to absorb water. Keep spritzing periodically, as you use up the softened paint on the top of the pan.

USE A BIGGER BRUSH.  Most of these kits come with a brush about size one.  Pack a nice round, # 10 or so, with a nice point (like the brush in the top photo.)  This will enable you to transfer more water into your kit, pick up a good load of paint, and still allow you to paint delicate and precise marks.

ANOTHER NOTE ON COLOR:  Unless you purchase a high-quality kit, some of the pan colors may not be permanent.  If you're just painting postcards and sketches, that might not matter to you.  If you plan to create lasting paintings that won't fade, you'd best look carefully at the pigment list, or replace the colors with more permanent tube colors.

Now go forth, and have fun with COLOR!

PACKING FOR AIR TRAVEL WITH OIL PAINTS, Part 2, Toning Canvas

Many plein air painters like to paint on toned canvas or panels. This has the effect of removing the glaring white from the canvas, and giving a light-valued ground against which all the painting’s values can be compared. Some toned grounds are allowed to show through in the final painting, giving it an overall unity of color.

Some artists prefer to tone the canvas on location. A common method is to take a color or mixture of colors, often burnt sienna or some other warm semi-neutral, and thin it with solvent, then wipe the mixture over the canvas. The result is a thin wash-like layer of color that dries quickly in most outdoor conditions. It is even possible to rub out light areas of the painting, resulting in a toned value plan on which to build the painting. In order to use this method, it is necessary to either travel with solvent, or purchase solvent on location.

Aside from all other considerations about solvents, flying with solvent is problematic. Airline regulations prohibit flying with any flammable liquid, which is defined for airline purposes as anything with a flash point of 141 degrees or lower. Gamblin’s Gamsol, variously listed at 145 and 147 degrees, barely makes the grade as a flyable solvent. No other paint manufacturer’s product that I know of does.

Rumors abound about artists having their paints confiscated by the airline security. Maybe these artists didn’t pack their paints with the proper information. Whatever the reason, I know that most artist supply warehouses ship their Gamsol ground transport, and just avoid the issue, so I do too. I don’t pack solvent.

My preferred method is to prepare a gray-toned canvas ahead of time. This way, I can use the slower-drying oil painting ground, which according to some experts creates a stronger bond with the layers of paint above it, and which also keeps the oil from the paint from drying in, leaving the paint layer matte in texture and dulled in color.

To prepare your canvas or panel with oil painting ground, mount the canvas on boards or stretchers so that you have a stiff surface to work with. First seal the surface with a coat of PVA size. This is a thin glue-like substance that seals the canvas, keeping the oils of the ground or paint from reaching the fibers and causing their early demise from rotting. Let this dry overnight. Then, take your oil painting ground and mix in some gray or black oil paint to darken the ground to the exact value you want for your painting. Sometimes I use a black pigment, like ivory black. Sometimes I add a little quinacridone majenta to warm up the gray tone. Often I have a gray mixture of leftover paint from paintings that I can put into the mix. What you see is what you get, so balance the value carefully. Then scrape the oil painting ground over the canvas with a palette knife, and smooth the whole thing with a stiff brush, using random directions. If the canvas was previously sprayed commercially with gesso, usually one coat is enough. If it is raw canvas, two coats might be necessary. Depending on conditions, this might take up to a week to dry.  The illustration above is my canvas drying in 90 degree summer heat.  The canvas was dry the next day.



Video demonstration from Gamblin


You might prefer the simplicity and quickness of acrylic gesso. Skip the PVA step. Mix gray acrylic paint into the gesso, to reach a value at least one step lighter than the final value you would like. Acrylic paint mixed into gesso dries considerably darker than it appears when wet. Coat the canvas at least once if it is pre-primed, and at least three times if it is not. Some people recommend sanding between coats. For landscape painting, I don’t bother. Let the gesso dry overnight between coats.

If you’re joining me for the Maui Painting Retreat, pack about 4 practice pages or panels per day.  Practice panels can be prepared with the quicker acrylic gesson method.  For panels or canvas you might use for 

Now, your canvas is ready. Let’s pack and go!

PACKING FOR AIR TRAVEL WITH OIL PAINTS, Part 2, Toning Canvas

Many plein air painters like to paint on toned canvas or panels. This has the effect of removing the glaring white from the canvas, and giving a light-valued ground against which all the painting’s values can be compared. Some toned grounds are allowed to show through in the final painting, giving it an overall unity of color.

Some artists prefer to tone the canvas on location. A common method is to take a color or mixture of colors, often burnt sienna or some other warm semi-neutral, and thin it with solvent, then wipe the mixture over the canvas. The result is a thin wash-like layer of color that dries quickly in most outdoor conditions. It is even possible to rub out light areas of the painting, resulting in a toned value plan on which to build the painting. In order to use this method, it is necessary to either travel with solvent, or purchase solvent on location.

Aside from all other considerations about solvents, flying with solvent is problematic. Airline regulations prohibit flying with any flammable liquid, which is defined for airline purposes as anything with a flash point of 141 degrees or lower. Gamblin’s Gamsol, variously listed at 145 and 147 degrees, barely makes the grade as a flyable solvent. No other paint manufacturer’s product that I know of does.

Rumors abound about artists having their paints confiscated by the airline security. Maybe these artists didn’t pack their paints with the proper information. Whatever the reason, I know that most artist supply warehouses ship their Gamsol ground transport, and just avoid the issue, so I do too. I don’t pack solvent.

My preferred method is to prepare a gray-toned canvas ahead of time. This way, I can use the slower-drying oil painting ground, which according to some experts creates a stronger bond with the layers of paint above it, and which also keeps the oil from the paint from drying in, leaving the paint layer matte in texture and dulled in color.

To prepare your canvas or panel with oil painting ground, mount the canvas on boards or stretchers so that you have a stiff surface to work with. First seal the surface with a coat of PVA size. This is a thin glue-like substance that seals the canvas, keeping the oils of the ground or paint from reaching the fibers and causing their early demise from rotting. Let this dry overnight. Then, take your oil painting ground and mix in some gray or black oil paint to darken the ground to the exact value you want for your painting. Sometimes I use a black pigment, like ivory black. Sometimes I add a little quinacridone majenta to warm up the gray tone. Often I have a gray mixture of leftover paint from paintings that I can put into the mix. What you see is what you get, so balance the value carefully. Then scrape the oil painting ground over the canvas with a palette knife, and smooth the whole thing with a stiff brush, using random directions. If the canvas was previously sprayed commercially with gesso, usually one coat is enough. If it is raw canvas, two coats might be necessary. Depending on conditions, this might take up to a week to dry.  The illustration above is my canvas drying in 90 degree summer heat.  The canvas was dry the next day.


Video demonstration from Gamblin

You might prefer the simplicity and quickness of acrylic gesso. Skip the PVA step. Mix gray acrylic paint into the gesso, to reach a value at least one step lighter than the final value you would like. Acrylic paint mixed into gesso dries considerably darker than it appears when wet. Coat the canvas at least once if it is pre-primed, and at least three times if it is not. Some people recommend sanding between coats. For landscape painting, I don’t bother. Let the gesso dry overnight between coats.

If you’re joining me for the Maui Painting Retreat, pack about 4 practice pages or panels per day.  Practice panels can be prepared with the quicker acrylic gesson method.  For panels or canvas you might use for paintings, consider trying the oil painting ground.

Now, your canvas is ready. Let’s pack and go!