IAPS 2026 Supply List
NOTE FOR ALL IAPS WORKSHOPS: You must bring your own portable easel, and a board to support your paper. The room will be set with chairs which can be moved around to suit your preference. You can stand at an easel and use the table for your supplies, or you can bring a table easel and sit to work. Rubbing Alcohol will be provided for the students' use.
IMPORTANT: Please bring a plastic or cloth sheet to place under your easel, or table, to protect the hotel's carpet.
PASTELS:
It is best to have a range of pastels, if your budget allows. Professional quality
soft pastel brands include: GIRAULT, TERRY LUDWIG, GREAT AMERICAN
ARTWORKS, SCHMINCKE, SENNELIER, UNISON, DIANE TOWNSEND, and
MOUNT VISION. REMBRANDT, NUPASTEL, CRETACOLOR, and CARAN
D’ACHE are harder brands of pastels.
Sennelier and Great American in particular have fantastic half-stick sets. Half
sticks are a great way to compile a variety of pastels at a fraction of the cost.
You can produce beautiful pastel work with 100 or fewer sticks, as long as you
have a range of values (darkness and lightness) and hues (colors such as yellow,
green, violet, etc). I have some of every brand of pastels, and each plays a role
in my pastel painting.
I think it’s best to have some harder sticks like Nupastel, Cretacolor, Rembrandt, Girault; and some softer sticks like Ludwig, Great American, Sennelier, etc. I personally carry a full set of Nupastels broken in half, and a variety of softer sticks for each hue and value.
PAPERS:
Pastel papers can be broadly categorized into sanded and non-sanded papers.
Sanded papers: Pastel Premier 400 or 600 grit paper, UArt 500, 400 or 320 grit
paper, Ampersand Pastelbord (white), and Multimedia Pastel Panels are sanded
papers.
Non-sanded papers: Canson Mi Tientes; other brands of pastel and watercolor
paper work as well.
*I prefer the UART 400 grit paper, as it holds many layers of pastel, can
withstand a liquid under-painting if mounted to foam core backing, and is
reasonably priced.
PLEIN AIR EASEL:
My preferred plein air set up currently is described in detail in this Youtube video:
https://youtu.be/WUZUFc4e5bc
There are many other plein air set ups available, and new ones are coming on the
market all the time. The Pastel Society of America Facebook page has had
many conversations regarding this subject and is a good place to read about the
options available. Many pastelists use the Hellman pastel box, which has a
tripod attachment, as well as a small easel that attaches to it. Guerrilla Painter
also has plein air set ups. The classic full french easel or half french easel is
another option, but is somewhat heavy and bulky. The “Take It Easel” and
“Feather Weight” easel are options too. If you have any questions feel free to
email me about it.
MISC. ITEMS:
-Sketchbook
-3 Tombow markers N15-N55-N75 (or other comparable brand). These are for
doing notan sketches before starting a painting to determine values and
composition.
-1-2 inexpensive brushes for underpainting. Sizes between 4 and 8 would work
best.
-2b or HB Pencil
-Isopropyl Alcohol, either 70% or 91%
-Paper Towels
-Artist’s tape
ART SUPPLY STORES:
-Dakota Pastels online. www.dakotapastels.com
-Dakota is my preferred option as they are family run, always package pastels well, have great customer service, and they just know pastels better than anyone else.
-Artist and Craftsmen Supply
-Dick Blick, physical stores and online outlet. I buy most of my pastels and
paper from Dick Blick online because of the reasonable prices and variety of
supplies offered. www.dickblick.com
-Jerry’s Artarama online. www.jerrysartarama.com
-Fine Art Store online. www.fineartstore.com
-Utrecht online. www.utrecht.com
If you have any questions regarding supplies, feel free to email me at
jacob.aguiar@gmail.com.