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My Top 10 Tips for Plein Air Painters
Painting in Plein air is a really enjoyable experience if you’re well prepared and you get a little bit of luck with the weather! As always, failing to prepare is preparing to fail – if you want to get the most out of your Plein air painting experience – make sure you take care of all the intangibles and everything that’s ‘unrelated’ to painting.
Then, you can focus on the actual painting side of things. I know that plein air painting can be an intimidating prospect for many beginner painters (as can many other things). But be brave and enjoy the process! Here are my top 10 tips for plein air painting, I hope you enjoy them!
1. Prepare in advance: bring a water bottle, sunscreen, bug spray, a large brimmed hat to shade your eyes (sunglasses will affect your color and values!); Avoid wearing white or bright colors that may reflect onto your painting.
2. Walk around and observe a bit before choosing a spot.
3. Set up easel sideways from the wind direction.
4. Be aware of your surroundings. (listen to “nature’s music” rather than listening to music with ear pods).
5. Visual information can be overwhelming. Use your view-finder or take a photo to create boundaries. Think about what makes a good composition. Find your center of interest, and keep it simple!
6. Growth comes through struggle. Be kind to yourself!
7. Seize the light. Light will change quickly. Don’t chase shadows…in other words, find your focal point and notice the direction of the cast shadow. Stick with that direction for all shadows even though in reality they will continue to change. Remember that warm light (bright sunny days) will cast cool shadows; and cloudy days (cool light) will cast warmer shadows.
8. Temperature: colors cool towards the horizon and warm up closer to you.
9. Focus on general shapes rather than detail. It helps to squint! Squinting diffuses detail.
10. Be mindful that when outside, values will seem lighter on your painting and look darker once you take you painting back inside.
So, there you go – my top tips! I really enjoy painting in Plein air and I’ll be doing a lot more this fall at Casa Berti!
If you’ve got some tips that you’d like to share, let me know in the comments and I can update this article 😀.
# 7 & #10 thank you. The last time I went out for Plein Air Painting, I failed to remember this. Thanks for the suggestions.
Easy to forget! I have to remind myself as well. xoxo