Introduction to Plein Air - Oil Painting in the Great Outdoors!

1. Introduction to Plein Air Painting: welcome to this introductory course mind painting and plan. Their en plain air is just another way of saying painting outdoors in fresh air. And if you're used to painting in a studio, painting outdoors does feel a little bit different. So in this course I'm going to walk you through some of the special considerations, including equipment defining your composition and then various approaches Teoh tackling certain issues such as various lighting situations. And also I'm going to show you how you can get started with very minimal equipment and how you can actually paint very discreetly, just in case you're a little bit uncomfortable painting outdoors in public. So I hope that you'll join me on this course, and I really look forward to seeing your project posted in the discussion below. 2. Essential Equipment & Supplies: Let's start by talking about some of the equipment and supplies that you'll need to get started painting outdoors. First, I'm going to go over the most essential pieces of equipment and supplies, and then I'll also talk a little bit about some optional items that you might want tohave first and foremost, you want to have a bag or something to carry your supplies in, so I'll show you that everything I need into this backpack okay, so first thing about here is just my set of brushes that I take with me outdoors. This is not my best set of brushes, but they do the trick, and I've got lots of variety of sizes. And, of course I have a palette knife in there. Down here, these are actually some watercolor brushes. Sometimes I dio like to do watercolor outside, but for the most part I just have a variety of sizes of oil painting brushes and they roll up in this pack. I think that this pack I got on Amazon for $7 it's pretty nice, fits really nicely into my bag and holds as many brushes as I could possibly want. The next thing I have, and this isn't necessarily something that you have to go out and purchase. These are a little bit pricey. This is a prashad box, and it's nice because it actually has a lot of things in it that I need, but it can store in there anyway, So the push hotbox is both a pallet. There's a palette in this compartment, and then this expands to hold panels or canvases, and they can actually get pretty large. So I'll show how to set one of these up a little bit later. It actually fits on top of a tripod, and then inside I have my viewfinder, so this helps me figure out good compositions. E have my sketchbook and I like to sketch with a fountain pen. I have another Call it knife in here, and then this is Rush that I used to tone my surfaces and then I have small paint tubes in here, and this is actually more colors than I typically use on a single painting, and you might want to consider using even fewer colors than what I have in here just for the sake of keeping things lightweight. But since these tubes were pretty small. I tend to carry a couple extras, just, you know, because you never know what the situation calls for. And this is also nice. No show in the video where I set everything up, but this even has a tray that sets on the side. So it holds my brushes and can hold solvent. Okay, so next thing about having here, this is have three boards in here. What I like to dio is I'll go to the hardware store and have them cut down some hardboard also known as Masonite for me. And I can actually paint on these. And actually, these are surface for painting, so I sanded them. And then I have applied it clear, Jess. Oh, to them. But for now, I'm painting on arches, oil primed paper and so thes air kind of some odd sizes that are just scrapped. So I don't mind experimenting on these, so I just hate them down. Teoh these three boards and since there were very along pieces of paper, I just take down the middle to give me more of ah, common dimension to work within. It can actually do two sketches on each piece of paper. So right here I can easily dio six paintings if I would like and that I have a small pallet and I actually don't necessarily need this because I have a palate in my prashad box. But sometimes it's nice just to have one on hand. And if you don't have a Prasad box, you can just use any Essel that folds up. And then you would want to have a separate palette. In that case, right and the next, I just have some paper towels for cleanup. Yeah, I haven't apron. It's rolled up right now. I don't always need to use it because I try to just wear some old, grubby clothes when I'm out painting. But I do have this on hand and it fits in there. It's pretty lightweight. I think that's all the panting cereals have. So next because we'll be outdoors. Of course, you want to think about sun protection. So some sunscreen, of course, some bug spray of your choice. They even have a little bit more bug spray. And then the last piece of equipment that is crucial, especially if you do choose to get a Passat box, is a really durable tripod. So I have lots of tripods and actually the tripods that I used for my actual camera or not this heavy duty but because of the shot box is made of wood is fairly heavy, and you want to make sure that you have really good support for it. So I got this bond photo tripod. It's very, very sturdy and durable, and it holds up really nice. So if you're getting a shot box, I definitely recommend actually investing in a tripod to protect it, because you don't want it just falling over and and breaking. 3. Setting Up: I decided that I would revisit the train station and do a little bit larger sketch this morning. It's been raining, so I really wanted to find somewhere that has a shelter. So I'm under this awning here, and that will be nice because my light will be nice and consistent, and I'll be protected if it starts raining again. So I'm going to step back just to show you my set up here. Um, this tripod here is just for my camera. And then, of course, the souther tripod is toe hold my prashad box. I'm going Teoh, show you how to kind of set that up properly and open it. Also, just another note. Because I am at a train station and it's very active. We have a lot of trains that come through here, so I may frequently need Teoh. Just mute the sound and do voice over for part of this. All right, so I'm gonna set my camera up and I'll show you the proper way. Teoh, open up and set up your prashad box. If you do choose to purchase one. The nice thing about Prashad boxes are that they're very compact and they come completely assembled. However, there is a particular way that you need to set it up. So what I'm removing here is just a tray that I can place on the side of the Peschard box once it's all set up and it holds my brushes and it can hold other lightweight objects as well. So you see that I just slighted the arm back on the Peschard box and that is really the trick, Teoh keeping it very study. If you don't do that, then it becomes kind of flimsy to work with. And then this tray, it was really nicely here on the side toe hold brushes and other lightweight objects. 4. Starting with a Sketch: now I'm just going Teoh, do a quick sketch, Teoh, Figure out what my composition is going to be. And my sketchbook didn't fit on my prashad box. It wasn't quite big enough the landscape orientation which actually ends up working out because it was pretty easy for me to work in a vertical orientation when I painted. So this was just kind of a happy accident that it worked out that way. I did forget my clips that I usually have to keep my paper from blowing in the wind. So I had to give up one hand to just hold the paper while I sketched, which is fine. You just kind of work with whatever happens when you're painting outdoors. And the good thing about it is that you really learn to let go of any kind of barriers that you put up for yourself in terms of making arts. So right now I'm drawing in just a horizon lines to kind of guide my composition. But when I ultimately did my painting, I decided to move that a little bit toward or closer to the top of the composition because it was just a little bit too close to being right in half when I sketched, and when I sketch, I don't always get it right. It's just really a problem solving exercise for me and really just a way for me to start actively thinking about how I'm going to approach the composition, and I know that it's cut out of the camera. But the distant awning where people can wait to board their train is toward the back of this composition. So it's a man made feature, and I wanted to juxtapose that with the organic shapes of these trees that are in the courtyard. And when you're looking for an interesting composition for your plane air paintings, one thing to look for is just, you know, interesting juxtapositions. So one of my favorite things to do is to look for the juxtaposition between organic material and man made objects, and to try to capture that or sometimes all look for interesting ways. That light is illuminating a building or a tree, or really any ordinary object that wouldn't maybe normally catch the eye. And you'll see in my sketch that I have two trees in here and you can actually see the trees on screen. There's one that's closer to me. And then there's one a little bit further back, and I'm sketching them both into this composition. But almost immediately when I get to my painting, I realized that that's just gonna be a little bit too busy for the size of painting that I'm doing. So ultimately, I'm going to turn this into two different compositions in each composition will feature just one tree, but again, that's just kind of part of the problem solving process. And when you're looking at something like a lawn or grass, something that's almost very mundane, one thing that you can do is push the values and push the texture. And so I added a little bit more shade Teoh the mid ground of this composition, just so that green isn't so monotonous in uniform. Normally, I'd like to get some darker values into my sketching, but just because I wanted to make sure I could get my sketch nicely on screen. So I put it right on the Peschard box, and that's just not typically the way a sketch. Usually I sketch just holding my notebook and drawing that way, and then I can usually apply more pressure and get darker values. But this works. And again these sketches aren't meant to be accurate representations of what I'm actually going to paint. It's just a way for me to start thinking about how I'm going to approach it, All right, so that looks like that is a good enough sketch, and I'm ready to start painting. 5. Palette Set Up and Toning: all right, so I'm ready to go ahead and start setting up my palate and getting ready to paint. And first I am just placing my oil paper, which is attached. Teoh. Just a bit of hardboard getting that ready and in place, and you can see that I used a strip of masking tape to divide this she of oil paper into two sections. So I'm actually going to be doing too paintings today at the same time. So the first color and putting down on my palate is titanium white. Next will be cadmium yellow pale, and this is a cool yellow, and you can tell that it's a cool yellow because it's a little bit closer in color to what you think of as a lemon yellow. Next is my yellow Oakar. This is the warm yellow that I'm going to use, and I want to use two yellows specifically in this composition, just like an add lots of variation of color within the grass. So the yellow car is going to be my warmer yellow because and you can tell that it's the warmer yellow because it's a little bit closer to orange. Next is cadmium red, deep Hugh, And this color is sort of right at that point where it's not really cool. And it's not terribly warm, either, Actually, usually prefer something like a permanent rose or a lizard in crimson. But these paints came in a set and only with one red. So I'm just making do with what I've got next is my se lo blue. This is a warm blue and you can tell it's a warm blue because it's got a little bit more green in it. And I'm not going to squeeze out much because fellow Blue is extremely strong. Next is my ultra Marine blue, and I'm actually going to squeeze out quite a bit of this. I seem to go through it pretty fast, so I'll actually squeeze out even just a little bit more. Got a little bit of paint on the handle of my palette knife, so I'm just gonna set that aside. We'll finish up and then last but not least, is my raw umber, and I do like Teoh arrange my palate in the same way each time just helps with the mixing process. So you always know where everything is, especially with the darker colors. They actually look very similarly dark in this form. So it's good just to know which pile is which color. So I'm actually just gonna take those paint tubes and set them on the ground with all of my other things. Just so they're out of the way in another know about the way that I arranged my palate, I tried to arrange them all the paint piles from lightest to darkest. So I start with my titanium white, and then I move throughout the colors as they get darker in value. So I'm just gonna clean off that palette knife because I am going to use it to pick up some red. As always, I'm toning my canvas with red again. This is just a personal preference that I have, because red is a nice middle value, and I like to have my surface toned with a middle value rather than something that's dark or light, because it helps me judge my other values and colors a lot better. A lot of people will mix up, Um, you know, they're yellow Oakar with a little bit of blue to achieve kind of a neutral mid tone but I prefer just to work over red. And now I'm dipping my brush in my solvent just to spread around the paint that I want to tone my substrate with. And this is to keep it very thin and also the solve. It helps to spread around that very, very small amount of pain that I used. It's really important to just keep in mind that you should always work from thin layers of paints, and then as you progress, you can apply it paint thicker. But if you apply a paint to thick at the onset, then it will become impossible for you to add more paint on top of that and to make adjustments without scraping at Donald. But and the brush I'm using to tone my substrate is just a brush I've had for a long time in the handle fell off, and I just can't bear to part with it. So I strictly use this brush for toning my canvases. All right, so I'm gonna put away my solvents. Always keep your lid on your Sylvan's. I'm actually using a natural oil so it's non toxic, but whether you're inside or outside, you should keep the lid on your solvent because inside you, of course, don't want to be inhaling fumes outside the fumes may be less of an issue, but you certainly don't want to accidentally spill it. And I'm just using a paper towel. Teoh. Make sure that my substrate isn't too wet or slick from the solvent that I use. So paper Atala Just wipe it down. So it's nice and dry and also so the toning is very even. 6. Demo: Train Station Plein Air Painting Pt 1: All right, So now I'm ready to start painting. And what I'm mixing up here first, as always, is going to be my darkest value. So my ultra marine, blue and raw number, and this is what I will use Teoh sketch in my basic elements. And I have just a little bit of paint on my palette. And so I'm just using that a little bit just to draw a line and just kind of clean off my palette knife. So I'm using my largest brush, which is actually a little bit smaller than what I usually start out with. And again, I'm just using this to sketch out the very basic elements of my composition. And it's this point where I'm realizing that, especially that tree that I had initially sketched in on the left side of the composition just is going to be a little bit too busy Morning, an arm sketching in the branches of the tree in the foreground. I'm definitely not going to worry about any of the smaller branches or twigs. I'm just getting the most basic shape and the largest branches that I see, because ultimately I'm going to be painting around some of these larger branches with the blue for the sky and also the green for the grass. So I don't want Teoh have too much detail in there at this point, but I just want to map it out for myself. And that's really all I need for that first composition. And now I'm going to start sketching in my second composition for this one. I'm just going to leave out the awning because again, that tree is so close to the awning that it's going to just be a little bit too busy all in one area of the composition. But I did want Teoh paint this tree because what I really like about it is that there's some moss growing on the side of it, and I think that looks really nice, and I am still just using that same mix that I first made with my ultra Marine, blue and Burns number haven't made any other mixes so far. There's also some buildings behind that. I'm just going Teoh leave out because I don't think, but they really add anything to the composition, and there's the potential that they could just make it a little bit busy or confusing. So I'm cleaning off my brush with my paper towel, and I'm ready to make my next darkest mix, which I'm using some of my ultra marine blue and then my cadmium yellow light. I know it's a little bit difficult to see exactly what I mixing. Unfortunately, there wasn't really a good way for me to show both my painting and my palette at the same time. And because the palate is kind of in a box that also makes it a little bit difficult to see just because of that shadow around the edges of the box, I'm using this darker green Teoh paint the grass around the branches of the tree, where I think the grass should be a little bit darker. And this is where I'm using my imagination just a little bit because the sky was really overcast, which is actually a really nice lighting condition to work in. But there wasn't a lot of variation in the grass, and I didn't want it just to look flat and solid green. So I'm imagining that there's a little bit more shadow toward the far end of this grassy courtyard and what I'm going to be doing throughout this painting is using the same mix on both compositions, so I'm not going to do one composition and then the other. I'm actually working on them simultaneously. It's just a more efficient way to work, and I can keep my colors consistent. And since I'm looking under the same lighting conditions really at the same scene, there's no reason why I couldn't just use the same mixes on both compositions and because both of these values with the green and then the color that I used to sketch and the trees are both very dark. I'm kind of losing the edges of the tree a little bit, but that's OK because a lot of times you're going Teoh actually want to lose your edge is in order to get a more natural what? But just the active. Painting them in in the first place does a lot for your mind just to establish where those structures are. I've added a little bit more yellow to my green next now, and you can see that it went the shift to be too dramatic. But I did want to start lightening up the grass where the sun is catching it a little bit more great. Least, that's the way that I am imagining it. And as I moved to the foreground, I want my grass to get warmer and tones, so I'm going to be increasingly using more yellow and specifically more of my yellow Oakar , which is the warmer yellow. So I want it to be warmer in tone and also lighter in value. In another way to approach painting a lot of grass is just to continuously change up your green mix. So don't hang out with one green mixture for too long. Just continuously mix it up because even if the grass that your painting is very much uniforms, you can actually see some variation and that you know, sometimes it's just the way that it's growing. Or there might be some other grasses or weeds growing in patches. And so it's nice just to break up any kind of perceived Manami. That usually comes with lawns and glass and courtyards and areas where it's been mode and kind of pedicure, and I haven't switched brushes yet. I'm still using the same brush that I started out with, and I will use this for quite a while. I'm actually wishing that I had a slightly larger brush with me. This is a little bit small for the block in phase. Have a painting and you can see that I just keep my paper towel and also my palette knife in my left hand. I keep my paper towel in my left hand at all times while I paint just so that I can quickly and easily wipe off excess paint when I need that brush to be a little bit cleaner. When I want to move on, Teoh mix that significantly different. And then I also keep my palate night candy because I don't like to do a lot of mixing with my brush because then you lose a lot of paint in the bristles of your brush, and that also makes it more difficult to clean your brush. But you can see that I actually just did, because sometimes when I want to adjust a mix just slightly, it's just a little bit easier. Teoh, use your brush to do that, but I try to get into the habit of always using my palette knife to mix my colors. I'm wiping off my brush and switching a little my palette knife, - and sometimes you just want to kind of step back and look at it on. Decide how you're going to proceed. I am trying to work pretty fast while I'm doing this, because I know that my storage for the video is running out and helps to the battery on my devices running low at this point in the day. 7. Demo: Train Station Plein Air Painting Pt 2: and here of mixed up. Another very dark color is both ultra marine blue in a little bit of fail of blue and then also a little bit of my red, because I just want to add some thicker paint onto the branches where they are in shadow. And I want to do that before I start adding the light areas to the branches. Because once you put light paying anything that actually has white in, it makes it really difficult to then go in and add any dark areas because you're dark paint . Once it touches the neighboring paint that has white in it just automatically becomes a little bit more diluted. And that's why I always try to work from dark value to lighter value. - But again, I am not worrying about any of the small branches and really focused on the main structure of the trees. So the trunk and the larger branches, anything smaller than that will come much later after I have painted in the sky and really all everything that's around the tree. And the nice thing about painting small branches is that you don't need to be precise with them at all, and Even if you end up painting a branch and it's not like a solid, connected line, it actually ends up looking really natural and nice in the painting. Somehow, I think, because our minds, when we see something like that, our minds do a little bit of the work. And that's really my favorite thing about Impressionist painting is that these paintings are they have just enough information so that the viewer knows what they're looking at, but it leaves enough out that it really engages the imagination of the viewer. So now what? I'm mixing. I've started out with some red, and I mixed that right into one of the piles that I already had going because I don't need this to be a very vivid or pure color. And I'm going to start working in some of the mid tone values. And so there's a walkway in the background that I want Teoh represent, and it's concrete and anything that is a really neutral or kind of gray color in life. I tried to instead of trying to replicate whatever color I'm actually seeing eye trying to add some contrast, Teoh the rest of the composition and so when you're painting green grass and the sky is going to be fairly blue, A nice contrast to those colors that are a little bit cooler is going to be a warm color. So that's why I'm choosing Teoh use kind of, ah, neutralized red tones. I'm using a lot of red, but I deluded that with my previous mix, which had a lot of green. And if you are familiar with color theory, you know that red and green mixed together creates a more neutral tone. But this is edging a little bit more on the warm side, just to add a little bit of contrast. So it's always nice to find some way Teoh ad a contrast ing tone into your composition. Even if I was painting a scene where there was no sidewalk or anything like that, I would actually use some red and some oranges in the grass just to break up the green, which could be come really overwhelming, even if I wasn't really seeing much of the actual color in the scenery, mostly using this same warm tone on the roof of the awnings. Even though what I'm observing, those colors are not the same. In fact, the roof of the awning was even more gray, and it was also kind of dark. But it's nice to replicate colors throughout your composition as much as you can, so there was really no need. Teoh use a completely different mix to represent the roof of the awning, and using the same color in multiple parts of your painting helps to tie it all together visually. So now I'm starting to actually add some whites into my mixes, and I'm ready to work on my lighter values. My sky is going to be my lightest value. This blue that I've mixed initially I think is a little bit too dark and in fact, because it was just raining before I started painting, this guy was pretty gray. And in hindsight, I think that I should have painted it as I saw it. I actually really like gray skies. And so I think this ended up being a little bit too blue, although I will tone it down a little bit and try to lighten it up. A zai go. - And over here on the second composition, you can see that I'm not bringing my sky down all the way, and that's because there is some grass in the distance and it's visible over in this first composition on the left as well. But I just chose to leave it out. But I am going to include it in the composition on the right, and what I'll do is I'll mix up another green. But it's going to be lighter and value than the foreground. And it's also going to be a little bit more blue to create a bit of an atmospheric effect. And that basically means that as features in the landscape recede into the background, the atmosphere kind of naturally creates a very and it's very subtle when you're actually looking for it in life. But it helps to create the illusion of depth in your painting just to add that atmosphere, it effect of making it a little bit cooler and telling which essentially boils down to making it more blue so that grass in the background will be lighter and value and a little bit more blue than the grass in the foreground, and that helps to push it back. What I have done here is I've actually added some yellow Teoh my blue and also a little bit white, although I wish that I had made this guy even lighter because it really should be the lightest feature in my composition. But I added some yellow just Teoh. Both warm it up in tone and also to neutralize it, so it's a little bit less blue. You might think that adding yellow Teoh a blue mixture would create green, however, if you mix a cool blue and a warm yellow. So, for example, I used primarily ultra marine blue and my yellow Oakar to achieve this. And rather than getting an actual green, you really just get a very neutralized color because the yellow color is a little bit closer in tone to orange, an orange is actually a complementary color to blue. And so mixing those you actually get more toned down color rather than a stark green. And now you can see in the grass that I'm painting in the background. It's essentially the same mixture, but I've added a lot more of the yellow Oakar in orderto warm it up and make it appear just a little bit more green. But it's still very much toned down in value, and it doesn't look nearly as vivid as the green that I used in the grass in the foreground . It did seem just a little bit too close in value and color to the sky. So I've added some more blue and some more of my Cabinet and he'll a light in order just to create a little bit more contrast between the grass in the background and and this guy, I'm going back into my darkest mix and I'm going Teoh, just start adding a little bit more definition with some thicker pains. I so far have tried to keep my paint fairly thin, especially in areas where I know I'm going to be coming back in and touching it up more. So actually, the paint on the sky is apparently thick because I won't really need to do a whole lot more with that. But for the tree, I had been keeping it really thin, and as I started painting around the shape of the trees, it started just kind of cutting into that structure. So what I'm doing now is coming back in with some thicker paint with that initial dark mixture of ultra marine blue and raw number, and I'm just applying it a lot more thick. In order, Teoh reestablish the structure of the trees and on the right hand composition. I would actually include some of the fence back room, because again, I like to have a little bit of Jackson. I don't want to overwhelm the composition, so I'm leaving the fence out of the composition on the theme and the tree in the foreground . And so in the composition on the right. I have initially just a tree, but I really felt like it needed something a little bit more geometric, so I'm adding in that fence. 8. Demo: Train Station Plein Air Painting Pt 3: And now I'm coming back over to the awning in the composition on the left with that dark value, and I'm applying that paint very sickly, where there's a lot of shadow, and I'm not gonna worry about this little train coming through. It was actually a really short train, and I was lucky that it was the only one that came through while I was painting that and again, I'm using this dark mixture just to apply some thick paint. Teoh reestablish the structure of the branches in the foreground that have been lost to the grass in the sky. It's it's all right. So this is the first time that I've actually switched brushes during this painting switch. Teoh. Not my smallest brush, but definitely on the smaller side. I have basically all the primary elements in these paintings in place, and so what I want to do now is as just some fine details and refinement in some areas, and I'm actually adding more of ah yellowish or orange Teoh some parts of the sidewalk because it just seemed a little bit too drab. So I just wanted to add a few spots of color variation. I'm adding a lot more white to this mixture to and now I'm actually adding some hi whites onto the tree where the sun is hitting it a little bit more because, as you have probably noticed, the grass is fairly dark. The tree is fairly dark, so there wasn't a lot of distinction between the tree and then the grass. And so adding some highlights is going to make a really big difference. And because the color I used for the shadow of the tree was very cool was a lot of the ultra marine blue in raw number. And maybe there was just a little bit of red in there, too. So now I'm using primarily a warmer mixture that has a lot of yellow in it in a lot more white. So it's contrast ing not only the area around it, but it's actually in contrast to the shadows on the tree branches themselves. And then I'm reusing that in some parts of the sidewalk to again, using colors in multiple places, even if you don't actually see it that way, adds a lot of visual continuity to your composition and just one know about lighting situations. I'm painting in a different lighting situation than the scene that I'm actually painting because I'm standing underneath an awning. I have a lot of shadow on me and also on my palette and on my oil paper and then the seen that I'm painting. Even though it's a cloudy day and it's a gray sky, it's a lot more illuminated than my palate or my substrate, and that's a fine condition to paint in. It does make the film or the video a little bit difficult to see because that background looks so bright in comparison. So what you're actually seeing is that I'm painting is actually a little bit darker, then how I see it because your eyes will just kind of naturally adjust to these different lighting situations. But a trickier situation would actually be if you were painting in direct sunlight and you were not in any kind of shaded area and in direct sunlight. A lot of times your palate will be let different than your canvas or your surface that you're painting on because the surface is being held vertically and then your palate is horizontal, and that can actually be a really tricky situation, to try to paint under. And so if you do find that you are painting in direct sunlight, the most important thing that you can do for yourself is maybe to have an umbrella with you . Or just find some way Teoh. Shade yourself so that you have consistent light on your palate hand on the surface that you're painting. But it's actually not too difficult when you're standing in one light situation to then paint another situation. It's just a little tricky for the camera to capture that in an ideal way. And now I'm just coming in, you see, with my small brush and some really thick, dark paints, not even mixing at this point and just grabbing some blue and some red and just kind of throwing it around in order to create the impression of some smaller branches. And again, these don't need to be like continuous lines. In fact, letting them kind of skip and jump around, especially where they overlap with the sky, really creates a nice Impressionist effect, and you'll find two. If even if you're used, Teoh painting and you typically paint indoors or you typically paint from photographs, painting outdoors is just a completely different experience. So when I paint outdoors, I just naturally work faster and more loosely. Whereas when I'm in my studio or I'm trying to work from a photograph, I really spend a lot more time and focus, maybe even too much on details. And so getting outside the paint is just a little bit different, and I think it really overall helps my process, even when I then am inside. And even though my plane are paintings are very crude and quickly done, they usually end up being some of my favorite pieces that I do for myself. All right, so I'm just standing back and taking a look, and I don't want to fiddle with these too much, and I think that I like him here on. I'm going to call it good 9. Demo: Platte River Plein Air Painting Pt 1: today, I decided that I would make a little trip out to the Platte River. I have a favorite spot out here where there's a little observation deck, which I'm standing on now and then. Behind me is a part of the Platte River. This is a very popular spot for people to come, especially during the crane migration, the sandhill crane migration. But since it's early in the spring, right now, there's actually no one else out here. So it's really nice and peaceful. There's lots of birds talking. As you can hear. My only disruption right now is going to just be a small highway off to the east, so you might hear some traffic. But otherwise this is a really good spot is about 6 30 in the evening. So the light is going to begin changing, and I'm hoping that I can stay out here tonight until sunset. So Aiken pay in some different white conditions. There definitely are some tics that I've already seen, so I'm going to make sure to spray myself with the broad bug spray that I brought. I don't really need to worry too much about sun protection right now. I've got my hat. It's early in the spring, as I said, so the UV rays shouldn't be much of a problem, so I probably won't worry too much about that. And from this vantage points, I'm just from standing in one spot. I should be able just to turn and get multiple views in case I actually do end up doing more than one painting, which I hope to dio. Um, so first, what I'll do is I'll show you everything that I brought with me. And then I'll show you how I set up my prashad box and also just give you a quick little panorama view of the scenery that I plan on painting. So this is the Platte River. It runs all through Nebraska, and then this is just a small highway Over here. It does get some traffic. It's not too busy, but you can see that just this Panorama view gives me a lot of options for compositions. And then there's also some smaller ponds behind me, and so I might check those periodically to see if the light is anything interesting with those. But what I'm going to be focusing on more today is composition and trying to capture of the changing lights. I also really like painting in plain air on days that are a little bit more cloudy rather than just bright and sunny. I think that adds a lot of interest to a composition toe. Have some clouds. So I'm really thankful that there is some cloud coverage. It also makes the light a little bit softer when you have some clouds, and as the sun begins to set, it'll actually creates more interesting effects. So I think that this is really gonna be a great data paint. The weather is nice. It's not high, It's not cold. It's really kind of just perfect. So just happy to be out here enjoying nature right now. And I I think that that's maybe even the most important part about in plain are painting is just getting back in touch with nature and being outdoors. All right, so now I'm ready to start setting up, and now you can better see the observation deck where I've decided to paint. This is pretty fortunate because, of course, it's a lot easier to set up the tripod on a flat manmade surface than it is on uneven ground, and I actually wanted to get a little bit closer to the river. So I did walk along some of the grass that's down by the shore, but it was very wet. We've had a lot of rain lately, so I decided that I'd better just play it safe and stay up on the observation deck. So the first piece of equipment that I'm getting ready is my bond photo Tripod. And this is the tripod that I specifically used to hold my prashad box. Rashad boxes air Not exactly cheap. And so I didn't want to use my cheaper tripod that I actually do use for my camera. Um, so I bought a little bit more professional and sturdy tripod toe hold my prashad box because the last thing that I want is for it to falter in some way and fall. And then my Peschard box gets cracked or something like that, and this tripod I really like because it has mechanisms that allow me to check and make sure everything is level, especially because every time I take it down, I have to actually loosen everything up. So it's nice to have a really quick, easy way Teoh. Make sure that everything is level and going to hold my prashad bucks evenly and distribute the weight in an optimal way. And since I'm going to be standing really paint this time, I like to have my Peschard box a little bit higher than my waist level so you can see that I can have adjusted the height. So it would be just at about that height because that's just a little bit more comfortable way for me to work. So I have to panels with oil paper tape to them, and it will be using both those. Although my first initial sketches, I'll do two small ones and then I'll do one final painting with just a palette knife, and that will be a little bit larger. So here's my prashad box. I haven't opened it yet, and the prashad box that I bought is by Sienna or Sierra, but it has actually a tripod attachment on the bottom of it already, So all I have to do is slight into place. It is a little bit hard, Teoh. See how that's lining up. Sometimes it takes me a while. Sometimes I get it right away. But today was, of course, not one of those days, All right, so as soon as I have that slid into place, I can tighten it and it, although it's attached just kind of at the edge of the Peschard box and not in the middle, where you might assume that it should be. It actually distributes the weight really easily and nicely, and there isn't a lot of Rob Ling that happens. So it's a pretty sturdy little set up, and I know you can't see it in this shop, But there is a little arm on the other side of the pitch shot box, and I think for any prashad box that you might buy, this is the case where you do actually need to slide that arm back in order to properly set up your prashad box. So now I've got everything tightened and I'm attaching the side tray that came with it. And that's just the nice space. Teoh, hold my brushes, although my brushes do still tend to fall off while I'm painting. Next, I've got my sketchbook and my viewfinder. What? Some paper towels, some paint bug spray. Of course, I definitely don't want to get any ticks. There, fortunately, were no mosquitoes out. The weather has been pretty cool lately, so we haven't had a lot of issues with mosquitoes, and I do tend to be somewhat of a mosquito magnet. So I always make sure to have bug spray with me. And even though I've got long pants on and jacket and a hat, I still just want to make sure that I'm not going to attract any ticks because those air never fun to find that when you are home. Usually I find them when I'm just laying in bed and you just kind of feel something funny on your head, Not fun. So do make sure to protect yourself against pests and whatever other hazards you might have . So I just showed you my solvent, which I'll keep just on the ground next to my easel. I don't open it unless I'm actually using it, because I don't want to risk spilling it or losing any to evaporation. And now I'm just kind of checking out the scenery. I haven't set up my palate yet. That will be next, but I just want to start looking at compositions through my viewfinder. At this point, I haven't decided yet. I'm going to dio a horizontal or vertical orientation. So I'm going to be checking both and what I'm looking for in my composition. Here are elements that are, you know, horizontal. Of course it's a landscape, but I also want to make sure I have some vertical elements in there as well. I don't want everything to be horizontal And when he you live in ah landscape like Nebraska , where everything is relatively flat, it's really important. Teoh actively seek out variations of elements in your composition. So I've decided Teoh do a vertical orientation. So when I put my panel and oil paper on my Passat box instead of having my two sections be top and bottom so that there are horizontal orientation, they're gonna be side to side in a vertical orientation and they're just taped Teoh a piece of hardboard and I'm just tightening that up on the shot box. I'm going to show you how I set up my paints inside my prashad box. The difficulty about recording when I'm painting using a prashad box is that the painting surface over here is vertical. But then the Pala is going to be horizontal, so it's very difficult to capture both on the camera at the same time. So I just want to show you how I have my paints set up because you may not be able to see very accurately how in mixing. So first of all, I'm gonna keep my viewfinder nearby because I do just like Teoh, revisit my composition through it a couple of times while I pains, I'm going to have my paper towels nearby because I won't want to use much solvent while I'm painting. And so I'm primarily going to use my paper towels to clean off my brushes as best I can while I work. Of course, I have palette knives, and I actually have two of them here a little bit larger one and then a very small one. And then this is just my trusty brush that I like to tone my surface with right, So just set these aside as I go through them. My first color is going to be titanium whites. As always, I do like to set up my palate so that my paints air set up from lightest in value to darkest. And as I work, I'll just keep these on the ground right next to me, just in case there's some colors that need to be replenished. Next is going to be my cool yellow. So this is my cadmium yellow pale and again this is considered a cool yellow because it's a little bit more of a lemon yellow. Next is going to be my yellow Oakar, and this is my warm yellow because it's a little bit closer. Teoh Orange. And then this is one that I just added Teoh my box today. I hadn't brought it with me much before, but this is a permanent rose and this is considered a cool red because it's a little bit more magenta. And I really like this red, actually a lot more than I like my warmer red. So I made sure to bring it tonight. Actually, I'm gonna This is what I'm going to use to tone my canvas with, so I'm going to squeeze out just a little bit extra. I may not need that much. That's it. Okay, so the next I have my cadmium red deep, and this is going to be warmer and tone than my permanent rose. But if this was the only read that I was using, it really is a nice balance between cool and warm. And I don't need a whole lot of that. Even though I'm painting a landscape and it's not obvious that there's any read in this landscape, I will often use it just to tone down some of my other colors. Well, especially use it to tone down greens. All right, so next is going to be my cool blue, which is my French ultra Marine blue. And the reason this is considered a cool blue is because it's a little bit closer. Teoh violent, and I'm going to need quite a bit of this. I always dio my nuts. Blue is my fellow blue. This is a warm blue, and it's considered warm because even though it's really not obvious, it has just a little bit of green to it. And a little blue is special because it's actually a synthetic pigment. And as such, it's extremely strong in pigmentation. And so you see that I didn't squeeze out much because a little bit goes a long way and also today because it's kind of overcast. I can't really anticipate that. I'll need a lot of halo blue, but it is nice for when I want to make a really vibrant green. That's usually the way to go and last but not least, is my raw umber. And this is what I primarily used Teoh mix up my darkest values. My darkest value is almost always going to be ultra marine, blue and raw number mixed together. You get something that's very close to black, I personally, I do not paint with black, even though I have several tubes of black paint that came in sets that I've purchased, so I feel like I should use them. But it's just not something that feels natural to me, especially in painting landscapes. So I'm going to have my paints on the ground, but kind of close to me, just in case I need some more. And then this area in here is where I'm going to be doing all of my mixing. And as I work, I work from my darkest elements that I'm painting to my lightest so as I work, just take no of the fact that I really tried to avoid using white until I'm ready for it. Once you add white to your composition, anything else that comes in contact with that is going to get lightened. So areas that you want to keep dark, you'll want to make sure that you get those darks on your surface before you start adding light values around it. And with that, I think that I am ready to start painting. 10. Demo: Platte River Plein Air Painting Pt 2: Alright, So I've got everything set up and I've already been looking through my viewfinder. Teoh kind of just make some initial decisions on what I want to paint in what I want to emphasize during this session. And before we start, I dio as always, just like to dio a couple of sketches. These will be really quick and really rough sketches because I'm standing up. I don't really have a hard surface to keep my sketchbook on, so I'm just gonna capture the basics. And I decided that I'm actually going to dio some vertical oriented orientation landscapes to day. I think sometimes even when you're doing, um, landscape subjects matter, it can be interesting. Just Teoh flip that orientation. So it's not the quote unquote landscape orientation, especially for me, because I'm in Nebraska. Everything's kind of flat and horizontal. And so one way to kind of mix things up is just Teoh use a vertical orientation. All right, so from his first couple of painting, Cesaire really just gonna be loose sketches to get me warmed up. Even the actual paintings ideo I'm going to consider those to be sketches. So what I'm looking for is some variation in elements. So I want toe have, of course, a horizon line, and I think I'm going to put my horizon line fairly high up. I like to include a lot of sky in my landscapes normally, but right now there isn't really anything terribly interesting going on in this guy. So I'm going to focus more on the river and the juxtaposition between the marshy land masses and the light colored Blue River. There's some distant trees back here. There's a lot of texture in the grass that I'm not necessarily going to be able to capture in my sketch the will. We'll get some of it in here, at least in the foreground. But as Skye goes, keep it really simple because it's such a small compositional elements. I don't want to dio even anything too complex in the sky, and you also want to think about how you want the I to move through the composition. So I'm kind of looking for movement overall in the grass that can lead the eye into the composition. And then as we move into the distance, there's gonna be a lot less texture that we can discern and As far as my values go, my land mass is going to be my darkest value. Although there's except in the very foreground, there's nothing terribly dark. I may just kind of exaggerate some of those starts. Soon the painting and then the river will be kind of a light. Middle value in the sky will be the lightest value. That's then . My second sketch, I've decided, kind of looked over on the other shore of the Platte River, and there's a lot of trees, but one kind of stands out because it's early in the spring. There's not a lot of leaves on the tree, so this tree kind of has the most leaves, and then the ones around it are still a little bit baron. And I'm going to include those just for a little bit of contrasts as well. But you can see that I have. My horizon line is actually just going to be the shoreline, and actually that's technically not the horizon line. The Horizon line is back here to be technically accurate, but I do want to include some of the water, so I'm going to have some horizontal elements here to represent the water, and then the tree is going to be more of an organic shape. And I kind of like how it's reaching or leaning over one specific direction. And it's just somewhat balanced out by its other smaller branches. And then, of course, there are just some other trees around it that I'm going to leave mostly colorless and gray , and this guy will be very simple. Um, it's really very overcast back there, but again, my sky is going to be in my lightest element. The river will be my second lightest element or kind of a light mid tone value. And then there's gonna be some darks in all of these branches. And then I want most of my color really to be emphasized in these brand new leaves on the tree just to really capture that feeling of spring. And I like how the shoreline isn't just perfectly horizontal, and I am kind of pushing this shape a little bit to add a little bit more interest. All right, so here are my two first sketches. I'm going to be working on tonight, and I'm ready to start my paintings, my sketch paintings. We'll also show you the brushes that I've brought. So this is my set of brushes that are specifically for playing air painting. I recently purchased these. I'm not really a huge fan of these. The bristles are just a little bit too flexible, so I've had a little bit of a difficult time with them. But I did bring them, and I'm going to try to use them and try to get a little bit more comfortable with them. But E would be out for a little bit longer today. I also brought some of my favorite studio brushes, so I've brought my flats and my fil birds and my brights that I typically use indoors. And the reason I try to keep my indoor and outdoor paintbrushes separate is just because these ones are a little bit more expensive, and so I'm a little bit more worried about losing them. But today I'm going to take that chance and just try to take my time and be very mindful of what I'm doing. And mindful of how I clean up today, 11. Demo: Platte River Plein Air Painting Pt 3: all right. So you can see that I have one she of oil paper that is attached to my hardboard. But then I have a piece of tape going down the middle, so I'm actually going to get to compositions on the side in the side, and I'm going to be working on these simultaneously. So as I'm mixing colors for one composition, I'm going t use those same colors to build my second competition at the same time. And that's just kind of an easier way to work, especially if you're doing different compositions. But you're technically looking at the same scenery because all the colors are going Teoh essentially be the same anyway. So what I'll do you for? You know what? I actually first and I'm going Teoh again. I'm just going to use some of my permanent rose and I want Teoh apply this very, very Finley. You should see. I'm kind of just scraping it onto my oil painting. And it's definitely not enough Teoh cover of the entire surface initially, but with all deals will get my sylvan tout, and I just have this brush that the handle fell off of a while ago. and so I kind of just rededicated it to the purpose of toning canvases. So I just that into my soul vent, which helps Teoh further thin out this paint and spread it around. You don't want it to be ripping what? But you can send it quite a large, and you really don't want it. Teoh be sick at all, because the thicker it is more likely it will be to actually mix in with the paint that your plan top. And the reason that I told my canvas is because it's just a better way. Teoh judge your values as you apply paint. If you have a tone, that surface and it doesn't need to be read, it doesn't need to be any teller. But any kind of middle value will dio so a lot of people will actually use. They're yellow, ochre or values burnt sienna. I usually don't paint with burnt sienna, and I like to have a really warm toned canvas, especially when a lot of my scenery is a little bit cooler. I think that in very subtle ways it helps just to balance out. I actually like it when some of that change your tone surface shows to rue in subtle ways. The's air just sketches so it doesn't need to be perfect. I don't need Teoh go all the way out to the edges or make sure that it's covered completely perfectly. This should do it. I'm gonna clean off this brush, and for now, at least, I won't need it again so I can set it aside. And I always keep my lid on my sylvan's, whether I'm in the studio or outdoors because of the fumes and also because it evaporates. All right, so next I'm going Teoh, use a paper towel. Just make sure that this is fairly dry. I'm just going to rob it. And if there's any excess moisture in here than the paper towels and picked up, and also just make sure you keep your paper towels somewhere where you can easily reach them but also trying to make sure that they don't blow away because obviously we don't want Teoh Later, we want to respect the nature that we're painting, and now I'm ready to mix my darkness value, which is going Thio, of course, be my French ultra Marine Be and Burns number and This is what all used to sketch out the most basic elements of my composition, and also I'll start building up the darkest value areas that I have. I'm going to try to stick with using my palate knife to mix, because using your brush to do all of your mixing will result in a very polluted brush. That's difficult to all right, so I'm going to be doing both of my composition simultaneously, so I will just work. And it's definitely okay to make some changes from your sketch. Teoh, you're painting. Really? The purpose of the sketch, especially for me, is just to start thinking about how I want elements to work together and, as I do that, realize that there's a better way to approach. And I want to keep this paint very thin so it doesn't pollute is that I add on as I go. And you, of course, as an artist can always make changes even to the actual position by. You are viewing all the artistic license, and we are all encouraged to do that, and this part of the painting is called blocking in, and so I'm not doing anything precise at all. really just thinking about basic shapes, basic values. And I am not being precise. It'll in actually being very food and my application kind of just scrubbing it is the whole point of this, especially if you're trying to achieve an Impressionist look, is not capture every detail, but really just to capture of the impression. And so the It's actually more of a challenge to get used to painting in a cruel manner that it is to be painstakingly for sites. And when I teach in person, that's what I find in my students. And that's what I remember about when I started out as lead. I wanted Teoh capture everything that I was seeing, and I remember the mantra from art school, you know, especially when that when you're taking those introductory, they always say, Draw what you see, but actually what I see, I'm just not paying everything okay . - One of my favorite things about playing air painting is that it really changes the way that you paint. How you really thinking about it. It's when I am in my studio, definitely work a lot slower and a lot more comfortable usually was sitting, but when I'm outside. I just inherently end up working a little bit quicker, which I think adds a lot of spontaneity, painting process and because I need to conserve battery power. I'm not going to be any podcast, and I just get to listen to nature. She's really the best part of something that we should all do more of. 12. Demo: Platte River Plein Air Painting Pt 4: Now I have my basic propositions walked in and I'm ready to move on to the color phase, which is still something I consider to be blocking in because I'm still going to be working very quickly, very quickly. And I'm going to just set aside this start color that I make so part of it of it left. And, you know, I may need to come back in with it later. Just touch up, see areas if they get covered with lighter values. And I might need Teoh, especially with the TRIA meaning to reestablish some of that structure. And so now I'm looking around. I'm kind of looking for the next is darkest value, which is going Teoh be in both cases, the round area, this area here and in this area back here and maybe even a little bit in the water because of the reflections. Um, as I look back there, where the sun is going to be setting the water is a lot lighter. There's a lot more like hitting this water back here, and so I might push the value a little bit darker and forefront really distinguish where the light is hitting the River for now. Going Teoh work on the ground here in Nebraska, we have a lot of graphs, but it's not always green grass, but I am going to use my yellow Oakar. My older Marie lived just initially, mix up a. You know, this is technically green because it's a yellow and blue. We'll try to show it to you. It's a very much more don't will bring its not a bright, vivid green, so a little bit more like maybe an army green and what I want to mix a brighter green. What I'll use is my cadmium yellow pale, which is not lemon yellow and a little bit of sailor blew. And that will create a really nice, vivid. Definitely not all of this grass is read that I see a lot of gray, and then there's some areas that are definitely yellow. But I'm also going Teoh local rates bread. I think that that is a lot of I'm just going to kind of spread this in. I am not being super size. I'm not. I'm certainly not going to be cleaning every blade of grass, but I do work to create in the grass movements and indefinitely here. There's almost no Green Baxter, but I'm going to try to capture just a little bit. And even though I want these new leaves on the treaty a very bright green, I'm first going. Teoh underlay it with this dolar green in nine, when I do at a bright green on top is really going to stand out when you're painting trees . One concept to keep in mind is something called Massing. And that's where, even though there's a lot of space and error between the leaves, I'm going to treat these leaves as low. They are a solid mass of leaves and not just simplifies the process. It's also a little bit easier on the viewers eyes to be quite honest, when trees air painted to tediously a little bit, it's gonna then move on to a little bit more of my yellow okra. I'm going to take just a little bit of back green, mix it in with my yellow Oprah, and then I'm also going to use just a tiny, tiny bit of my prominent rose warming up a little bit more. Don't be brushed clean, super clean, one color variation and then over here. We're hitting a lot of blessing that you just seeing a lot of right. So I'm going to take this green mixture. My needs makes it just a bit more of it. So more of that yellow over actually do need a lot of gray for both competitions all mixed up. Quite a bit of this. So yellow Oakar, French, ultra Marine blue, then Teoh make it gray. I will add Read. You get a really nice neutral color Right now. It's very much a red color, and I don't need to use much of this, But just add a little bit of visual interest in here, even though I'm not really seeing anything that's necessarily right and really this Maybe it's closer to what we might think doesn't Brown now to Coolidge down and going off for adding more oil cool so far, been able just to stick with the same brush, and I try to do that for as much of the painting as possible, and especially for Impressionist paintings. I try to paint with the largest brush that I can manage because that we'll just kind of naturally stop you from nit picking at your painting and you're gonna really loose. Painterly What? And I definitely don't worry about mixing some precise color that I see. Really? What? I'm trying todo iss look at just value, which is the lightness or darkness. Oh, and I think that that really usually does. And then just a reminder. I'm still applying this paint fairly thinly because as they work, um, I want to add more on top. And if I hate to sick on the first couple of layers in the scenes England, it will be very difficult to add more on top. Whatever I add on top is going Teoh just naturally connection with here here. - So I think that I've got all my darkness values. Please, we knew again I'll just set the starker value aside because we need it later. Actually, in the case of this composition, the river is a lot lighter than the sky because I kind of have some dark clouds down here, gets a little bit lighter up here, but I really have a lot of light value in here. So what I'll do is on mix up for both compositions. It's glued, but in this one it's going to be primarily for the water and in this one it'll be primarily for the sky and then a little bit down here in the foreground. So I'm going to stick, at least for now, with my French ultra Marine blue, and I'm going to start adding some wine e. I almost never use a single color with white really like to make something else in it, so it's a little bit less vivid. And so what I'm going to do, because my friends ultra Marine blue is a cool blue. I'm going to use a little bit of my warmer red kind of tone it down a little bit. And yes, this makes technically a violet, but it's not going toe look violent. It's going to look more like a subdued blue. This is pretty dark right now, so I might just add a few brushstrokes of this and I'll just use it very sparingly, and then I'm going to lighten it up more. It's okay, E okay. And I'm not forgetting about these trees in the background in going to apply a bit of atmospheric effect to them, saw make them a little bit even more blue than I actually see them in nature that, well, visually push them back. Fricker. You know, just maybe use a little bit of which sometimes I do paint my scribe before all means tree. It really just depends. You could do it either way. Both methods have benefits and drawbacks. That's really kind of something you should experian that with and decide on your own. So I'm adding more white into my It's still looking very much a vivid blue is going to take just a little bit more My warm blood, maybe a little What might have been a little much, but that's OK. Actually, I think this is really good color. It's very subdued, soldier Straight but off waste it then. This will be a good color, actually to start. You see you know. Thank you. - You 13. Demo: Platte River Plein Air Painting Pt 5: you. All right. So before I move on to the lighter value of blue, I'm going to use what I have here to start creating more you use on the distant trees. This actually for this trees probably a little bit three light of a value. So you ultra marine blue going to amusement light. Just add a little tens of green. When you are patients facing further into the distance, you want it to be a bit cooler in value. So this is a very cool green. It has a lot of blue in it. You and then down here at the bottom of those trees where the light isn't hitting it so much. Gonna add Moeller. Really? It's dark and it hub. And then a little bit more of my warm rod. Yeah, tone down the value playing just a little bit so and then as I look, I think that what I want to do is add a little bit more texture and more grace. I'm going Teoh. You know Rod that green mixture. Yes. You got a little bit of white. This Teoh create a little bit of a lighter grade need, - and I always try to save my most vibrant color school last So as I worked on, listen, right? Yes, but in order, Teoh, keep those vibrant colors very much. Seven of attention. I don't want those together as I build the rest of the painting, so I will typically save those for lasts, even if they're not my absolute lightest values. I got a little bit more gray over frieze back here that have a right Sparta's many leaves. We're gonna leave those very in big yours. I'm sorry. And then what I'll do to is we'll put a little bit more three, especially in the water here, actually going to have a lot of green in this water for now, we'll get nice undertone of some gray, get a gun when I makes me really just being very experimental. I'm not trying to achieve any special specific color. Just want to achieve a little bit of whether it's in value over time. Thank you. So, no, I am ready. Teoh, do a little bit of the lighter blue for the sky and then course of the river as it goes into the distance. You could set up your palate before you even head out if you don't want to bring out paint tubes. But then just keep in mind that if you do run out of a specific color and you find that you need that, you may not have it with you. So in my studio, most of my can actually the larger tubes of paintings is there more economic weight by Pete's. But then I do who's smooth just because very much affordable. It's a little bit difficult to predict how much of each color you're going to use. All right, so I had this light blue story. I'm actually going to add just the tiniest amount of yellow, just warm it up a little bit. And even though this is yellow and blue, are used enough of those other mixtures to make it pretty Dole. And so it's not going to look green, and I didn't use such yellow anyway. It just is going to very subtly warm up this color. Actually, we need the white not even more well. Before you do that, maybe I'll look first in areas, especially in the water. That's light and a really good thing to keep in mind, especially when you're painting water is that a lot of the color of the sky is going be reflected in the water. And so you don't want to paint those two elements of your painting separately. You want todo them kind of simultaneously like a lot of variety. The sky tree is covering it quite a bit. I think it just adds a little bit of interest in the skies broken up into different blues. Just a very subtle way to add a little bit of interest. I've used up some of that and I had more white and probably a little bit more yellow as well. - This it's some in the river. No document Lee needs were punished. My wife. So have you us pretty well blocked in at this point with color and value. And so what the next phase will be is just basically to adds, um, I don't like to call them details. It's really just sen areas of emphasis. That's how I like to think of it. So right now the river really is very blue, which is kind of rare because a lot of times it appears dark. But I think just because of the time of day were really capturing almost pure reflection of the sky in the water, which is really nice. But I kind of like the idea of having cleans mixed in. And so I think I'm going to take some liberty with that and just very subtly at a little bit of green accents into the river. I don't need to be great, great, my friends. I'm just kind of looking for some periods that could use a little bit on Trout's. And actually, I think I'll add just the tiniest bit of red in here because again, there's a lot of cool homes in This seemed to have a lot of green and a lot of blue. And so I like to just take some liberties also with tone very subtly warm up singing colors . And I got I'm still using the same brush I've been using this time. Definitely this up a little bit more. - Maybe I need an address in subtle greens into these rare trees. Quite begun. Teoh start their own lease yet. I'm going to Daddy more red. You I think this will just kind of break up cool times nicely. Take some liberties with this very warm short life but actually like to find some brushes with shorter handles for outdoor painting. Because I constantly bumping in the things with handles. - E can't actually, right now. For me, grass is a very challenging thing for me to paint, especially with this press. It's, you know, going in several different directions or several different capture that into just a small composition. But it's always better. Teoh. Just try toe, think about simplifying it rather than capturing everything that you see. You're gonna revisit some of this dark value just to start breaking up some of these structures again back here. Now, I am starting to apply my pain a little bit more quickly. 14. Demo: Platte River Plein Air Painting Pt 6: I'm seeing a lot of birds are here, but I normally don't get to see Oh, another bonus. So been there. This will probably be one of the rare tens of years that I couldn't come to this spot. There was a family walking along one of the trails, so they were heading back to the car otherwise completely. Just me and very nice. Although, if you are coming out somewhere, that is maybe a little bit more of a nature preserve like this is You do just want to be mindful, of course, of the wildlife. Now, of course, people are allowed to be right here. You want to make sure that you're not trespassing, ever. You want to make sure, but where you're painting your actually safe and you're welcome. I don't. Training is not an excuse, Teoh. Go places that you're not supposed to go. You sure you want to make sure that you're aware of the different kinds of wildlife that you could encounter? So one thing I have to be mindful of, and I think it's less of a concern at this time of day. I was reading early in the morning and be more of a concern. But we actually do have mountain lions, especially in this area. You're repeating branches on a tree. I really try not to worry too much about in precise. I really don't even have to have a solid line to represent the branch of a tree, especially if it's far away. And actually having groping lines will make it look a little bit one natural. All right, so now I want to really ads in areas of emphasis you're going to need it for. But I'm going to be now, focusing a little bit more on some colors that are more vivid in some areas and emphasis and also right now, because I do have my soul mate with me. I'm going to actually clean this brush because I still want to use it. And it's quite 30 right now, right? So actually need to replenish my white. I think I'm doing a ban on all night. Just about done. I may stay out, Pete, but it looks like I'm going to run out of battery on my phone. Things are looking really, really nice out here. So I actually before my camera guys, I'm actually going Teoh just take a few snapshots because the light is just beautiful right now. Okay, so I'm happy now. I've got a couple of snap shops that I may worked on sometime later. Like I'm missing a palette knife and had it. Alright, so I've got some snapshots taken that I can, you know, maybe walk run later. Maybe not. You never know. Definitely not a professional photographer. And so I don't very often capture with my camera what I'm actually experiencing, which is always a little bit sad. And that's actually one of the biggest benefits about painting outdoors is that your eyes work so much differently than a camera lens like your eyes are just so much more sensitive and adjustable, and you capture a lot more nuance. Cameras, sort of compressed values that make darks. Same Darfur light seemed lighter. You'll just have Hector Subtle fields, teeny outdoors. Even if you're not an experienced painter, t just capture things in a little bit different way than you will. There were many doors for right now, and I did a lot more blue. It does have a little bit of well, Trevor lean and a lot of white, but I've added accepted the balance from blue to more yellow, and I just want to capture very subtly a little bit of the golden lights into, especially the water. One thing you can't deal if you feel like you're skies looking a little bit not and it's just add some brush strokes. They don't need to all be going in the same direction. We'll add a lot of energy that kind of mixing up the direction of your brush strokes. It's like and don't overdo it when you're adding your more saturated colors, less is really more. They thank you, - definitely need some more green for around here for a while. I think you use up the rest of what I've got here. And then let's really adds break grounds. Okay, I'm letting you get more or do you got one of their place? But I just want to have a job. So now one out of but orange ultra marine boil complete later. I'm so close to just being done. I don't want to squeeze out really any, so just make do with what I've got. I had a little bit. We're federally sunlight handler, tops of these dis entries don't want two yellow. You get non using more. They low grew, and also my garden and yellow Taylor on my yellow lemon creates a more conducted in. We start shouting birthdate just because I want at this point because I'm just about Dani. A few areas that I want Teoh add a little bit. Colors you? Yeah, here. I'm going to just go ahead and use the rest of my rock number. And my They were blue because I'm out of my darkest value and there's just a funeral areas that I needed. Teoh restructure a little bit and I have a lot of red's going to add some reading about two . I definitely don't want it to look black. I want it to have some on before I actually apply that you're going to kind of just use my palette knife to scrape out some structure, especially this tree scraping kind of reveals some try actually, white. These are actually smaller trees here. I just went out a little bit of touch there, not so much shoreline over the bed. You can actually use my politics just a little bit. Ads really fit what I want, Teoh find things a little bit more, can you? And again, it's actually really nice to have a lot of broken lines, so you don't need to worry about drawing good lines in order. Carry, trade The impression of a tweet, those very broken and it's still going to read as a tree just a little more. He wasn't going to water down here. We get his new leads kind of a collecting John when there's this one up Waas clean reflectively down here for very, and I think we're gonna call these done. 15. Demo: Palette Knife Painting: another way, Teoh Paint outdoors while minimizing your equipment is actually just to skip the brushes all together so you don't need to carry brushes. You don't need to carry solvents. You can actually paint using your just a palette knife, and I'm going to a really quick demonstration of that right now. So the main reason I sometimes like to paint with just a power knife is because clean up there's very, very simple. It also is just another way to kind of force you to loosen up. You can't achieve the same amount of detail as you can with you know, some tiny brush. And if you are going for an Impressionist look, then a palette knife is a great way to go. And it's really something that's just a matter of getting used. Teoh the application of it. So I'm working from a very limited palate. It's getting a little bit laid out, and I'm actually running out of battery in my camera. I need to work very quickly again. I'm going to just work from dark to light. I'm gonna keep my composition very simple this time, uh, and kind of abstract to the substrate that you're painting on or the surface is going to make part of it a difference. Typically, you're saying doing palette knife. I will just paint on a crime and board like this. But since I already had some paper prepared, if you get it, I would give this a shot. Is a part of that of texture in here and you're going Teoh actually need to squeeze out more paint than you would otherwise, because with the palette knife, you're just inevitably going to be applying your paint much more thick. - So I've got a lot of picnics like here, but it's really not going to go very far. And you'll also notice I did not tone my canvas, which actually, typically, if I do palette next painting, I still do tell my canvas. But for the sake of time, I'm gonna just skip that. It's not my preferred way toe work, but sometimes you just have to make you. When you work outside, you really need to have an attitude of flexibility. You might get out to your location and realize that you actually forgot something, but you don't want Teoh, you know, waste the opportunity or the time that you start aside to painting, so it's really best just Teoh. Learn Teoh. Be very flexible and kind of just accept whatever happens. Probably squeeze out of it. More halo who really needed you . Try to push yourself, Teoh mix a little faster. Think a little bit less Just kind of go for you, - You This is just a great way to your out and you've painted and you just need to use up a bunch of pains. This is a really great exercised, just kind of cut loose and not worry too much about the end results. It's a wrap this up. I was gonna have a little bit contrast down here. Break this up a little bit in the last thing that I want. Todo is really use up my white because I feel like I don't have anything in here about sufficiently in white feel like everything is a bit of a mishmash of the Midtown eso What's add some highlights and really quick we're wrapping up the little up your funnies. - All right, so that's just a quick little painting. It's just a really good exercise just to loosen up and I know throw some pain around, so give it a try 16. Bonus! Painting Outdoors with Minimal Supplies: If you're new to plane air painting, you might feel intimidated by the idea of painting out in public where there's other people . You may not feel comfortable with people coming up and trying to see what you're painting, or if you're new to it, you may just not want to invest in a lot of equipment. So in these couple of videos, I'm going to show you how to get started easily and discreetly in everything that you'll need. It's right here in my hand. 17. Demo: Painting Outdoors with Minimal Supplies #1: I'm out at my favorite local park. It's right next to where I live and has this nice little pined. I think you can see some of the geese and ducks swimming around. It's about six oclock in the evening, so the light is pretty nice right now. It's been a very bright, sunny day, so really, this was the best time of day to start painting other than early morning. And I found this picnic table, and I'm far, far away from all of the people who are fishing on the other side of this pond. So I should have a nice, peaceful, quiet time to paints. And this is kind of an ideal situation, especially if you're just starting out or you're just not in the mood for people looking behind you, trying to figure out what you're doing. Even if it's not the most breath taking scenery, it's really nice just to be able to sit paint and appreciate the simple things. So let's get started. I'm going to first show you the few supplies, but I brought with me today, all right. So as I said, everything I have with me today fits into just one hand, and I literally just carried it over here to the park with me. I didn't bring a bag or anything, so I'm gonna show you some of these things and these air just kind of ideas to get you started. This is a very inexpensive way. Teoh get started painting. So first thing that I have is this 10 and I bought a set of 20 tens on Amazon. I think I got 20 of them for about $10 there kind of like Altoid tins, but they come completely empty and they don't have any kind of labels on them. And so what I've done is in one compartment I've put all my paint that I'm going to use. And then over here I just cut a piece of oil paper down to size and glued it in here. And so I have my palate and my canvas right here in my hand. Next thing that I have here is just my adjustable viewfinder. Help me identify a composition, and then I have another substrate. This is just a four by four canvas panel, and this also came in a set of several canvases. Very inexpensive and I've just used some tape. Teoh, attach it onto this, a small piece of cardboard so I can hold on to it down here and again. I've put all my paint right here. So this will be my mixing area. And I have everything I need in one hand. And then, of course, some brushes I only brought to And since both my substrates are very small, I only brought two of my smaller ones. Of course, these are not, you know, fine liners or detail brushes because that's not the kind of work I want to dio. So I still want to keep my brushes relatively large compared to the substrate that I'm using. So I have a size four bright and then a size two, and this is kind of a filbert. And then the last thing that I brought is just my sketchbook and a pen, and I also brought to paper towels. I need to go grab the other one. It kind of flew away from me. That's really all that you need to get started. I didn't bring any kind of solvent with me because I can just wipe my brushes on the paper towels And then when I get back home, I can clean them out Really well. All right, well, that's it. So let's find a composition and start painting. Another challenge with plain air painting is just the fact that you have so much scenery around you in every direction, and it might be difficult to narrow down one composition, so we have some bridges. The pond is really calm, with just some very subtle ripples, and the reflections are really nice. There's, of course, ducks. None of them are very close over here right now. And then there's I always really admire these houses there are very small and quaint, and that's kind of the style of house that I like. So really, I could be painting any number of things just from this one vantage point. So one thing that helps a lot is to use a viewfinder, and this kind of just helps narrow it down. And what do you like to do? Is they just hold it out at arm's length? And I just start looking at different frames that this creates and you see that compared Teoh all the scenery around me? This really narrows it down a lot, maybe even too much. Maybe. But if you're just starting out, start simple, pick a very simple composition. And I'm first going to be working on the square canvas panel. So I have my viewfinder as a square and all adjust that for my next composition. And I'm just looking to see. And I think that I will keep this composition in the water because I really like the reflections that I'm getting. And hopefully I can even catch a duck. We have one coming into the scene right now, and he's kind of leaving a nice wake behind him. And what I really want to capture is just the serenity of this day Before I start painting . I just want to do a really quick sketch of the composition, so I'm going to just roughly draw out a square. Doesn't have to be perfect, and I'll be probably won't see it in the on camera. But I'm just using my viewfinder again. Just Teoh pinpoint an area that has a lot of good variation in value. So a lot of contrast and interest, and I think that all includes some of the sandbags that line the pond just so I have a little bit more variation other than just the ripples in the water and the reflections. Okay, and you may, as you work, you'll want Teoh. Refer back to your view finder often on, so you'll just want to remember Teoh. Hold it out at arm's length because that's the easiest way to keep your composition consistent within the viewfinder, people tell, was got away from me again and then I don't usually do sketches and color. Do you like to just map out the main values in contrast, and just get a feel for the design of the painting. This will be a very simple composition, and I may pretend right now there isn't any ducks nearby. But I might just pretend that there's one in there and I just made a mental note when I saw a duck come by, you know, kind of the impression that that made on me. I think I would like to include that. Just add a little bit more interest. I may in the painting may move him just a little bit sort of off centre right now, but not enough for it to look dynamic, So I may actually put him right in the center of this square and really emphasize the squareness of my canvas. Okay. All right. So that should do it for my sketch. And I think I'm ready to get started. 18. Demo: Painting Outdoors with Minimal Supplies #1 (continued): all right, so I'm going to start working on my little painting, and it's kind of nice that I found a picnic table to sit on. But even if I hadn't, I could have just held onto this by the cardboard and still been able to mix and work. So even if I was standing or sitting on a park bench, this configuration would work really well. And I d like Teoh tone. My canvas is first, and you see that I'm working with a very limited color palette, and the canvas I'm using has a circle drawn on it because I originally had intended to use this for some completely different purpose. And since I don't have any solvent in order to keep the tone paint very, very thin, so it doesn't interact too much with the paint that I put on top. I'm just really scrubbing it in, and if there's some white showing through, that's okay, but I d like to just work from a town canvas, all right, and then I'll let you know what colors I'm using. I have just titanium whites. This is ah, cadmium yellow light. This is a yellow Oakar, so this is my cool yellow This is my warm yellow. The red that I'm using is cadmium red deep and it's really a pretty good balance between cool and warm. And then I have French, ultra marine, blue and raw number. So I always like to start with my darkest values. So mixed some of my no blue with my raw number. This is usually my darkest value, and usually this is the only time that I actually use my raw umber. Sorry about my shadow. I've got the sun behind me. So I'm trying my best to keep the sun off of my canvas for you. So I'm just going to block in the darkest values. I'm not going to be thinking about making this look like anything at this point. At this point, this is just a block in, and so it's very rough. I just want to get my darkest values. And so I'm going, Teoh, have my duck right here, or just kind of lightly put him in there. But I'm not gonna worry too much if I lose some of the shapes. So this is my basic block in right here and now I will start mixing and applying color, and I dio recommend that you try to work from your darkest value and then progressively move up to your lighter values. That can be a challenge, but it really helps Teoh keep your colors from ending up looking washed out. So right here this is actually the reflection of several trees, kind of all grouped together. So I'm going Teoh, just start subtly putting a little bit of green in here. I don't want to overwhelm it, though, because I do want it to remain a very dark value. When you're planning when you're painting in plain air, you often won't want to spend a lot of time mixing extremely precise colors. So just don't worry too much about colors. Just try Teoh. Think about value, which is the lightness or darkness that you see. And then the tone, which is the warm. We're cool that you observed, and everything else will kind of fall into place. And since I already had some blue in green on my brush, I really didn't need Teoh do any mixing to get this lighter yellow, where the sun is kind of hitting the grass in the background. So if you can get away with not mixing and taking up space on your tiny pellet but was always a good thing when I want to move on Teoh Another color, Another value. I'm just wiping my brush off on my paper towels right next to me that I can move on. Looks like I'm ready for a little bit of white here. The sun is reflecting really nicely on the pond. Oh, I do need to make a correction. This is actually a low blue. Usually I use ultra marine blue, but I need today was gonna be kind of a bright, sunny, sunny day. So I thought that they lovely would actually be a little bit more fitting. So this is they'll a blue, which is a warmer blue, not a cool blue No , I've got lots of ducks swimming by one of the things that I love most about plane air paintings. Not just the process, but the actual paintings is that they're almost inherently more simplistic, more crude because you tend to work a little bit faster when you're outside. And I think that adds a really nice quality to the painting. It makes it look more fresh, I think gonna actually borrow some white from my other pallet that white. Then it goes far as I thought it would. I've got a mama duck coming to visit me. Speaking of animals, I do just want to mention that if you go out painting in the wilderness, you do need to be mindful of animals. Of course, you don't want to disturb the habitat of any animals more than what's just absolutely necessary. But you also need to be aware of any risks that you might have of running into animals that could harm you, for example, where I live. In some parts, mountain lions are an issue. And so if I want to go out of town to paint, I would probably want to avoid times that our early in the morning, mostly, but also maybe even late in the evening, just be really mindful what's around you and what's going on. Okay, so it's brighten up some of these greens and the trees just a little bit. Here is actually some reflections of the grass in the water before we move on to the duck. Okay? And I could either do a white duck which would be the simplest, but I think that why it would be too close and value to what's around it. So I think I will just do more of a silhouette of a duck and 40 that I want to add some wakes behind our duck. So I'm going to use him really thick, dark blue paint so that I can paint on top of what I already have down. You know, it's There's the ducks around me right now. I'm gonna have to just use my imagination and my memory, and it's just a silhouette. So really doesn't need to be anything to precise. Just enough to give you an idea. And I could move on to my small brush to do this, but I don't really think I need to. I'll just use the corner of this fresh, and I definitely I don't want to fiddle with it too much. One thing I'm noticing about the colors is there's a lot of green. There's a lot of blue, so I want Teoh very subtly add in some red, so just kind of mixing in the rest of my red with whatever is around it, and we'll just add a little bit of warmth to this area here. These air, actually sandbags that line this pond. I wanna make it too dark. Okay? And I'm gonna call this one. Done. I like how it turned out. It's very loose. You just get the impression of what's going on in the scene, which is exactly the point. So I'm gonna call this one a success. 19. Demo: Painting Outdoors with Minimal Supplies #2: for my next painting. I want to keep everything even more simple. And I also want to do something different other than just the pond again. And one thing that's really catching my eyes is this little boy playing chasing the ducks and the geese. I think we've all been there at one point in our lives, and he isn't going to be sticking around long enough for me to really reference him. So I'll kind of just have to try to remember this scene. And I think I'm going to try to capture that in my little 10. All right, so what I'm going to Dio is again. Just do another sketch just using the same sheet as I used for my last sketch. The dimensions are going to be different, going to do a landscape orientation, and there are some shadows. There's otherwise there's not a lot of contrast. I think I actually will put in just a little bit of the pond, just Teoh add a diagonal line to the composition and that I'm going Teoh show where some of the shadows from the trees air hitting the grass. When I do these sketches, I keep him very loose. They're pretty abstract because I'm really just capturing shapes and values and the basic composition on some other reflections in the water kind of back there. And there's a little bit of sun hitting there, and I'm going to try Teoh, think of where I want to place this little boy. And do I want him to be chasing the ducks or just feeding them? I think chasing he's pretty far away, so I don't need to worry about details. Wait and the ducks are pretty far away. It's use their just barely going to register in here. I've got lots of duck models, B one and flying into the water. Maybe we'll ever get him as, oh, he's almost catching one. So one little guy right here, running away from him. Okay, I think that is good and will definitely be using my smaller brush this time. And also for this one, I don't have even nearly as much room to mix. And for my last painting, I did borrow some of the white, and so I won't be able to do that because there's no more white left on my other palettes. So have to be a little bit more intentional with this one. Let me try to block out the sun a little bit if I can as much as possible. And that's just one of the things you'll deal with when you're playing. Air Painting is just trying to get a good lighting situation. So this brush is dirty from the last painting that I did again. That's just something that I'm going to work through because I didn't bring any solvent to really thoroughly clean this brush tried to wipe it off, but apparently there's a lot of the dark paint left in there, and I normally wouldn't want my canvas toned this dark. So what, I'm gonna dio gonna grab my paper towel, see if I can just wipe some of this off because I don't want. It's be overwhelmed and I tone. My canvas is with red. That's just my way of doing it. You can tone your canvas with any color that you want, or you can make something to tone it with. My go to is just always read, no matter what. The composition is going to be. Okay, so and in here I have the titanium white have the cadmium yellow light, cadmium red deep And then I have French, ultra Marine blue and I have fellow blue And then right here is my raw number. So I'm going to use but French, ultra Marine and raw number that someone was sneaking up on me. It was just a duck. They sound like people. Let me come up behind you. So it's gonna be interesting trying Teoh paint that little boy in the ducks in here. I'm gonna give it a try, though, actually going to switch to my small brush because this is such a small canvas. And also the other one is just so dirty. So what I'm going to do next is some of that green in the water. So I'm gonna use my fellow blue now with my yellow to get a really bright green That might be a little too bright for the pond. I might be able to hear the ducks behind me. They're chasing each other as long as they don't start chasing me, We're fine. I'm going to use May French Ultra Marine blue, too. Get a darker dolar green for the shadows and then for the water. I'm going to actually had some red to really tone that green down back here. These tins air nice not only because you have a palate and a canvas all in one, but they make Nice gift's. One thing that I'm wanting to dio is just attach a magnet onto these so that they can just go on the refrigerator like refrigerator art. Just like when you were a kid. I think that might be a neat idea where you could even with this or with the other small canvas that I showed you, you could just put a like a loop of a string on it and hang it from, like, a Christmas tree or something like that. Okay, so I have my really simple background here. I'm going Teoh ad this child, and I'm just gonna make him kind of a dark silhouette because he was pretty far from me. So we'll just kind of see how that goes. You know, sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn't, but it's always worth trying. What I might do is just use the end of my brush because there's just really having a hard time doing his limbs small enough. This will give them a a little ducks to chase, even if it doesn't turn out the way that you wanted it to. Sometimes it's just nice to be out doing something. Sometimes that's the whole point. A little more shadow. Here we will get him a little splash or red, and this might be one where I take the idea, even though it's not going to be executed to my satisfaction. Here. Can take this idea at least and work on it more later, definitely on a bigger format, because I like the idea. And I like the composition. But this brush, even though it was actually the smallest brush that I had because I typically paint bigger , um, didn't quite work out as well as I would have liked it, too. But you know what? That's part of the learning process, and it's never a waste because you always learn something new. 20. Demo: Painting Outdoors with Minimal Supplies #3: for my next plane Air demo. I'm actually going to be working from my car. And this is another great way to get a little bit of experience painting outdoors when you don't really want to make a big show of it. Maybe you are actually just looking for something to dio while you are waiting or if you are the passenger for a long road trip. This could be a great thing to Dio, so I'm actually in my car. This funny looking thing here is what I use Teoh, hold my phone on. Don't worry. I am, of course, parked. And my car is off and I'm in a safe location, which is something that you want to be mindful of. That you are always somewhere that you're allowed to be. So no trespassing, of course. And that you're in a location where you're safe in your not in the way of anyone else. So I was just driving around looking for something simple but interesting. And in the downtown, my little town and I thought that these trees here were nice. I'm actually I'm gonna zoom in a little bit to show you how I plan to crop this image and I do not plan to have this parking sign in my composition. It's basically just going to be the trees. With this kind of flat backdrop of the building we're painting in the car, your best bet is going to be a configuration like this. So, again, this is just another one of my little tins and I put a few extra colors in here and then another piece of oil paper. But I've glued in. But I'm going to set this aside for now because I'm going Teoh, do a quick sketch 1st 0 and today I did come a little bit better equipped with smaller brushes, so this brush isn't in great shape, as you can see, but I think that it'll be nice to have and then another small one. Um, this. These two are the ones that I had yesterday, and I did find that they just were a little bit too big. Or maybe the figure that I was trying to paint in there was just a little bit too delicate Teoh handle with these. And then I found this other slightly smaller brush. And because the sun is shining directly on the side of that building. I'm going to include the other surface of the building that's in shadow, just to add a little bit of contrast in interest. But overall, it's going to be a pretty abstract kind of composition. I'll bring it in a little bit closer for you, so you can see it's very abstract and very simple. Okay, so I'm ready to start on the painting and I am still going. Teoh tone my canvas. As always, I like to use red. All right, so I have my little canvas toned, and before I start blocking in, I will just give an overview of the colors I'm using. So, as always, titanium white, then cadmium yellow light, which is also kind of a staple for me. Yellow Oakar, cadmium red, deep, ultra marine, blue. And then what's different on my palette today is variety in green and sap. Green and I decided to include these, even though I typically don't use thes colors at all, because I like to just mix my greens. But since I have such a small space to mix, I decided that it actually might come in useful. Just toe have those handy already. And Teoh save a little bit of space, not having to makes a lot of greens. So what I'm gonna do now, I'm still using my larger brush and I'm going to just start blocking in my dark values. And one thing missing from my palate right now is my raw number, which is usually a staple for me. But it just wasn't handy at the time that I was packing up. And so I decided that today I would try to go without it. One thing that I think I should have done differently yesterday on my 10 painting that I ended up not really liking was I think that I was applying my paint to thick from the outset. So today I'm trying Teoh have less paint on my brush while I'm toning and doing the block in this building back here. It's kind of ah orangish color, which I don't find very interesting. And so I think for this area in shadow, I might make something that's a little bit more of a purple. So I think we're give that a try. We'll see how that goes. And I'm going Teoh as much as I can reuse parts of the palate even though there was a little bit of green in there. That's okay. This doesn't need to be a very vivid or saturated color. Just because I don't have a lot of space here, it's gonna be important to be very efficient with what I do have. Let's go ahead and do the back of this building. So it's much, much warmer, actually going to create a new pile from this. And even though what I'm seeing in that building is pretty flat, I just want to add a little bit of color variation just to make a little bit more interesting. Could be very settled now that I've got my paper towels down here in my lab. Wipe this off because again, I didn't bring any solvent with me. I'm just going Teoh. Try to rely on my ability to white excess paint off my brushes with paper towels. One of the hazards of working in your car is going to be keeping your upholstery clean, So if that's important to you, just keep that in mind as you work, okay? You know, before I start working on values that are like I do just want to make sure these windows her something that you can actually see. Now this these greens are gonna be coming in pretty handy. No, I'm not going to use them straight out of the tube. It's a lot less mixing just to adjust These subtly rather have been mixing them from blue and yellow. So I really like the way the sun is just kind of hitting the tops of these trees, and then they're gonna be much darker as we move down. So I'm fixing up a very bright green, and actually, this one here is so low that the sun really isn't catching it. So we'll be only thing that pretty dark. So I used Marie Meridian CEO accident here a little bit. I think that's still a little too bright. It's what I'm going to do is grab some of this dark mixture here. It has some red and some blue in it, running a little bit low and red right now from my piles. So I'm gonna try to just reuse this much as I can, so this will be the shadow green. And I don't want Teoh be to grain. It needs to be fairly dark. These trees air right next to this building that there is just a little bit of a shadow that I'm going to try to add in here. So I reuse some of this shadow mix. Now I'm ready. Teoh, paint the purple tree so makes up more red. I'm just gonna looking at this tree. I think I actually might just stick with some pink. And I'm not going to be able Teoh do much in the way of painting the little branches. So what I'm gonna do is just use the bottom of my paintbrush, and I'm just going to scratch into this a little bit. The effect is gonna be pretty subtle, but it does help to kind of just tie these organic shapes together so that it reads more as a tree. So I'm having just a little bit of trouble with this area here because I think there just isn't enough to differentiate the tree from the building. So just go in with one of my smaller, actually, let me grab the smallest brush and there's a lot of warms in here, So there's an orange and then there's this pinkish purple of the tree, so I want to use more of a cool Tell her. Just add some contrast, even though it's not exactly what I'm observing when I look, I'm just about done here. I'm going to add much lighter, brighter color in here because everything that might be just a little bit too much mid tone in here kind of like how this is looking right now. And it's, Ah, a place where I think if I fiddle with it too much, it's only going to be downhill from here. So I think we'll call this good. And also, you know, one of the fun things about painting in these tens is that you get a painting up here and then you kind of get an abstract little mishmash of all your mixes down here, and it just kind of looks nice together. So that's one thing to keep in mind. And that's one of the reasons why I like to just put a magnet on these and hang them on the refrigerator because they just look kind of nice. 21. Demo: Painting Outdoors with Minimal Supplies #4: them back at the park. I'm going to try this again. And I could get out and sit at that red bench right there. But what I think I want to paint is this stuck. I know it's a little bit blurry on my camera. Um, but I think I want to just imagine her just sitting in some grass. I'm going to have a very simple grass background, and I'm just going Teoh try to paint this sleeping, Doug. So I think this will be a really nice simple composition to kind of end of my day of painting. All right, so, of course I will start with a sketch. All right, Well, this is my last 10. And so some of the paint had actually fallen off the pallet and onto the oil paper, which normally I would just use my palette knife to scrape it off. And but I will just try to do my best with the brush. Since then. It bring any palate names. This is the brush that I've been using to tone my canvas. But I actually think I'm going to just use one of the other brushes I've really only used to brush is even though I brought five. Sometimes you just don't know why it is going to feel the most comfortable. So if you bring a few extra things, that's okay. All right. So I am going to still tone this canvas with red. Okay, so and even though this composition is primarily green where the grasses and the duck is white and she just has kind of an orange beak, I am going to still try to use all of my colors. And she's actually has not moved yet. Just kind of nice. She must know that she's being painted and the sun is hitting her up there. So I actually I'm going to just kind of paint the bottom, and then I'm just gonna kind of paint around her, and I'll probably use a completely different brush to paints the duck. Although I do want a little just very subtly some green reflecting on to her because she is white. And so I can see that there's a little bit of reflected light from the grass on her body. Okay, so I'm going to switch brushes going Teoh a try Teoh really avoid, though just painting her white So go ahead and look for areas that are a bit in shadow. Like I said, there's very subtle that there is just a bit of green reflecting on to her. I don't want it to look to grains from going to dole it down. It was red. Every and the light is really hitting her from the front. So a lot of my shadow is going. Teoh, be back here might see if I could borrow White from one of my other pellets if I need. Teoh actually brought a little tube of white with me. It's but if I can avoid squeezing more out, But I will and anything that you're painting something where the local color, the color that you actually perceive, you know, is white. You're going to have to end up relying on a lot of very subjective use of color in order to create shadow. So it's really it's actually a good thing, Teoh. Just try to get some practice getting objects that are white in different lighting situations. I'm gonna put a little cast shadow behind her because the sun is hitting her over here and I can just from where I'm sitting I could barely see that there is a bit of a cat's shadow behind her. So do you want to make sure you include that? Let's just start with so little. If we can, you can see where her Bikas. It actually already looks a little bit orange just because of the red tone. But I am going to just touch that up a little bit. It might be difficult to really get a good orange. Hear me? Red is pretty polluted at this point, Okay, so actually, I want to add just a little bit of highlight in here. So it's always best Teoh be very sparing with highlights. So I think I might just add here to her head. It's a little bit. Goes a long ways, chief. She's actually moved. Now, let's see. Maybe just had a little bit there for her. Even though I'm so far away from her, I really can't see her. I think I might just add a little bit, just a little dark spine here. It's just kind of lift that a little bit seemed like a bit much, okay, and then again, I feel like I just need a little bit I need to anchor her down with a little bit more shadow. So just use some blue. And then the last thing I want to dio it's just to add a little bit more texture in the grass, especially in the foreground. And then even, I think, in the background. But we'll make it. We'll try to make it really dark. Sorry, keep hitting my camera with the handle of my brush. Let's just add a little bit of texture and interest back here. It just seems a little bit flat. - All right, Well, that was a really simple composition. And I actually really like it. Really think sometimes it's better just to keep it as simple as you possibly can, especially when you're working on such a small format as this s Oh, I do hope that you'll give this a try and show some of your own projects in the discussion below. Whether you choose to paint big or small