Plein Air for Fun: A Simple Guide to Outdoor Sketching

1. Intro: Hey, I'm Olgo Banitas an artist, illustrator, and a passionate sketchbook keeper. In this class, I want to introduce you my personal approach to play near sketching. I love go player. I love organized others, gather people to create together. It's all about finding joy in being outdoors, connecting with your surroundings and capturing the moment in your own creative way. It's fantastic to have company and share the experience, but it's absolutely wonderful to sketch alone, just two different kinds of joy. Let's explore how to make plein air an enjoyable part of your artistic practice, light, simple, and fun. 2. Why Go Plein Air?: Let me take you to one of my favorite player moments a spontaneous sketching walk with my teenage daughter to Botanical Garden. This was the view we chose to enjoy and sketch, and if you're wondering how to motivate yourself to go play air, let's make the pressure off right away. It doesn't have to be serious. It's really about having fun, being curious, enjoying the moment with your sketchbook or piece of paper. Maybe chatting with a friend or not, it's up to you. Indeed, it's lovely to have company, but it's absolutely fine going alone. A solo player feels like a date with the city, a place, the season, or simply with yourself. I enjoy both scenarios equally. My experience, play air sketching often becomes a reason to meet up with friends. Let's agree it's unlikely that everyone in the modern busy world has the time, motivation, and focus to just sit on a bench for an hour and admire a beautiful view. It seems completely unrealistic to do it alone and even in a group. We'd likely to be thinking about where to go next or grab something to eat. Or could you imagine if I told my teenage daughter, Let's go for two hour walk together in the botanical garden. To be honest, the chances of getting a positive response are quite slim. But if I say, let's go paint in the botanical garden, suddenly, it sounds like a good plan, good idea. It's meaningful time together. We're alone with a sketchbook. A nice conversation. It feels a bit like a meditation. Sometimes the time passes just too quickly and you forgot to check your phone. And later when you look at your sketch, it brings you right back to that moment, that mood, that place at that memory. And noticed I haven't said anything about this sketch itself. That's because in plain air, whatever the drawing or painting turns out great or not, it doesn't matter at all. You don't have to be productive. You do it to notice and enjoy. Oops, we accidentally chose a bench surrounded by so many bugs. Here they are. These silly little surprises happen all the time, and that's totally okay. A quick word about people passing by. I know that drawing in public can feel uncomfortable, especially if you are not used to it. You might worry about people watching. Personally, I don't like it, especially when strangers start commenting or asking questions. Over time, I got used to it and found polite ways to respond, but thankfully, it doesn't happen often. Most people don't even notice. Oh, they don't care. They are too busy, and those who do usually smile and move on. But if it still feels too uncomfortable, start in less crowded quiet a place like your garden, balcony, or calm corner in the back. So here is what we've got. It's so cool that looking at the same thing, the same landscape, each of us see something unique and paints it in their own way. This is the materials I brought with me. This time, I actually took more than usual, though I usually manage with much less. On the left is a case with pencils, brushes, and a couple of acrylic markers. I have a small watercolur set. I've been using this metallic box for many years. A small palette plate which I rarely take on plain air, a collapsible cup of water, brushes. Usually, I carry a sketchbook, but this time, I preferred a piece of high quality watercolor paper. I used a canvas board as a backing. It's thin, expensive and available at most art shops. Super convenient to use outdoors. Well, that's it. We're heading back home. Once I'm at home or sometimes the next day, I often look at my sketch with a fresh eye and add a few details or touches, what feels right. 3. Sketching with Little Time : Let's talk about time. I often sketch with my kids around, always have. Even when my son was only two or 3-years-old, I found little windows to draw. Sometimes I get just five or 10 minutes and that's enough. Play air isn't about spending hours and hours. It's about noticing something and enjoying the act of putting it on paper. It's always an option to finish and polish a sketch later at home. I do it very often, paint or draw the base outside and then add final touches later at home. No pressure, no perfection, you the moment and your sketchbook. 4. Gather People to Create Together: In this lesson, I want to share one of my favorite ways to make creativity more social and joyful, organizing a simple painting outdoor party for friends and family. One day, we had a very special gathering. It was in a beautiful place with people I truly care about. That evening, we painted birds. I love this idea because it appeals to both kids and adults. Really believe that making together is a fantastic way to spend quality time and create lasting memories. Anyone can organize such parties. It doesn't require special skills or education, just a desire and passion. In this video, I share some tips and advice to make it easier for you to host your own creative event. It's definitely worth a try. First of all, of course, we need to prepare some stuff. In my case, I took cardboard boxes from a local supermarket and cut out simple bird shapes. A stationary knife works best for these seasons are inconvenient, but be sure to protect the table. I made quite a lot of bids intentionally so everyone could choose their favorite. Additionally, I covered the shapes with white paper, but it's totally optional. For materials, we used children gouache paints, gouache in tubes, and some crayons. Ceramic plates, as palettes, I try to avoid single use plastic. As containers for water, we used cut plastic water bottles simply because they are free and still recyclable after use. Can use any containers you have, make sure they're stable and contain only a small amount of water. Avoid using tall glasses as water cups. When several people, including kids are painting together, it's quite easy to accidentally drop the container and spill water. So low containers are your choice. In general, it's better to be prepared for some mess and possibly some paint on cloths and blankets. It's important for everybody's good mood to be okay with this. Gouache paints are washable, so just do your best to make the process as convenient as possible. We used extra paper under each bid to protect the picnic blanket and everything turned out great. What I especially like about this painting craft idea is that everyone can do it. It's impossible to fail. I believe any activities where parents and children are working side by side, doing the same thing on the same level is absolutely fantastic. It straightens relationships and builds a healthy atmosphere. This is such a pleasure to create together. Now, it's your turn to give it a try, whether it's with your kids, your friends. I hope this lesson, this video, this story inspires you to host your own relaxed painting session at home, in your garden, or in the park. Let it be messy, let it be imperfect, let it be fun. Two. 5. What to Pack for Plein Air: Well, what materials to take to plane air. Here is my usual plain air kit. The kem is to keep it compact and self sufficient. The lighter and smaller you kit, the more likely you take it with you on a walk or a spontaneous trip. This is my small watercolor palette If you watched my other classes or follow me on Instagram, you are probably familiar with this one. I used it for over ten years, but now it's time to a new one, which is even smaller. I put out this metal insert, it's heavy and not essential and put in halfpens with my favorite colors. Mm hmm. Let's refresh them. It might seem like quite a few colors, but I choose the ones I really use and what gives endless color combinations. And I'm pretty sure I managed to paint almost everything I want on plan air with them. So there are cadmium lemon, cadmium yellow, cadmium orange, cadmium red, ultramarine, earth green, olive green, dark green, indiga, pains grey, maples flesh, rose, and mocha or mocha. I'm not sure how to pronounce it correctly. You'll find a photo of the palette in the class materials. Basically, this group of colors, cadmium lemon, yellow, orange and red plus ultramarine gives endless color combinations. I talk about it a lot in my Skillshare classes. These classes are fully based on these five colors. Then I include three different greens because when painting outdoors, I often find myself capturing greenery, trees, bushes, flowers, and so on. Two very dark colors, indiga and paints gray to add dark touches and paint backgrounds. And finally, there are three extra colors that I find useful. First is a bright pink, which is impossible to mix from the basic colors, then naples flesh and mocha. Together, these three are great for painting people, skin tones, faces, and also work beautifully for building, twigs and delicate branches. Very useful. Once again, if you'd like to refer to this palette, you'll find a photo of this in the class attachment. So moving on a compact sketchbook. This particular one, I made putting together just a few papers as I'm going to a short trip and want to have it completed by the end. It has a hard cover to make it easy to paint sitting on a bench or a blanket. You can learn how to sew your own sketchbook in my other Skillshare class. There is a couple of other sketchbooks of mine. They are ready made. This one is a four size, and this one is a five. A few brushes, a big flat one to water the paper or paint architecture elements and buildings, couple of medium brushes and small ones. I'd say a water brush could be also useful when using regular brushes is inconvenient, but I don't have it with me now. Maybe I should. Okay, next, some colored pencils. Pen with different colors to make notes and a sharpener. Paper clips to fixed paper. They are particularly useful when the weather is windy. Mm, almost forgot a collapsible water container or just a water brush if you want to save space and paper tissues. That's it. Start with what you have and keep it light and easy to carry. H. 6. Class Project: The class project is beautifully simple. Go play there. I encourage you to grab your sketchbook and go to paint or draw outdoor. I hope you inspired enough to give it a try. Then share your sketches, surroundings, a few words about how it felt. I can't wait to see your sketches and your stories.