As our weather warms up and my schedule freed up a bit,
I'm starting to do plein air again.
While an enjoyable experience it is definitely
not easy for me.
Today I want to share with you a little bit of the process
of this plein air painting, how I approached it,
and the struggle and challenges that I faced.
Hi, this is Eric from Cafe Watercolor.
Plein air painting has been romanticized
in such a way that if you don't do plein air
is almost as if you are not a real artist.
I fall into this peer pressure at times,
however plein air painting is not easy.
To me it almost feels like a test,
you have a limited time to produce a good painting
under a lot more influence than you are at home or a studio.
Your setup isn't likely not as complete,
things like lighting can change,
people in a scene will move around and there are noises.
And you might get some audiences asking you questions
while you paint.
I actually met two lovely young ladies there
while I was painting
hi, Abby and Romi
nice to meet you and thank you for your company.
And if you're in Washington and you happen
to see me painting outdoor come and say hi, okay?
I'll love to meet you.
Anyway the point is that plein air while enjoyable
is not as easy.
So I want to share with you the process of my recent
plein air experience.
So for a setup, I can go over my plein air
set up in another video,
I'm actually thinking about simplifying it further.
Right now I have a modified pochade box,
a small aluminum pallet was colors already squeezed
in and dried.
And I have four brushes, a pencil, and eraser.
And of course I use watercolor pad
so I don't need to bring another board.
Since it's a park I've found a picnic table
next to the Lake so that made things easier.
Now the next thing is location,
in my case I didn't really pick the location,
my wife took the kids to meet up with some friends
for play day at the park.
I was just tagging along, I did pick the seam though.
The park is next to a Lake, so I walked around,
found a good scene to paint.
I made a video about picking your subjects
before you can go and watch that one
for more tips on that, the general idea is to find
a major shape that is easy to read
and hopefully easy to paint.
And remember you have limited time
so don't pick something really complex
unless you have the confidence to simplify that scene.
Once you pick the scene, do a value study first
instead of going straight into painting
if the time allows.
It helped me to come up with a solid plan for the painting.
Okay so this is the first wash for the value study.
So this is just the whole major shape
from background mountains to the middle ground house
and trees and everything, the foreground tree as well
and I actually made the foreground sand also a middle value
even though I was tempted to make it a live value
but I think middle value will work better in this case.
So the only live value of course the sky,
and the bright water, and the sand in the beaches and stuff
A value study is also a great process to simplify
what you see,
keep your camera handy, things move around and change.
So if you happen to see something you really like
snap a quick photo for your own reference.
While I was painting, I saw two people paddle boarding,
I saw they will look great in painting.
Knowing that they will paddle away very soon,
I took a quick photo for reference later.
Lastly and this is what I learned from Joseph Zbukvic,
don't compare your painting with the real scenery.
When you look at the subject
and you look at your pathetic attempt,
it's very easy to lose that famous ingredient
and that is faith
and you this is just rubbish,
this is awful and give up.
So I can't paint.
The trick is to now go home and have a look
at it properly without the competition of the magnificence
of what you're looking at as you cannot compete
with that, the amazing thing transformation happens.
You bring this to the studio,
you look at it and the memory of this floods
into your painting.
I spend an hour or so trying to capture a scenery
that has been there long before me,
so there's no way I can compete.
This is important because if you try too hard
you will likely overwork your painting
and that usually doesn't end up looking good.
Okay so I kinda started my first wash
was the second wash so I got more time,
but now I have to start to paying some of the wet onto wet
dark immediately so that I can still get
a little bit of a soft effect in there.
So obviously after a second wash
and I start to add a little bit more dark
and it start to separate a shape a lot better
and it starts to just give a little bit more detail
to a rather simplified painting.
Obviously plein air is not an easiest scene,
but I managed to simplify as much as possible.
Again this is the value study
and here is the final painting.
And again here is the scenery,
a lot more people came, a lot of kids including mine.
(soft music)
So I didn't record a full process of this painting,
only some footage but I still hope this video
is helpful for you.
It is hard to record video outdoor by myself,
but hopefully next time I will be able
to do that, again plein air is like a test of skill for me
it takes practice and experience.
While I encourage everyone to do it,
if it is not something you enjoy doing
I am not going be the artist to shame you for not doing it.
Get more practice done in the studio and tried it out again
when you feel ready.
That's it for today's video,
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I am Eric, from Cafe Watercolor,
see you next time.