Mar 2019: Get Ready for Spring Plein Air Painting
Several different options for light, packable watercolor sketching kits, and a few tips for selecting a manageable subject from the sometimes overwhelming wealth of options when working on location.
Sketching
Sketching and plein air painting.
Better Landscape Greens
The weather is beautiful here. It’s the time of year when a lot of us are feeling that pull to take our paints and sketchbooks outside. It’s also the time of year that a lot of people struggle with GREEN! Do the greens in your landscapes look flat and unnatural? The likely culprit is a…
Line and Wash – Watercolor Painting Anyone Can Do
Line and wash is a combination of line drawing with watercolor washes to suggest a scene. It’s a great way to get started with watercolor, or with travel sketching, even if you “can’t draw” and have never tried watercolor before!
9 Tips for Better Sketches (and More Fun!)
Yesterday, 12 intrepid sketchers from the Watercolor Minimalist class at Wet Paint descended on Como Conservatory determined to learn some tips and tricks for sketching on location in a short amount of time and with minimal stuff. It was a gorgeous day, there were beautiful subjects all around us, restrooms and cafe nearby, and not…
Empty Your Backpack
A couple of weekends ago, we had a beautiful 70-degree day with this year’s glorious fall colors just hitting their peak. On the spur of the moment, I grabbed my backpack and headed out to paint with a friend. I had forgotten to bring masking tape, so I couldn’t tape down my paper to keep…
Plein Air Painting for Everyone
For those who aren’t familiar with the phrase, painting en plein air is just a fancy way of referring to painting on location, usually outdoors. It’s a challenge! In addition to all the usual problems a painter has to solve (composition, color mixing, brush handling, etc.), there is the constantly changing light, the sun, rain and wind,…
The Mighty Tiny Matchbook Journal (and Other Ways to Avoid the Mistakes that Keep You from Journaling!)
I’ve heard the lament from quite a number of you: you bought a lovely journal, and you think the activities I’ve been posting look really fun and interesting, but you are too busy to journal right now. Maybe later, when life calms down a bit . . . I feel your pain! I don’t know about…
Be a (Mindful) Tourist in Your Own Town
A great way to practice mindfulness and open your eyes to the world you live in every day is to play “tourist” in your own town. Often artists keep sketchbooks not so much to accumulate sketches as to provide a way to focus their attention on the overlooked interest and beauty in their everyday lives….