Set up your palette outdoors and set your creative spirit free. Here are tips on painting atmosphere-the sensations of fresh air and full-spectrum light.
By Richard Kent
A few years ago, as a relative newcomer to watercolor, I joined a field study group of amateur painters. Each week we set up our work tables at a different location. I'm convinced that painting outdoors helped me progress rapidly in my art. After all, the studio can seem like a classroom-especially if you're just learning your craft. Outside, once you choose your site and set up your palette, you look like an artist and, after a while, start to paint like one!
Being outdoors is freeing in another way, too. My daily job is an architect. I think in terms of what's permanent: structure, materials, line. But once I get outside I can succumb to transitory pleasures-I can release the binds of reason and react to color, texture and light. Nonetheless, I have to admit that painting en plein air presented a number of challenges at first. For instance, I had to alter my perception. I had to see volumes as flat shapes and colors as values. I had to forsake a mistaken fidelity to reason by daring to overlook local colors. I had to start squinting to see.
What are the advantages of painting en plein air? You'll react less to what you think and more to what you feel. After a while, you'll sense that it's more important to convey the colors of the day than the actual objects before you. You'll get a kick out of painting not just the objects, but the space around them. If you want to try your hand at painting en plein air, here are some tips to get you started.
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SURVEY THE SCENE
When you arrive at the location, you may feel panic: so much to paint and so little time to paint it! I've learned to calm myself down-to listen to my intuitive voice, to breathe deeply so the selection process will be joyous and orderly. Remember that you can always return to the spot; this isn't your last chance.
Arm yourself with a sketchbook and a 6B pencil, then look for a scene. Try not to pin all your hopes on one; do a number of thumbnail sketches so you have a range of scenes to choose from.
These preliminary tasks are my way of becoming "friendly" with the area. I learn its character so the painting, if it works, will communicate that character.
CREATE A ROAD MAP
Now do a rough value study. Sometimes your inspiration will be so strong that you can see the finished painting in your mind's eye. In that case, only a few lines are necessary to confirm the composition. More often you'll have to do a couple of studies before you're satisfied with the design.
The value study has two important benefits beyond the obvious one. First, the drawing and analysis will fix the subject in your mind. Second, the drawing will determine where the white spaces will be. Preserving these white areas ensures that the composition will work.
ESTABLISH THE LAYOUT
Now set up that easel and taboret (or substitute a light-weight, folding work stand) at right angles to the subject so you're not tempted to look back and forth constantly and replicate what you see. Clip a sheet of 140-lb. cold -pressed paper at each corner to a slightly larger piece of Fomecor, then lightly draw the major elements with a 6B pencil. Consult your value study as a guide. (You can superimpose a grid on the value sketch to make the transfer to the watercolor paper easier.) Then use a kneaded eraser to remove any excess lines of lighten essential ones.
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USE THAT VALUABLE VALUE SKETCH
My favorite locations to paint are along the southern California coast where morning is usually accompanied by clouds of fog. I've started many paintings under such conditions only to watch the scene disappear-and be replaced by one more interesting because it's irradiated by sunshine. Because you can't control the light as the day unfolds, your value sketch is essential. Don't lose sight of it, or you'll find yourself reacting willy-nilly to the inconstant weather, and your painting will fast become a hodgepodge.
WASH IN COLOR
When it's time to paint, start with the largest area that you'll have to wash. Generally this will be the sky, it may well be your lightest value. Next, wash in your second-lightest value. I usually allow a space of white, dry paper between these two sections. This permits me to work on large areas with a 2-inch flat brush while giving previously painted areas time to dry.
Once the lightest areas have been created, you can start brushing in areas of middle value: these mid-tones will define shapes. Next, position a few of your deepest darks. These darks will bracket the extremes: the lightest light and the darkest dark. Once you have this range of values in place, you'll be able to see how your value study relates to the painting before you. What's left to do is fill in the mid-range values while at the same time remaining faithful to the composition.
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WRAP IT UP
Once you get down to the last 25 percent of the painting. You can stop referring to the scene in front of you or to your value study. Instead, concentrate on the paper and on making the picture work. It becomes a matter of balance: repeating a color, placing an element then determining a place for its echo, etc. For the most part, this process is intuitive and doesn't take readily to pressure from time. If the work isn't finished, just stop and let your colleagues critique it as is.
The interval between your colleagues' critique on location and your own critique once you're in your studio can be a fruitful time. Your unconscious mind can solve problems as it does when you're asleep. Coming back to the painting, you can fix and finish it in a few strokes. Conversely, sometimes the work will feel as if it's done before your day on location has ended. In that case, resist the temptation to keep "improving" it. "Improving" is too often a synonym for overworking.
DO A CRITIQUE
Prepare by taking a deep breath and getting your ego out of the way. All day long you've been telling the paper what you want it to say, and now's the time to find out if it's doing the job. Our view of our work is myopic, after all. We need to hear what other eyes see.
Those looking at our painting for the first time can judge it by the standards of a work of art. Some good questions to ask: Are the elements in balance? Is there a harmony of color? Is the drawing, i.e., the perspective, persuasive or correct?
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LET IT AGE
Like wines, some paintings improve with age. Once you've finished a painting, put it in a drawer. After a week or so, you can usually see the work for itself-forgetting the little mistakes or the false expectations. On the other hand, an error will stand out in stark relief and you can then readily correct it.
The process of painting is certainly a humbling one. I once heard a golfer friend discuss the game he played that day. He told of the exhilaration of making a difficult shot on the third hole, only to put the ball in the lake on the fifth. The key for him was enjoyment-of the intricacies of the game, the beauty of the course and of the day, the contest with himself, and the companionship of his fellow players. The score was incidental: it in no way indicated the value of the game to him. As artists, we mustn't keep score either. Enjoy the day. If a good painting comes from it, that's just a bonus!