Plein Air Planning
Well worth the effort
Wandering around with a few painting materials, an easel and a folding stool is a great way to force yourself to observe, analyze and adjust the subjects that appear before you. I recently conducted a workshop in New Zealand where there is no shortage of interesting things to paint. The few examples here show the finished painting and the rough, preliminary sketches used to shuffle around the elements of the subject into a satisfying composition.
The sketches are small and completed in a couple of minutes. They are invaluable tools for testing the arrangement of shapes, tones and sometimes colors before committing to a sheet of watercolor paper. The paintings are done on 300gsm Arches Cold Pressed paper using a limited range of colors and half a dozen brushes.
Painting the cafes in Arrowtown New Zealand
Most of these paintings were done with these four colors. Quinacridone Gold, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Phthalo Blue and French Ultramarine Blue.
Occasionally a little Phthalo Green or Permanent Rose crept in.
At the back of one of New Zealand's oldest pubs, The Cardrona Hotel, was this old wagon and crumbling timber shed. A quick, rough sketch gave me a chance to shuffle the shapes around and create an interesting composition.
The wagon wheel, being the only round shape, made an obvious focal point. Surrounding the wheel with the dark shape of the wagon then placing this against the high key timber wall places maximum tonal contrast at the focal area. The small dark patch in the doorway of the shed balances the focal area
At Larnach Castle in Dunedin we found a great collection of shapes and textures at the back gate. A simple charcoal sketch established the main shapes and a couple of very loose washes set up the tonal values
The first step was to lightly sketch the major shapes with a charcoal pencil. Thin strips of masking tape were then used to preserve the whites in the main gate. The foreground, background and most of the walls were washed in with a pale dirty yellow mixed from Quinacridone Gold with a little Alizarin and Ultramarine.
These same colors were modified slightly to build up textures and details in the washes. Once the first washes dried, darks were added around the focal area of the gate, then it was just a matter of adding color and detail. Finally the masking tape was removed. The plain washes on the right hand side looked a little uninteresting so a yellow tinted white gouache was splashed loosely over the area to break it up and add some variety.
A tranquil pond in Dunedin’s botanic gardens made a great subject with an oriental lantern and pavilion reflected in the calm water. This quick sketch was used to arrange all the elements within the rectangle of the painting. When doing these quick preliminary sketches it is important to keep the proportions the same as those of the paper you are painting on.
The white lantern and the red foliage made an interesting focal area The horizontal lines of the water and contrasting verticals of the large trees gave the painting a feeling of calm stability. A wash of Phthalo green mixed with some Phthalo Blue was applied to the water and taken up both sides of the painting to tie everything together. Immediately the blue/green wash was applied the edge was softened with a clean damp brush. This wash was put on after the painting had dried.
An old stone building in the old part of Cromwell provided an interesting collection of shapes and textures. The quick sketch is a great way to refine the negative shapes to create interest
For this painting color was reduced to mixtures of just Burnt Sienna and Indigo and impact came from tonal contrast.
The simple color arrangement suits the rustic nature of the buildings and is all that is needed to define the stone, timber and iron textures.
People in a painting always attract attention. The diners at the Fork and Tap Cafe in Arrowtown made an obvious focal point. This little sketch allowed me to shuffle around the shapes and maneuver the focal area into the best position.
The color here was kept very simple - warm foreground and building cool blue/gray sky then small patches of color in the figures. To relate the sky to the rest of the painting some patches of Phthalo Blue were put into the building and figures
Another Arrowtown Cafe. The composition was first shuffled around with a quick, fiber pen sketch.
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After some adjustment with a charcoal pencil, I washed in a rough idea of the color arrangement.
The first job was to lightly sketch out the composition. I applied thin strips of masking tape where the fence pickets cover the main figures. I wanted this area to have the maximum tonal contrast.
All the large, pale washes were applied then darks were cut around the figures and into the various windows. After a cup of coffee and some drying time, color and detail was put into the figures.
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My original plan to keep the sky a pale, dirty yellow made everything look too warm so, to provide some cool relief, I mixed a little Phthalo Blue into some white gouache, wet the sky and dropped it in.
A chilly morning painting at Cardrona Pub New Zealand
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Normally I don't use an easel when I paint on location.
I much prefer to have the paper flat on my lap but, when demonstrating, it is too hard for everyone to see what I;m doing
Plein air painting is a lot of fun. You must think and work quickly, but plan carefully. The rough thumbnail sketches really help sort out any potential problems before they arise. Don't consider the plans fixed in stone - allow yourself to deviate if you think it will improve your painting.
Although the little sketches are just a means to an end, they often have a loose, spontaneous quality to them that gives them an appealing simplicity and honesty. They can also be just a messy scrawl of charcoal. However they end up, they definitely give you a head start before you launch into a painting.
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Author : John Lovett
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