Home › Forums › Explore Subjects › Plein Air › From plein air study to studio: can I use different mediums?
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January 15, 2018 at 3:44 pm #449528
Hello everyone!
I started painting in oils. I took a few in-studio workshops and I paint mostly from photographs. I have never done any plein air painting but I have done the odd plein air sketch in graphite along with taking a few photos of the landscape I was studing. I feel I am missing out on the beautiful aerial perspective by not using colors. I want to get into plein air studies but I don’t want to pack my oils. Could I actually do studies in just water colors, or maybe in water color pencils, or even with good quality coloring pencils and then take it all in the studio to paint it in oils? Thank you!
Diane Fleming:)
January 15, 2018 at 3:51 pm #546292Of course you can use watercolor. It used to be the sketch medium of choice for color. However, it is now a recognized fine arts medium. I do all of my plein air paintings in w/c. Just pack everything in a back pack…travel palette, brushes, bottle of water ( unless going to the beach!), a small container, collapsible or otherwise, paper towels, and normally a block of paper in the size I want. It all packs quite well.
Bonnie Lou Williams
January 15, 2018 at 6:56 pm #546293James Gurney has several quick demo’s on watercolors plein air on his blog.
http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/search/label/Watercolor%20Painting
He has a DVD as well: “Watercolors in the Wild.”
He also has digitized some of his watercolor sketch books. Check out his blog.
"Painting is a verb"
January 16, 2018 at 4:53 pm #546296Thank you fellow painters for your info.
Diane Fleming:)
January 18, 2018 at 3:03 pm #546294You most certainly can, but you can also do oils outdoors too. Many of my plein air group do that and have no trouble. They have their pochade or French easel setups equipped specifically for this purpose.
Obviously, plein air painting alla prima requires quick work, so you do have to know how to adapt your oils to that, but you can always finish the painting indoors afterwards as well.
Frankly, if you are comfortable with watercolor go for it. If you have ever or never tried acrylics, then you might want to do that. BTW, you can paint oils over acrylics, though not the other way around, so you could start outdoors in acrylics and finish in oils in your studio.
Plein air is lots of fun.January 18, 2018 at 4:06 pm #546297Thank you Bartc. I have tried my oils outdoor (my backyard) a couple of times this past summer. I plan to venture out of my yard next summer to do some sketching and taking photos. I would like to sketch in color on some paper or in a sketchbook and then take it all back to the studio to paint it on canvas; that’s why water colors sounded good but I would have to learn to use them properly and that could take some time as well. I want to pack light because I will have to walk or hike for a bit to get nice landscapes and vistas. I see there are small pochades that would fit my camera tripod which I use all the time with my camera. I could give it a try and if I don’t like carting all the extras for oil painting (mediums) then I could always get some water color pans to try. I’m just trying to keep the expenses down. Maybe the online Classifed will turn up something not too expansive… I appreciate your input! Thanks again! Diane.
Diane Fleming:)
January 19, 2018 at 7:53 pm #546291Sure, why not? Have fun, Dave
January 22, 2018 at 10:52 am #546295Thank you Bartc. I have tried my oils outdoor (my backyard) a couple of times this past summer. I plan to venture out of my yard next summer to do some sketching and taking photos. I would like to sketch in color on some paper or in a sketchbook and then take it all back to the studio to paint it on canvas; that’s why water colors sounded good but I would have to learn to use them properly and that could take some time as well. I want to pack light because I will have to walk or hike for a bit to get nice landscapes and vistas. I see there are small pochades that would fit my camera tripod which I use all the time with my camera. I could give it a try and if I don’t like carting all the extras for oil painting (mediums) then I could always get some water color pans to try. I’m just trying to keep the expenses down. Maybe the online Classifed will turn up something not too expansive… I appreciate your input! Thanks again! Diane.
Watercolor pencils work great. YOu don’t even need the expensive variety for what you’re considering; student grade is fine too.
Derwent makes wonderful ones, including their Inktense line if you want saturation and ink-like stability, and they also make colored graphite pencils. Easy to take this and some heavy paper out there for starters onto which you can graft your oils. If you do any of these, invest in a “water brush” too. All in all, you can do this for about $20-35 depending on quality. For cheap starts you can just do General watercolor pencils.
Beauty of this is that you don’t have to really learn watercolor to do this, assuming you already know how to draw.
January 22, 2018 at 3:16 pm #546298[ATTACH]853831[/ATTACH]Thanks again Bartc for taking the time to reply. The day after your first reply, a friend gave me a used box of 12 Staedtler Karat watercolor pencils and a 4″x6″ pad of watercolor paper (postcard). What a nice friend! I tried out a few mixtures and I am very impressed. I will absolutely give it a try for a field sketch. I like your idea of color graphite pencils and will do a bit more research on the various colors I can get. Here’s a picture of the few mixtures I tried. Thanks again and I will post a pic when I get a sketch done.
Diane Fleming:)
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