Plein Air Demo Step by Step

My Setup:

I use a homemade pochade box and camera tripod.  All my supplies except the tripod pack into an Osprey (from REI) 22” carryon that can be wheeled, carried or used as a back pack.   My tripod straps to the back of it.  The carryon fits under airline seats and is very durable.   There are plenty of straps on it to attach other equipment.  The wheels work well if the ground is not too rough and it’s relatively comfortable on your back for short hill climbs.

                         

Here is a photo of all the stuff in my carryon:

My Palette:

I currently use Michael Harding, Gamblin, Sennelier, and Holbein oil colors.   My solvent is Gamsol from Gamblin and my medium is Galkyd-lite from Gamblin.  I am using a split-primary palette with all transparent warm and cool primary colors.   I also have a dark neutral tinting color, mid-value blue, neutral and warm grays, plus titanium buff and Gamblin’s Quick Dry White.

Here are the  6 colors:

                       

Here are the 5 grays and the white:

 

Palette Layout:

Here is the layout of my palette with the colors and grays on a Palette Garage paint holder (from Best Brella) in my pochade box:

My palette from left to right has the following tube colors on the tray:  Bright Yellow Lake, Yellow Lake, Napthol Red, Crimson Lake, Ultramarine Blue (all from Michael Harding), Indigo Hue (Sennelier), Neutral Tint  (Sennelier), Blue-grey (Sennelier), Grey of Grey (Holbein), Warm Grey (Sennelier), Titanium Buff (Sennelier).  On the palette below the tray is Quick Dry White from Gamblin (titanium white).

You don’t need these exact colors, brands, or even all transparent colors.   You can work with just 3 primaries but the split-primary (warm/cool of each primary color) allows more vivid secondary and tertiary color mixing.   There are many different tube grays available as well.  They can all be mixed from your primary colors and white.   Having them on the palette speeds up the painting process by cutting down color mixing time.   It also helps when the palette surface is smaller (as with a pochade box) by reducing the number of times that you have to clean off an area on the palette to mix clean colors.

Materials Used for Composition and Sketch:

1) Digital Camera with removable memory card (SDHC), iPad Camera Connection Kit (Apple $29.00):

2)  iPad with camera card in camera connector and reference photo loaded:                        

3) Value Viewer App (App Store from iTunes $4.99):                    

This app is inexpensive, very intuitive and easy to find help on.   It converts your painting to a grayscale image and two or three value Notans.   It will use any photo on your iPad (it also works on the iPhone) or will actually take a photo with your iPad that you can use.   You can crop, widen or narrow your value contrast and brighten and darken the values as well as size it to your canvas, add a grid and save your work on the iPad.   The app developer, Mark Putnam, is married to a well know plein air artist (Lori Putnam).  You do need to understand Notans and Value massing to use it to your best advantage.

4) Pastel Pencils and canvas panel:  This panel came with acrylic priming; I added a coat of Gamblin oil ground because I prefer oil priming.  I use Stabilo pastel pencils—don’t use regular art (wax) pencils.  Colors don’t matter that much, but will mix with the paint.   Violet colors work best for me.

   

Step 1

Shoot photo reference and transfer memory card from your camera to the iPad connector and insert the connector in the connection port on your iPad.   It will ask you what photos you want to download.  This is the one I selected and downloaded.

 

Open up the downloaded photo in Value Viewer and turn it into a 3 value Notan with gridlines covering it and size it to your painting panel (in this case 11” by 14”).  Here’s the 3 value Notan in Value Viewer:

                 

Step 2:

Sit in the shade (sitting in your car works well or sit under a tree, etc).  Put your painting panel on your lap and your iPad showing your reference photo beside you.  Sketch onto the panel your 3 value Notan.   I use two different pastel pencils here—one for the mid-dark value shapes (blue violet) and the other for the mid-light value shapes (light red violet).  I cross hatch the areas for the mid-darks and mid-lights and leave the mid values with no marks.  This takes about 5 to 10 minutes.  Now set your easel up right where you took the picture you selected so that you have the same view.

 

Step 3:

Block in the mid-darks with a little Galkyd-lite (Alkyd medium from Gamblin) and Gamsol (OMS from Gamblin mixing a dark color from your cool red, warm blue and warm yellow – this looks like a blue violet and it should be very transparent. Use a large bristle brush and don’t worry about brushstrokes, but don’t make the paint so thin that it runs down the panel.  Next block in the mid-values with the same pigments but mixed to a burnt orange or golden ochre hue; again keep it transparent.  Last, the mid-lights are blocked in with the same thin orangey color as the mid values and but after a few minutes they are wiped back with a cloth or paper towel to just leave a warm toned stain on the canvas.   Wipe out any lighter areas within your mid value masses, but leave the darks alone.   Now let the paint set up for a few minutes while you get out all your other gear and oil colors. Here’s how it will look.

Step 4:

 

Now that your “imprimateur” has tacked up and may even be dry to the touch, you will restate all your darks with color variegation and some Galkyd-lite in the mix (but no Gamsol).   Use the same colors as before with addition of other colors for the variegation and without any detail, but refine the shapes.  Again, don’t worry about brushstrokes or evenly covering everything.  Keep your shapes abstract and the edges a little blurry, but get the canvas covered.   Here’s how it should look now.  Notice that the darks are a purple color.  This will go well with your greens and is much warmer than a blue hue would be.

Step 5:

Next, lay in your mid values using the same colors you mixed before for your “burnt orange” but with added titanium white or buff titanium to lighten and opaque it.  Variegate your mid value masses and liberally add in your warm and cool grays as foils for your color with splashes of higher chroma colors where you see them.  Again no detail.   Your paint will be thicker than in the darks and much more opaque.   Also keep your edges blurry and bring them right up to your darks.  Now your painting should look like this:

Step 6:

Paint in the sky and water now.  For both, I use the gray blue from Sennelier as a starter.   Alternatively, you could mix this color from titanium white and ultramarine blue and add a little warm red and warm yellow to gray it, but this takes more time and the gray blue out of the tube is real easy to start with.  To variegate the tube color, I can add titanium white, titanium buff, warm and cool grays, ultramarine blue, indigo blue and reds and yellows to get any mid-light blue hues that I want.   Keep the sky lighter than the water unless there is a lot of glare on the water (early morning, late afternoon with a low angle of the sun).  Use a large brush and Galkyd-lite with a little Gamsol for this initial lay in of your lights.  This paint will be more opaque than your darks.  Again don’t worry about brush strokes; you will be restating both the sky and the water with thicker paint.  And no detail yet.  Now you are going to let things tack up a bit for about 15 minutes.  This is a good time to clean up your palette, wipe and rinse some brushes, take a few photos, hydrate yourself, have a snack and look at what your friends are painting.   You have now completely covered the panel with your underpainting.   This is what is called the “ugly phase” in plein air painting.   Step back and take a good look at your painting.  It should look pretty good and not “ugly” at all from 6 to 8 feet back from the easel.  Here’s how it will look now:

Step 7:

Finish your sky with Galkyd-lite added to your paint to make it flow or with no medium at all if the flow is OK without it.  Keep the sky lighter and warmer at the horizon and cooler and darker overhead.  Keep your brush work nice and loose with random brush strokes, and variegate the sky colors from warm to cool blues.  Paint into the mountain edges a little so that you add some sky color into the mountain edges. Then finish off your water with horizontal strokes and add any reflections with vertical strokes.  Your water should be lighter and less saturated (grayer) in the distance and warmer and darker in the foreground.  Next clean up your mid value and mid-dark shapes and make sure that your value structure stays intact (don’t put too many mid values in your mid-darks or too many mid-darks in your mid value masses).  Soften edges particularly in the distance and fill in areas where there is little or no paint.  Step back again 6 to 8 feet to see how the painting is looking and what you will have to fix in the final step.  Still you have not put in all that much detail; you have mostly cleaned up your shapes and edges.  Here’s how the painting will look now:

Step 8:

You are nearly done and you can finish everything now or back in the studio.   Detail out the painting by putting in hard edges and softening other edges, particularly away from the focal point.   Negative paint to define structures.   Work all over the canvas as you see things that need refining.  Use thick paint with no Gamsol and without any Galkyd-lite unless they are needed to thin the paint to lay a stroke over very wet paint.   Remember that the underlying paint can seep into the paint you are applying and change its hue and value.   Do not move the paint around too much or you will make mud.   Just try to very lightly lay paint off your brush or palette knife onto the surface of the still drying paint layer beneath.  Finally sign the painting and put it aside for awhile.   You might see some more areas to touch up as you look at it indoors.  When it is completely dry you can “oil it out” by applying Galkyd-lite to the whole painting and wiping it back with a cloth or paper towel about 10 minutes later.   Here is the final painting, signed in the studio and with only a few minor tweaks before taking this photo:

I have titled the painting “Richardson’s Bay Marsh”.   It was painted from under the US 101 bridge over Richardson’s Bay; the City of Mill Valley is in the background.  The water is brackish and there are a lot of shore birds in the area.   Mt. Tamalpais in the background and most of the lower hills are heavily wooded with oak, madrone, eucalyptus and redwood forests.  Mt. Tamalpais is the highest point in Marin County and third highest in the San Francisco Bay area. 

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Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on June 23, 2014 at 20:09
Thanks Ann. I am getting quite a bit more confident in using Value Viewer for my plein air painting while "on the road" here in Cedarburg, WI. The strong 3 value (mid-light, middle value, and mid-dark) massing of values gives a very strong start to any painting. I got the app for my iPad several years ago, but I just had not yet acquired the level of design skill for my plein air work that I now have (no substitute for brush miles). I am now going into my 6th day in the Cedarburg Plein Air Festival with 9 paintings so far and every one of them done with the technique described in my blog and using my iPad and Value Viewer. I never would have gotten this far and had this much confidence without Richard's workshops and Johannes' webinars. Keep learning and do come up to Marin one Saturday this Summer; Laura is sure hooked on it! Stu
Comment by Ann Turner on June 23, 2014 at 10:41

Hi Stu, I just noticed this blog from someone referencing it,so I found it. Thank you for all the information. I would like to get the value set up to use in plein air with my ipod. I am also interested in trying those ready made greys. They look like a great time saver. I am enjoying your posts. Lots of learning going on there. Enjoy !

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on June 20, 2014 at 17:11
Thanks Dor. Stu
Comment by Dorian Aronson on June 20, 2014 at 17:01

Stu I am honored to be in your company!  Beautiful painting, wonderful instructions, you are the best!  Smiles to you.................

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on June 12, 2014 at 16:46
Thank you all for your kind compliment. Jon, Sennilier has a lot of colors that others don't and I really like Michael Harding's paints. Steinunn, yes the carryoniiî is pretty heavy.
Comment by Silvana M Albano on June 12, 2014 at 14:22

Wow! You are so organized!!!! I need more time to read all well... But the painting is great and yje gear too! Now,where do you put your painting in oils? Iam still learning on how to deal with them at home,as not to get anything dirty... I can't imagine it in a car...!!!

Comment by Laura Xu on June 12, 2014 at 14:20

Wow, Stu... this is very nice! It definately will help us to see value better and process painting. Thanks Stu for sharing the information.

Comment by Steinunn Einarsdottir on June 12, 2014 at 8:20

It is a wonderful painting, looks like being late in the evening.

Comment by Steinunn Einarsdottir on June 12, 2014 at 8:14

Thank you for sharing this with us Stu, your Ospray bag must get quite heavy with all those important items.  I enjoyed how you showed us your process.  I can see that I will have to safe up for one of those iPad and adaptor, what clever gadgets.  

Comment by Jessica Futerman on June 12, 2014 at 7:56

Great to see this process, Stu - thanks for all the work you put into it; it's very clear & interesting.

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