Swim Along With Me: Plein Air Painting
September 2024 Blog Post
Hello!! Welcome to Swim Along With Me. Each month, I’ll be making something different, and I’ll invite you to come on in for a glimpse at the process. This means, start to finish, photos and everything, you’ll see how I make. If your inbox truncates this post, click here to read it fully on substack.
Today, I’m going to be using a loose definition of what plein air entails. The term officially refers to “in the open air,” and is used to describe a painting session outdoors, capturing a landscape or natural subject. There’s definitely a lot of that in this post, but I’m also going to include any sort of drawing or painting from life—AKA illustrating what’s in front of you in real life, no matter the subject or setting. (Drawing from photos—which I do all the time—does not qualify).
My History With Plein Air
I’ve always thought of my relationship to plein air as being quite casual. I have a love/hate relationship. It’s a skill-builder—it’s good for me as a painter and illustrator to go out with my sketchbook and create from what I see. Sometimes I come out with pieces I really like, and always I learn something. But, it’s also super hard (and often inconvenient). I have to prep a limited number of supplies. I have to find places to sit. I (sometimes) have to interact with passerbys.
But when I began looking through my hard drive for old illustrations that might qualify, I found a lot of work. I’ve actually gone out and done this a lot more than I thought between 2020-2024. Let’s take a little walk down memory lane.
Every element of my work has changed so much since I made these drawings, and looking at them here really drives that point home for me! The top three are all done in Chicago (where I lived for 8 years), and the bottom three are on trips to MI, WI, and MT. These drawings (excepting the pencil), are done with markers and colored pencils layered together. I rarely use markers at all anymore, and you’ll also see that none of these pieces are made using actual paint.
Until recently, I didn’t have a set-up that allowed me to take paint on the go, so all of my paintings from life during these years are interiors.
Then, there’s trying to capture moving, living things from life which is a challenge all on its own.
While of course, a moving subject has time limitations, really, all of these pieces do. Light changes, weather comes, things move, time runs out. And, I think that characterizes the process. There’s no time to hem or haw, just time to put your tools to the page.
Of all the things I’m including in this category, by far, I’ve done the most figure drawing. My relationship to figure drawing skews a lot more toward love. I feel very confident in it, I can usually bring more supplies, and I get to sit at a table (which honestly makes a huge difference). My first figure drawing session was in college, though I don’t remember exactly when. The below scan is from 2017-2018 (PS: going through old sketchbooks like this is a combination of terrifying and beautiful—I feel that a post about it will soon be in order).
I liked it a lot from the beginning, and went to extracurricular sessions through my four years. Then, my senior year, I took a whole class on it which was really excellent (and the kind of course I wish my whole art education had been like!). Here are some figure drawings from this year (2024).
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This is my favorite kind of life drawing because it’s dynamic: challenging but accessible, freeing but grounded, foundational and exploratory!
Plein Air Paint with Me
But in this post, I wanted to take you along for a more traditional session of plein air painting. This year, Emilio modified a TV tray for me so that I can actually go out and paint the beautiful natural subjects that we live amongst. It’s a pretty simple but effective little set up (and cost approximately $20 instead of the $100+ that plein air easels do).
It folds up easily so I can take it on my back, has two removable side attachments for pencil storage and paint usage, and a nice little bar to rest my sketchbook on. Thanks, Emilio!
Today, we’re going to paint this giant Norway Maple in my yard. There are so many plein air subjects close to home.
First, I draw my subject with an erasable pink colored pencil, and then I add in some main lines with graphite. I have a palette of pre-mixed colors that stay relatively wet (and grow mold) that I use for all occasions like this. It is all Holbein traditional gouache, so it can be rewet with water.
One thing I particularly struggle with in this process is this paint. I have to use lots of water to make it workable, which ends up making the gouache behave more like watercolor. When I paint in my studio, I use much thicker, more opaque paint. So, in some ways, when I paint with this palette (every time I paint plein air), I have to develop a whole new workflow and end up relying a lot more on colored pencils.
In painting this tree, that meant going through with several washes of paint. I knew I wasn’t really going to paint a background (because of time limitations), so I just did a wash back there too.
I particularly struggled with getting richer color with the paints during this session, so I went to town with the colored pencils.
And here’s the beautiful old tree! Working from real life is the foundation of my illustration practice. Pictures are great and helpful and versatile, and I use them for reference a lot. But there is something about building that perspective directly on the page that is really special. Is this my favorite painting ever? No. Did I learn a bunch and sit outside and admire something beautiful? Sure did.
Thanks for swimming along!
Thank you for sharing the how, the why and the enjoyment!
Wonderful article! I’ve always been intimidated by plein air😬. Thank you for the step-by-step!!!