Sunday, March 29, 2009

Early Morning plein-air painting




Went out early this morning to do a little plein-air painting. Even though it was raining and kinda dark there is still a mood to try to capture.

I like to start off in this spot at dawn because each beginning of the day is different. This spot allows you to get a little atmosphere in between the layers of the landscape. The light rain helped keep the background trees lighter in value than the trees on this side of the lake. This helps add depth to your paintings.

Constantly doing these outdoor sketches in all types of weather helps you learn about color,value and mood. Alot of the sketches are not worthy of a frame, but they do provide you with the information you need when it comes time to paint in the studio.

You can see the paintbox in action, it is small enough to sit on my lap inside the truck. Not a bad way to spend the morning if you like the outdoors.

1 comment:

Kym said...

What a wonderful way to start off the day....I will have to try that sometime...if I ever get up that early on a Saturday or Sunday! Thanks for the comments on the shadow shots as well! Have a great Sunday and thanks for sharing your work, I love it!