Tip: Quick-Start Plein Air Painting

Perhaps the greatest struggle when painting plein air is dealing with the changing light (including, shadow shifts, passing and thickening clouds, and so forth). For this reason, I particularly enjoyed Michael Chesley Johnson's article in the March 2013 Artist's Magazine entitled How to Start a Plein Air Painting.

His basic premise is that you must move quickly to capture the overall layout of the paint before the lighting begins to change. After that, you can relax somewhat and paint without being so rushed. Here is what he has to say:

"Once you've finished the thumbnail sketch, you should take no more than 30 minutes to transpose the sketch to your canvas and create the underpainting - no matter whether your canvas is 9x12 inches or 24x30 inches  The underpainting fixes in place shadow patterns and thus, the design. It's the 'snapshot' from which you should hesitate to vary."

After you have fixed the lighting for your composition, you can more leisurely adjust shapes, colors and edges, and adding details where needed.

Here are illustrations of the three key steps that must be completed quickly for a successful and less stressful plein air session (Michael labeled these steps as 4, 5 and 6 respectively):

Create a thumbnail sketch that captures the scene with no more than four values.

Transpose the design to the canvas capturing the major shapes and key landmarks.

Then, underpaint the shapes with the average value and color temperature of each.

Once Michael is to this point he says, "... I step back and review what I've done. I can take my time now because I've established the pattern of light and shadow as well as the color temperature of the shapes. The scene will continue to change as I paint, but from this point, I'll be referring to the scene only for details."