Painting in the Wild
Plein Air watercolor painting secrets
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again! I secretly don’t love painting en plein air. When you take watercolor to the wild, all of her bad qualities are completely exaggerated. Drippy colors? Try painting a vertically on your lap. Muddy colors? How can you keep your colors clean when you’re mixing on a tiny palette and you have limited access to water? No undo button? Try capturing the world in movement when you can only add but can’t take away. My biggest frustration is that it’s destablizing when I’m fighting against my materials instead of getting lost in the creative process.
Nonetheless, as I lean into what makes me uncomfortable (hello drawing hands, feet & humans more!), the most important part of painting en plein air is having the right material set up that works for you and finding a place to sit down. Space is of the essence when you’re attaching all your gear onto a small drawing board. And I make a concious effort to draw the forms I see instead of the infinite amount of details. So here’s everything I know!
The best possible set up includes:
-A medium drawing board (format A3 minumum) big enough for your desired paper or sketchbook and all gear
-Watercolor paper or sketchbook. I lower my expectations by bringing cheaper watercolor paper or a sketchbook when I’m painting live.
-A method to attach all your gear. Metal drawing clips, velco, sticky tack. My friend, fellow illustrator and event artist Francesco Lo Iocano, uses velcro to keep his gear attached to his drawing board when he’s painting portraits live.
-A small travel set of watercolor paints including primary and secondary colors and black.
-An H pencil and a round watercolor brush
-Refillable watercolor brush? I have mixed feelings about these in general, but painting en plein air is the exception to the rule. These are brushes with a refillable cartridge for water. A gentle squeeze will squirt out some of the water so you don’t need to rinse as often. My issue with these is that if you’re not rinsing your brush regularly, your watercolor will become muddy and grey. And the plastic bristles are not soft and supple like a watercolor brush. Pack one along but be sure to have a vessel of water on your side so you can still rinse often.
-An old plastic water bottle. Watercolor is a game of transparency. Make sure you are using clean, transparent water. Faber-Castell makes a great collapsable water cup. Francesco likes to attach a very small jar of water to his drawing board for easy access and refreshes it with a bottle of water when needed.
-Palette. Use your watercolor kit’s built-in palette for mixing colors or pack a small plastic palette.
-Paper towels. A watercolorist’s best friend, I like to clip several under my watercolor paints to blot off excess color and to check my hues before applying them.
-A fold-able stool or a place to sit down. So much of creative work requires the stability of sitting down. And painting standing up will remind me of how many muscles you haven’t been using.
-Patience. I remind myself to intentionally lower my expectations of what I can do and practise more often. It’s the only way to get better at anything. Submit to the present moment and do what you can. And good on your for trying.
Take care, dear reader. And don’t drink the watercolor water.
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The closest I get to plein air is sitting at a table on the patio. Ha!