Some Plein Air Tips

After working with new plein air painters over the past couple of years I've found the following tips to be helpful.
Bringing order out of chaos
Painting out of doors can be overwhelming. There is just too much "stuff" in front of you to make a good painting. Your first job is to simplify by eliminating all extraneous details and items.

• Determine what your focal point (centre of interest) will be. (You determine this, not the scene. It's your painting!)
  
• Using a cropping tool (or your hands) to tightly focus in on your focal point.
• Gradually move your cropping tool back to take in more of the scene until you find the best crop. Keep in mind to position your focal point in one of four sweet spots.
• Now it's time to make a value sketch. Limit yourself to 3 or 4 values. Block in the major shapes. Don't bother with details. Concentrate on the major shapes. (Do a small, quick sketch, around 2" x 3", don't waste time on anything bigger.)
  
• Analyze your sketch. Do you have a good composition? Do your lines and shapes lead your eye to the focal point? Are there any "problems" that should be fixed?
• If you find problems, figure out how to fix them. Can they be fixed, or should you move on to a different scene? Your value sketch is the place to find and fix your scene. If the sketch is not right, you can't "fix it in the painting".
• Transfer your sketch to your painting surface. As you do this, look at your sketch, not the scene. If you start looking at the scene instead of your sketch, you're in danger of getting sucked into the details.

Now you're ready to begin filling in your large shapes with your underpainting.

This is a shot of a typical scene.

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This is a crop of the same scene focusing on a focal point.

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Here is a thumbnail sketch of the scene. I decided I wanted the mountain to show up in the scene so i moved it right. I also wanted more of the tower to show, so I shortened it.

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This is the final plein air painting.

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