3 Steps to Transform Your Plein Air Paintings Today
It definitely takes time to become a good plein air painter. Time spent getting comfortable with your materials and all the challenges that come with painting outdoors.
However, there are three small changes you can make right now that will add up to big improvements in the quality of your plein air paintings.
These are the 3 small changes that I have personally made to transform my plein air paintings:
Warm up your palette
Compress your values
Increase your key
STEP 1 Warm up your palette
We gravitate toward warmth. Unfortunately, the blues and greens in the landscape can lean a painting toward the cooler end of the spectrum. Although the cooler colors might be closer to what is seen on location, the final painting lacks the warmth that draws the viewer in.
Be mindful of this on location and warm up your colors. I warm mine with Vasari’s permanent bright red. Be careful, a little dab'll do you as it has impressive strength.
As you see in the images below, both are nice paintings, however the one on the right is warmer and the warmer scene draws viewers in.
2. Compress your values
Limiting your value range immediately strengthens your plein air painting.
If you notice below, I have a black and white reference along with the values of the sky, ground, uprights and darkest dark. Each plane of the landscape has its own value and the value of each plane is limited to that specific area.
For example, keep the value of the sky only in the sky and don’t place that value in the ground or uprights. Keep the values of the ground to the ground and don’t bring them into the uprights.
There also isn’t a large value jump from each area. Keeping the values close (compressed) produces a compelling painting.
3. Increase your Key
I had the tendency to paint daytime paintings too dark. The sky is too dark, the ground is too dark and everything looks just a bit amateur.
Painting the landscape lighter in value (in a higher key) dramatically helps create a landscape that is believable and compelling.
The overall key of the painting is primarily less than 5 on the scale. This keeps the painting light(er).
You can also see the compression of the values to the 2 - 7 range. In fact the darkest dark is only in one spot on the painting making most of this landscape compressed between the 2 - 5 range.
Conclusion
I hope that these 3 steps can immediately improve your plein air paintings. I’d love to see and hear how implementing them has worked for you. I invite you to share your progress in the comments below.
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