Category Archives: general

These drawings that I do for my Basic Drawing Skills class are kind of a specialized branch of my art and I am now putting all things that are intended to supplement my classes in my new Teaching Blog.  This is the last time that I will list them in this more general Art Blog as well as the Teaching Blog.

Also I have just up loaded a video to the Teaching Blog that details the entire process for shading this portrait.  If you are interested check it out.

This is a plein air painting (on location) I did yesterday at my favourite painting spot of late, Currie Barracks.  I did 85% of it on location and just darkened some of the values when I got home.

I’m very pleased with it because once again it shows restraint (this is starting to become a habit).  It was a day when there was not a lot of sun so the shadows were subdued.  I feel the painting has very accurately captured that particular light.  There is a unity to the light that really came from working on location with a lot of squinting to analyze the relationships between the values.

In terms of changes I would make before using this image in a studio painting I would like to change the shape of the tree on the left.  Even though it’s fairly accurate it’s an odd shape.  I also think I would like to zoom in more on the little entrance room and the surrounding windows maybe even losing the roof entirely.

I’ve been touting the benefits of doing plein air painting in my regular sketch book because it’s so convenient.  This time I used arches 140 lb cold press paper because I wanted to get a more finished look while on location because that’s where the magic happens.

This is another image from Currie Barracks.  I’m very pleased with this.  It was a very complicated scene with all the leafy shadows and a lot of similar values except for the door and the trees.  I think that I captured the shadows giving the sense of complication but actually fairly simple.  I also love the door.  I think my technique really captured the shadows and detail of the door again without going over board.

This is the second painting in a row where I felt that I painted with much more restraint than usual.  I remember noticing as I painted that there was a certain calmness and a slower developing of the darker values.  I added just a touch of gouache at the end for some of the branches and some of the lighter bars on the door.

Currie Barracks – The Entrance
watercolour
9 X 12

This is the latest version of this scene.  I think I was able to exercise more restraint than usual so there is a lighter feel to it.  The composition is much better with the main idea (the people against the dark windows) being much more prominent.

My Favorite Ice Cream Shoppe
watercolour with white gouache
16 X 12

I received a comment the other day from Richard in Texas asking me to explain a little bit about my plein air process and value studies.  Since this is something that I have fairly strong feelings about, I’m happy to do it.

I thought I would use the example of a recent painting that I’ve worked on (and continue to work on).  It’s a scene of one of Calgary’s iconic stores “My Favorite Ice Cream Shoppe”.

The first thing I should mention is that I have about 5 formats that I use 90% of the time for my paintings: 18 X 24, 30 X 24, 30 X 12, 20 X 30 and square,  so I have made little cardboard templates in these various formats.  So when I work plein air I start by tracing whichever template seems the best choice and then sketch in that format.  This first image is just a sample of 3 of these templates.  The largest is about 3″ long.

Unless I’m just collecting information where I just want to record some details I think it’s important to decide on the format that I want to use very early in the painting process.

Now on to the actual painting.

The first image is the  scene from the angle that I was viewing it.

The first aspect of plein air painting is that as some artists have mentioned, ‘usually nature is wrong’.  By this they mean that nature often does not have the elements arranged in the best composition.  I think that is the case here.  I really liked the awnings, the colourful wall and the tall sign but having the sign so separate from the building didn’t work for me.  Also I had a conflict because I kind of fell in love with the colourful wall yet I couldn’t really have it featured and also feature people at the front.  So I did a thumbnail sketch on site and changed the elements around to get a better composition.  Unfortunately I didn’t have my paints or even a sketch book with me so I did this initial thumbnail in a little notebook I did have.

This was my first attempt to put the elements together.  I’m coming to believe more and more that in plein air painting you look at the scene as just a collection of shapes and you take those shapes and use them to create a composition.  (I used to look for the perfect composition which is frustrating or worse I just painted what was there as it was.)

Next I took this thumbnail and did a larger value study.

This is the same format but quite a bit larger.  I really liked this composition and I thought it would be a very nice painting.

This is the first painting I did.  It’s fairly close to the value study except that the trees are probably too dark.  Since I’ve already posted this painting I just need to comment that it received a lot of reaction, approximately 50-50 good and bad.

In any case it wasn’t the painting that I felt it could be.  I still think there is a really good painting to be had from this scene so  . . .

next I went back to my little thumbnails to work on it some more.

I also played with the format.

And that is where I’m at right now.  I am in the process of doing an 18 X 24 painting but I still find that I’m tweaking the composition.  I think the most relevant comment has been to make the painting about what it’s about and that is probably the people in front of the building so I think I’ll follow that direction.  I think the second last thumbnail comes closest to this idea.  I’ll post that painting when it’s done.

I hope this gives you some idea of how I see the plein air process, at this point in my art journey.