The Plein Air Challenge, 1/25/2003
keith o'connor (tinmangallery.com
pastel for quick outdoor colour sketching and watercolour for the studio.
Clamed it to be more efficient than working out doors in watercolour.
--
take care: Keith
The eye should not be lead where there is nothing to see.
Robert Henri - The Art Spirit
dkra <pottedme...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:pottedmeatproduct...@user-2ivfn0o.dialup.mindspring.com..
.
> x-no-archive: yes
>
> The task at hand was to do some sketches/subjects in Old Town Sacramento.
> So off I went, with too much stuff crammed loose and rattling in my
> backpack:
> some metal clips
> three nested plastic rinse basins for clipping onto the edge of a palette
> three boxes of pan paints (Winsor & Newton 12-half-pan with bottle, Blockx
> 24-half-pan, and a big Schmincke box filled with assorted half and full
> pans, various brands)
> a few brushes: Simmons oval mop, Winsor & Newton Cirrus sable 1-inch
> flat, Winsor & Newton Series 7 No. 4 sable, and a medium hake
> a flip-top 2 oz. water bottle
> paper towels and tissue, for blotting
> a thin metal paper archivist's tool, for scraping
> an Arches sketchbook containing 15 rag sheets, 140-lb. weight
> my bound sketchbook
>
> I didn't feel I had "enough" with me, so stopped at an art supply store
> when I got there (Art Ellis Art Supplies at 25th & J, a nice little
> independent store with helpful staff). There I picked up an extra
> Schmincke half-pan, a frisket knife, and a cheap pad of watercolor paper
> (Beau-Belle brand, never heard of it) since I wanted to save the
> sketchbook for later.
>
> Getting around town on foot had take a bite out of my day, and I had
> little time left before I had to leave. I finally settled in at a bench
> overlooking the river and began to set out my supplies. It was difficult
> to find a bench that wasn't encrusted with bird poop. Out came the
> Schmincke box (the colors look so much brighter in direct sunlight), the
> 1-inch sable flat, the Series 7 no. 4 round, and the hake. I squirted
> some water into the box's mixing basins and clipped on the rinse basin
> (this was clumsy) and filled it with some water from the drinking water
> bottle I'd also bought.
>
> My subject was the M Street Bridge, so magnificently yellow in the
> mid-afternoon winter sunlight.
>
> The first thing was to dampen the paper in preparation for some wet-on-wet
> cloud work. The paper dried rather quickly. Drat. OK, start sketching
> the bridge itself. For the towers and suspension cables, nickel azo
> yellow plus a touch of phthalo green, burnt umber, cobalt. Now for the
> clouds: cobalt, Indian red, burnt umber, a touch of phthalo green here,
> permanent rose there. Pause. A bit of cerulean blue for the clear sky
> gaps. Good. OK. Burnt umber, cobalt, phthalo green, Indian Red for the
> river water. Brush dry with the hake brush to spread it out a bit. Most
> work was with the 1-inch sable flat. Detail work on the bridge added
> later with the Series 7 No. 4 round.
>
> The sketch was reasonably satisfactory. Next time I hope to allow more
> time and be more productive.
>
> One never knows what one needs until one starts actually working. What I
> found out today:
> I need a more organized bag for my art stuff.
> I like to work standing up.
> An easel would be nice to have.
> Working wet-on-wet: have a spray bottle handy to keep the action going!
> If you want to preserve that nice black enamel surface on your paint box,
> either put a protective cover on the box, or please wrap up those metal
> clips and keep them _separate_ from the paint box. If you pack them in
> loose, they'll bang the enamel off of the box in no time flat.
> Sable brushes are very, very good. You don't have to work hard to load
> them with pigment and release it quickly onto the paper.
> If working with pan paints, go for the _full_ pans, preferably the
> semi-moist paint formula. I kept reaching for the Yarka pans and some
> Daniel Smith I'd poured myself. I need to buy some Schmincke full pans
> because (unlike Yarka) at least Schmincke labels its products with pigment
> content.
> It is good to work in natural light. Do so as much as possible.
> Seek out and support your local independent art supply dealer, especially
> if he/she has been in the same location for 30+ years. He/she is a source
> of excellent information as well as supplies. Avoid the large, soulless
> chain stores whose staff has a short institutional memory and which
> carries a limited range of supplies.
> Nickel azo yellow (Daniel Smith, also available from Schmincke as
> Translucent Yellow) is a wonderful, versatile, two-toned stain yellow.
> Winsor & Newton Cerulean Blue is very good and works well in a sky wash.
> I brought too much material in terms of paint. Next time I'll bring only
> the Schmincke box and just two brushes (sable, of course).
> _Don't_ try drying your sketch on the hand dryer in the ladies' bathroom
> unless you want paint streaked all over the place. ;-)
>
> -- dkra
>
> --
> dkraatmmiiidotixdotnetcomdotcom
> [Subtract two thousand and (one plus two), plus the "." of course.]
Roy L. Ballou
scot...@rogers.com says...
>
>Early 20th century English plein air artist J. Littlejohns recommended
>pastel for quick outdoor colour sketching and watercolour for the studio.
>Clamed it to be more efficient than working out doors in watercolour.
But is it as much fun?? Oil pastels or colored
pencils (Prisma or Conte or whatever) would be
my thought, but my CHOICE is a French easel and
oil paints with all the messiness and "fun" that
implies - keeping nats and flies out of the fresh
paint, to say nothing of blowing debris. Then
there is the fun of trying to keep everything
shaded in a sunny clime like I live in. And the
real fun when the whole affair blows over or the
wind carries the canvas or board away. Tests
ones reaction time and "laugh quotient." And
then there is the fun of putting it all away and
transporting it safely home when the sun sets...