Outdoor…. En Plein Air

This is what my last morning on vacation looked like.  Gorgeous and not too hot…yet.



So….I grabbed my chair and supplies and thought I’d try some En Plein Air.



I have got SO much to learn about this.  I should call it plain air.



After about an hour, it was getting plenty hot.  I had only gotten this far.



What I hear from people who do this type of drawing is…it’s ok to take the picture only so far, that we don’t have to FINISH the piece in the same setting.



Since I no longer had my visual reference I just made things up as I went along.  I had wanted to do really bright colorful boats and houses…hence the pink sailboat. 

Does anyone else do this type of painting?  Do you have any plein air suggestions?  Sites?

The Fly….Redundant

This post is redundant…because the pictures aren’t going to be that different.  No Big Time changes going on….all little tweaks!! 



Trying to maintain water consistency as seen in the background.  Increased shading to the cap and the face.



Lane line time.  Totally ad-libed this.  Only after I started to color it in on top of the watercolor base did I notice I didn’t give the lane lines much perspective.  As in…..the alternating colors getting closer as they go into the distance.  Ugh!



Lots of shadows on the arms in the photograph. 



Toned down the right arm here….bringing in said shadows.  Not sure if I like it….I think the camera and lighting isn’t showing the drawing accurately.  Built up a lot of the water background.  Need to show some choppiness…..don’t know how yet!

The Fly….Takes Form

My absolute favorite thing to draw….is swimmers!   I almost didn’t attempt this picture…because it’s so wide…..and it’s hard to see the details in the body.  But my Art teacher really liked the composition which encouraged me.



I want to do this right….so I put the watercolor pencils away and re-acquainted myself with those beloved colored pencils.



It’s like coming home!!  Drawing on this illustration board is sweet, paper type makes a huge difference!



I plan on doing the water in watercolor.  The initial bottom layer of the figure was a watercolor wash.  Much faster working with a wash than starting off with colored pencil as the base.  Thumbs up for that trick