Outside In

How to successfully paint a bigger painting from a plein air study has always been a mystery to me.

I have learned a couple of things from D. Eleinne Basa – a wonderful plein air artist who taught a workshop that I was lucky enough to attend – that made it possible for me to finally do this.

1. Treat your plein air paintings as studies – information gathering exercises.
2. Don't mess with them when you get back to the studio.
3. Paint another painting to make improvements rather than re-working the original.
4. Don't look at the photos you probably took out there when you were painting. If you must look, change the image to greyscale on your computer and follow the color in your study.

There are good reasons for all of this. I have ruined so many potentially good works by trying to improve them back in the studio where the light is totally different. The photo I am looking at looks nothing like the real thing, and I am now confused about what I really saw out there.

For the past week, I have been working on a larger painting done from a small plein air piece, and this is the first time I have ever felt that I was successful.

I actually covered the study with plastic wrap so I could mix my colors and put a dab on the plastic to check my values, etc before applying them to the larger painting.

I did need to look at a photo, because I was painting a larger area of the landscape than I had done in the study and also was adding figures to the piece. But the greyscale image allowed me to keep my colors harmonious with the landscape I had originally painted.

Maybe these tips can help you achieve this out too!