Painting: Plein Air II - Choosing a Location

Choosing a plein air painting site can be a rather challenging task.  Even if you know exactly what you want to paint, picking the best vantage point can still be difficult.  And of course, there will be times when practicality will have to trump vantage point.  But the importance of a good location can not be understated.  So let’s take a look at choosing a good plein air location.

Georgia O'Keefe, Radiator Building at Night - New York, 1927

Painting: Brush Control

It’s easy to go online and find all sorts of suggestions for what brushes to use, why one is better than another, what effects you can achieve with a certain type of brush, etc.  What you don’t see are instructions on how to hold your brushes.  This has an equally large impact on your painting, but because it seems like a common sense thing, it’s rarely mentioned.  So today we’ll take a look at different ways of holding your brushes and the results you will get from each.

John Sloan, McSorley's Bar, 1912

Painting: Plein Air, Part I - Supplies

Plein Air or En Plein Air is a French term which translates to “in the open air.”  This refers to paintings done outdoors.  There are a great many advantages to leaving your studio behind and going out to paint.  But this also presents a lot of challenges.  The right supplies are necessary to having success as a plein air painter.  Today we’ll take a look as what you’ll need to begin working outdoors.

Thomas Cole, View from Mt. Holyoke - The Oxbow, 1836

Drawing: The Eyes, Part I

Whether drawing or painting a portrait, the eyes are the most important feature.  This is because they will always stand out as the focal point on the face.  It’s where we look first.  They’re also the most complex of the facial features, making them both the most important and the most difficult feature to draw.  As a result, I’ve divided the introduction to drawing the eyes into two parts.  In Part I we’ll look at the basic shapes and positioning of the eye.

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self Portrait in a Cap, 1630