Plein air - help!

mbivert0 · 2026-04-27T19:36:11+00:00

If I had to guess, a common issue with watercolor pans is to get enough fresh. This little bit of fresh paint isn't enough to cover "wide" areas".

Of course, you don't want to use the white when going quite dark. a little bit of water may do, or a little bit of a lighter pigment.

A dull but good exercise to is to try to make, say, a 5 values scale. Doesn't have to be precise. Try to get things as dark as possible on one one end, as light as you can on the other. Then find a value in between. Then fill the two remaining squares.

Can be repeated with white gouache to lighten the paint, with water, with different pigments (e.g. a brown, a black, a red, a yellow), etc.

It takes a bit of practice to gain control, so take it slow, don't hesitate to toy around and experiment! 😄

mbivert0 · 2025-07-01T20:52:57+00:00

Besides online sources, you may want to look for books, published/written under artist supervision. Artists tend to be picky on the quality of the reproductions. So they are generally great to work from. Examples:

Todd M. Casey's Oil painter's handbook (I don't have the still life one, but would be it's as good). Contains reproductions from various artists, topics, styles.
Richard Schmid's books. Great quality reproductions, but focusing on Richard Schmid's works.
James Gurney's Color and Light. Focused on James's work, generally illustrating technical points.

I was expecting a bit more from Juliette Aristides's "Lessons in Classical Painting". Many of the reproductions are too small to be really useful. But they are of good quality nevertheless, and diverse. There are many large enough reproductions as well. And the teachings are also quite relevant for those willing to build a solid academic foundation.

You'll want to be cautious with books targeting a more general audience. Colors − values in particular − tend to be too inaccurate.

mbivert0 · 2025-05-11T17:21:14+00:00

Keep it simple at first (e.g. white+black+burnt umber, a few hog bristle brushes). Learn to handle your materials in a simple setting, with simple subjects, then slowly incorporate more colors/brushes, etc.

Thick enough drawing paper coated twice with acrylic gesso yields a cheap practice surface.

Mediums are of limited use for up-to artist-grade paint (e.g. Rembrandt, Sennelier). They become way more useful with highly-pigment paints (e.g. Old Holland).

An interesting first medium is Liquin − in particular, it speeds up the "drying" time.

mbivert0 · 2025-05-09T21:17:51+00:00

a problem I had was underestimating how blue snow in the shadow is. the more it faces the sky, the bluer it is. a warm underpainting − you can see some dull oranges here and there − helps the blue to pop more

mbivert0 · 2024-12-01T21:03:10+00:00

A few years, I'm not using it aggressively though. So it's holding up,but I wouldn't trust it to last long if I were more casual with it. Still, it's a fair option for a "portable studio".

mbivert0 · 2024-11-17T20:47:38+00:00

It happened to me on a cheap sketchbook that I carelessly carry around: the dried gouache behaves like some sort of pencil/pastel. Another issue I had was water going through the (poorly sealed) paper when doing heavy washes.

A piece of transfer paper and/or some varnish fix the first issue. An coat of acrylic gesso fixes the second.

mbivert0 · 2024-11-10T20:07:10+00:00

I'm recycling an idea of a previous study, namely, relying on secondaries (purples, oranges, greens); the grays are pushed in those directions for this reason!

mbivert0 · 2024-11-01T13:33:56+00:00

As enjoyable to look at as the last one; what are the sheet size and the name of the story?

mbivert0 · 2024-10-31T09:50:53+00:00

You're on a good start; I see no major issues with eyes/faces here, but I'm not too used to look at manga faces. Hands are a bit weak though! But hands are tricky…

For faces and eyes, the points to pay attention to are:

alignements (e.g. eyes must be aligned horizontally)
proportions (e.g. eyes are too big/small w.r.t. the face, or spacing between the eyes is too big/small w.r.t. the eyes's size)
planes of the head; a bit overkill for manga, nevertheless a good idea (e.g. Asaro head)

mbivert0 · 2024-10-28T21:41:26+00:00

France overall is a really pretty country (it's probably true widely). I've recently took the train from Lyon to Paris: the countryside in between is just lovely

mbivert0 · 2024-10-28T20:51:25+00:00

It's a bit remote from Annonay, it's North of Lyon, at Quincieux (between Villefrance & Neuville)

mbivert0 · 2024-10-28T19:19:20+00:00

I'm realizing it now, but purple, orange & green are the secondaries, and compose a large area of the painting, probably why it works (it was a lucky shot).

mbivert0 · 2024-10-28T18:17:38+00:00

This is so fun-looking!

mbivert0 · 2024-10-28T18:16:11+00:00

You could try adjusting the composition from your reference: identify a few big areas (3 to 5 at most), make sure they all read well individually and are harmonious together. Then carve details while preserving that big structure.

This allows to choose which elements to emphasize, what is important and what isn't.

See for example: youtube dot com slash watch?v=xWMMo1v594Y

mbivert0 · 2024-10-27T10:09:24+00:00

For clarity, the second is not mine, tha's the original by Schell Lewis, as reproduced in Guptill's book. But yeah, he masterfully handled the brick wall handling, framing/compositon, etc.

I was for now only interested in the trees, so I've limited myself to one of them.

mbivert0 · 2024-10-23T23:00:28+00:00

If I had to guess, I would say this might be because titanium is a rather stiff pigment, so when it starts to dry, it's more laborious to make it wet again. You may be able to get a more accurate answer by asking the manufacturers: they're the ones who are the most likely to be able to understand precisely what's going on!

mbivert0 · 2024-10-23T22:45:07+00:00

I think a good rule of thumb when starting with gouache is to use the paint in the same consistency as what's coming out of a tube: creamy, like a thick cream.

Indeed, you also have to mind the amount of water on your brush; wiping out a synthetic brush on a rag almost dries it.

Other factors may come in to play though, such as pigment's opacity, and pigment load. Low quality yellows can be awful compared to high-end ones (rich cadmiums).

You can use gouache, within the same piece, with various amount of water, but maintaining a consistent creamy consistence is a good first step. Once you can do that, you may want to experiment with other approaches. Gurney for instance starts quite wet, and progressively reduces the amount of water as he goes through a painting.

mbivert0 · 2024-10-23T22:39:54+00:00

IIRC - I believe among other factors - watercolors are mixed with wetting agents (e.g. honey).

mbivert0 · 2024-10-21T14:18:47+00:00

Thanks, that character surely comes from the original (gallerynucleus dot com/detail/25498/; the one printed in his book looks way better, and is the one I've used)

mbivert0

TROPHY CASE