Plein Air Diary: Days 3-6 finally made it outside!! + using watercolor + I need to upgrade my setup lol

hey guys! here's another update to my plein air escapades as part of the Adventure April Sketchbook Prompt this month!

These past 4 days were really experimental and really reinforced to me that I need a better setup for painting on the go, I'll keep y'all updated on the things that I purchased and how they've helped me!

In the last photo, this is my current setup! At home I just paint on a flimsy foldable table. It comes up to my mid thigh so it's definitely hard to ergonomically paint with lol.

Day 3: Ceramic Study Traditional from Life 25 min

I was starting to feel a better handle on painting again, but this set up was really tricky! it was a cloudy morning, so the light was constantly shifting, switching between harsh and soft shadows throughout the process. I felt more confident and loose with painting the objects, shoutout to Steven for letting me steal his ceramics, but I didn’t manage to establish the correct hue of the table. I wen too pink and red than the actual pale orange color of the table.

I also wanted to paint standing up so that I could get this top down angle, which was worth it, but caused me to bend over a lot over my makeshift desk. I really need to get an actual plein air easel!

Day 4: Coffee Shop Traditional Watercolor from Life ft. Steven Warmup 25-30 minutes

My first real plein air session of the challenge! Steven and I went to a coffee shop, sat outside, and got to painting! This was the first time I used watercolor in a while, so there was definitely a learning curve. At this time, I just don’t have a great gouache painting setup for traveling, so using my koi watercolor set was a lot more travel friendly and easy to setup. I used a different sketchbook as well for this session, the Hand Book journal that I bought years ago and never used because I never thought I was good enough to use it and paint outside. But here we are!

I think it was the perfect mix of Vitamin D, the cool spring breeze, the yummy decaf latte, painting from life, and spending time outside with my partner, that made this session super fun. The end result is okay, I still felt a lack of confidence with my ability to tackle certain areas, but the process was my favorite part.

Also, there was a nice group of people who asked questions and complimented my painting, so it was a friendly atmosphere too.

Day 5: Downtown Market Traditional Watercolor from Life 25-30 minutes

I was able to get outside again since it was the weekend and head to a downtown market. There’s always so much going on there, and I am still limited to only be able to sit down and paint, so we settled at another coffee shop once again and I painted a tree from across the street. The squiggliest tree ever holy moly.

I had some technical issues with paint getting into the water tank portion of my brush so the car suffered... but I really like how the background tree came out! DON'T LOOK AT THE CAR LOL

Day 6: Revisiting the Plants Traditional Watercolor from Life 25 minutes

This day, we decided to stay in for a homebody Sunday so I chose to tackle the plants once again! this time really zooming in on the plant and focusing on a small area. I found this a little bit easier, of a composition to tackle and it enabled me to paint in more details and form, but I really struggled with my brush again. This time I felt it was just too small and pointy to get the big swatches of color that I wanted. It felt like I was always trying to just scrub on color.

That's it from me! I am looking forward to upgrading my supplies and setup so painting is just easier in general. I can't believe we're already a week into the challenge!

love, shay <333