How to Paint Outdoor Watercolors

Are you interested in learning to do watercolor sketches outdoors?  I have included this section to help beginners get started in this pleasant pursuit or perhaps you simply want to know how I go about it, in which case this section may be of interest to you.

When painting outdoors, I go for the simplest, lightest, smallest painting equipment possible.  In a studio one can tolerate massive mixing palates, multitudinous tubes of paint of every color of the rainbow, brushes of every shape and size and gallons of water.  But outside I make it my religion to simplify.

Here is all that you really need:  Watercolor paper, a few well-chosen watercolors in a portable form, a few brushes, both flat and round, pencil and eraser, a small plastic water bottle, a small white area for mixing color, and a comfortable stool.  I will first describe the materials, and then go on to suggest some of the techniques involved in sketching and painting small watercolor sketches outdoors.
   

Materials
bulletWatercolor Paper
 
bulletPaints
 
bulletBrushes
 
bulletWater Bottle
 
bulletFolding Stool
    

  Notre Dame, Paris

Methods
bullet"But can I do it?!" (the question of "talent")
 
bulletChoosing a Subject
 
bulletHints on Composing a Picture
 
bulletNow to the Drawing
 
bulletLet's Consider that Bugaboo -- Perspective
 
bulletNow to the Painting
 
bulletSome Hints on Color
 
bulletA Word about Coping
 
bulletA Glossary of Terms


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