Plein Air Painting

Painting out in the wild has it's own difficulty level. One thing is the perspective, and figuring out how much view to include in the canvas. That's why people make those little finger-thumb boxes to frame the shot. The other is that it's important not to have the canvas in the sun, as the colors are all off and will be very muddy once looking at the painting in normal light. I set up my easel under a big umbrella.

This is my first attempt at plein air painting up at the cottage.

In class 5 of us went out with Chui our teacher to a park, and painted this view:

First, a sketch on a scrap of paper. Looks easy, but getting the perspective is not that obvious.

Chui pointed out that the path was darker far away, and lighter towards us. Purple grey for the path, with almost pure orange and white for the sunlight shining on it. He told me to mix very yellow green on the hillside, as it was, with the sun shining on it. I was surprised at how yellow it was. He added the fluffy leaves, and then used light blue to make the sky come through the tree. And that bright blue in the water that is not in the sky is something my dad always said, that the water sees the sky first; i.e. the sky is darker in the water than it is looking at the actual sky.