A year of Painting Outside & Discovering Nocturne Techniques 🌬️✨✨✨

Hi Lovelies! Let’s Paint! All year I’ve been painting small watercolor sketches en plein air, mostly taking around 5 or 10 minutes, sometimes up to 20 minutes per page & I wanted to share a few tips.. .

1. Materials Matter.. . It might take a while to figure out what you like to use. Using materials you like will make a huge difference. I’ve really enjoyed the size, amount of pages & format of these Arches sketchbooks, they are lightweight, have the support board already attached, & aren’t too big {so I don’t feel like I have to do a large sketch or ‘waste paint’ on a sketch}
I’ve dappled with different travel brushes, different travel palettes & extra supplies like Neocolors or watercolor crayons

2. Consolidate your sketching kit.. . Creating a Sketching Kit is such an enjoyable endeavor! This follows along from the first tip but adding extra supplies or taking away supplies you don’t use will take some time to decide on. It can also change depending on how long you’ll be somewhere {ie is it a holiday, a day trip, an afternoon, or a quick sketch on a train}

3. Take colors relevant to your subject matter. Often we can know beforehand some of the general colors we may need for our subject matter, but it’s always exciting to improvise on the spot as well! It can help us find some beautiful & unusual color pairings!

{Color Mentioned ~ Daniel Smith Hibiscus}

4. Practice beforehand or as you will see, practice afterwards. In your quick initial sketch try to think about the colors or particular things you’re seeing that interest you.. . Once you get home you can refine those sketches, try other colors or compositions etc

5. Create a zoomed in & zoomed out version of the same scene. {also create a more figurative/realistic & more out of focus/abstract version}

6. Create a night & day version, or a morning/afternoon version. {you could also create a tonal black & white version paired with a color version}

7. Think about what you’re trying to achieve, or what matters to you in capturing your scene.. . For me, it’s about getting as much form in as possible in a very short amount of time. Also thinking through color choices & how to show as much of the feeling of that scene without being able to take a long time to accurately capture it.. .

8. Convey your heart! This might sound a bit odd but there are things you will see or feel that no one else might notice, if you want the sky a certain color, paint that!

9. Focus on one type of thing you want to improve, for example in this video we focus on nocturne paintings & watery washes for the clouds & sky.
Heres a wonderful video about Nocturne Paintings from ​⁠‪@IntheStudioArtInstruction‬ {its for painting in oils but alot of the same concepts can be applied to watercolor}


   • Quick Tip 128 - Nocturne Painting  



I also mentioned John Wolseley, we will talk more about him in upcoming videos, but heres a couple of amazing videos

   • Termite Mounds | John Wolseley  

   • The Art of the Book #6 with John Wolseley ...  



10. Have Fun! This should definitely be a low stress activity.. . Even though i only have a few minutes , i dont try to rush them or be overly concerned about the outcome, i know i can change things/repaint things later so i just try to absorb as much of the scene & the beauty of the scene as possible & enjoy this time!

Ok, don’t forget, next week will be about the pink palette, swatches, favorite mixes, glazing, & more autumn scenes, if you want me to add anything in particular please let me know!

Have a loveliest of weeks! 🥳💝🎨🪷🌷🦋


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