Welcome Back
This month I’ve been showing you around my favorite painting items and why I love them. Have you been wanting to try painting and sketching away from home, in the big outdoors? Here are a few tips for making your field trip more fun and less of a chore.
You Will Need
- Travelling sketching kit
- Something to sit on.
- Clothing suitable to the weather conditions
- Food & water
- Planning your location
- Staying safe
Method
During my limited experience of sketching outdoors I found a few things that made a big difference to making the experience more comfortable.
Sketching kit; I covered this in an earlier post, both what I use and things to consider. Modify yours to suit your creative style. Keep it simple to avoid having something too heavy and bulky to carry
Something to sit on. A folding chair is great and doesn’t have to be heavy. If you have a good back, you can get away with just a folding mat.
Clothing suitable to weather conditions; Bear in mind you are likely to be sitting/standing outdoors all day. Choose clothing suitable to the weather conditions. Wrap up warm on cool, windy days. On hot/sunny days go for something with long sleeves and a collar, don’t want to get sun-cream on your art work 😉 A hat is a good idea too, which ever way the weather goes 😉
Food & Water: Will you be sketching all day? If you aren’t sketching near somewhere you can easily get food and drink do take some with you. It’s easy to loose all track of time and get dehydrated, especially in hot weather. A flask of your favorite beverage and a sandwich or two won’t take up much room, but you’ll be glad of them later on 🙂
Location; Choose carefully, try not to set up in the middle of a walkway/path. Its better to take a photograph of a superb scene than set up somewhere very precarious! Choose somewhere you will be comfortable, and safe for a pleasant day. Under a shady tree on hot sunny days can be great!
Staying safe; Take a phone with you, they take up so little space, just think of it as insurance. You can keep it turned off, but it might be useful if you run into unexpected difficulties.
If you are painting near tidal water, make sure you know the tide times and keep an eye on the clock!
If you are painting somewhere remote, make sure someone knows when you expect to be back.
Options/Added Extras
Do you hate people standing behind you when you paint, or too much attention? Here’s how to minimise the possible audience participation 😉
Pick your location; If you can sit with a wall/hedge or building behind you, people can’t stand behind you. Try to sit somewhere out of the way-rather than in the middle of a path and most people will either ignore you or pause only briefly.
Minimise your Equipment; I found if you don’t have too much kit out, you are less obvious 😉 I use a small bag with painting kit on and a little sketchbook on my lap, at this point you look more like you are having a picnic 😉 so attract less attention. It also depends on weather the area is known for artists. If you are somewhere picturesque, where there are lots of people painting regularly, then as long as you aren’t in the way, no one will take much notice 🙂
Most people will show little more than a passing interest and walk on. If you don’t want to chat, just focus on your sketching. If you hate drawing when someone is watching and they stand right by you (Which is rare) just measure things for a while, without putting down any marks. If nothing is happening they soon get board and wander on.
Thanks to Dymphie for telling me about the following video:
This video was not made by me but has some great tips in there. Have fun
Best wishes and thanks for reading see you soon
Billie 🙂
Between you and the video you have made me green with envy 🙂 Oh how I wish I could draw/sketch. However using some of the tips from the video together with your ideas and hints I could in fact take a palette of watercolour pencils and some stamped images on watercolour paper and still do some colouring/painting whilst being out and about and no one would know that I was cheating!
Many thanks Billie for the hints and tips 🙂
Hugs
Lynn x
Hi Lynn
Sounds like a great plan, I got into stamping becuase my drawing skills weren’t any good. Some of it is down to confidence and ‘getting your eye in’. Colouring stamped images is a great idea.
Have fun
Billie 🙂
Great tips per usual 🙂 Thanks for all the good info!
Hiya
Glad you liked it.
Best wishes
Billie 🙂
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