Lessons I have learned for Plein Air painting

Always do a value study of what you like immediately.
Use this value study to block in your painting with the values in similar but darker colors that the true color.Check your design for lines to the focal point, does your eye move around the painting? No tangents,etc.
Do not follow the light. Keep your highlights the same as when you first viewed them as the light changes so fast.
Block in the color values.
Step back 15 to 30 feet and view the painting at this stage and make sure it WORKS! View in a mirror to catch any lines that are off or color values not true.
When this is all done, then and only then do you fill in the light values on top of the dark and think about the details. The secret is to wait and be patient for the base must be there before you can do the details. The painting should work without the details from a distance.

A coffee painting composition

I was invited to teach coffee painting this summer. First I had to look up coffee painting, then I had to try it. I designed it so the front sail would be the lightest light against the darkest dark land. If you follow your eye around the painting you go from the sail to the top of the island and around to the mast and down to the skipper who is also close to the other third cross hair on the lower left. Coffee painting is different. The coffee doesn't stay where you put it. It slides to the edge of a wet area and makes a dark line. It is much like watercolor and you have to either paint over it frequently to darken it or make your coffee stronger. If you plan a painting, the very first thing you say to yourself is, " Why do I want to paint this?" Is it the color, the mood, the way it makes me feel, a reminder of something? Then design the painting. Where is the focal point going to go? Remember divide the sides by three and mark the cross hairs. It doesn't hurt to have two focal point for design but you must make one of them stronger, more detailed with brighter color.

What starts the spark?

This is one of my favorite plein air paintings.

This was done last September at Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie. It was early morning and the light was fantastic. I decided that the dock would be the center of interest and positioned it where the 1st third of the side panel and the first third of the top panel met. This point would be the darkest dark and the lightest light met. This is also where the most detail occurs. One can always add the brightest color in this spot. I began this painting by painting the sky first and making the clouds go toward the center of interest for a design element. The darks were then put in thinly a dark purple and let dry. Then the colors of the land and trees were added. The water was done with light and dark blues with a design to lead the eye into the picture.