Plein Air Postcard #5: Sandy Point Stockton Springs Video Lecture | Master the Art of Watercolour Painting (English) - Art & Craft

hi there Lindsay here the frugal crafter
with another plein air postcard painting
and hey if you like this series of
videos let me know in the comments below
because I will be returning from
vacation very soon and I'll have a lot
of plein air sketches that I've done on
vacation and if you want to have them
done as plein air postcard videos then I
would be happy to if you do enjoyed this
series of course I think it's great if
you can get out and paint out the world
it's not possible for everybody so I am
happy to do these videos so that
everybody gets kind of that that feeling
of plein air painting even from the
comfort of their own home I'm gonna
start with this blue here it's um I'm
thinking cerulean or Cobalt I'm not sure
on this set but it's kind of like a
fairly cyan II neutral blue maybe with
that teeny weeny leaning towards towards
green it's fairly neutral though not
super intense and I am just kind of
painting in the sky but I am leaving it
kind of swirly because there was some
wispy clouds that day when I painted
this I painted this in Stockton Springs
which is over near Belfast on the coast
of Maine and this is the kind of
Penobscot Bay area where the Atlantic
Ocean meets the Penobscot River I'm
gonna mix a little bit of this Viridian
right into that color and I'm gonna
start putting in my water and it's just
slightly above the halfway mark on my
paper and the reason this looks still
decent even though I'm kind of having
more horizon in the middle is because
we're actually gonna have some mountains
up here and it's going to it's going to
kind of break up my paper into thirds a
little bit better that way I want to
have it a little bit brighter and have
some of the colors alright eventually be
putting in the in the area up here from
the mountains it's gonna be green so I
want to warm up the water here so I get
a little bit of that reflection so I've
added a little lemon yellow to the
colors have already been using pull that
down here and then I'm gonna grab a
little bit more than just a blue on its
own
and just beginning to fill in now I need
to save a little area there for the sand
dune there that I was sitting on so I
want to just make sure website put too
much green there not a big deal so I
just wanna make sure I saved that out it
was a beautiful day this is this was
painted quite late in the day it was um
it was about 6:00 p.m. when I painted
this beautiful day okay so I'm not going
to dark with the water yet I can build
up layers I finally you glaze and you
build up layers and water it looks very
nice now I talked about this and another
one of the plain-error postcard videos
my friend rich the spin doctor had
mentioned using a color called titanium
buff for for beach sand and I was like
oh boy I don't know I mean I'm just
barely using Naples yellow because I
find that to be very opaque titanium
buff is basically titanium white with a
little bit of pigment in it so which i
think is really funny the people that
are traditional pure transparent
watercolor so we used titanium what buff
even though it's basically white it's
like dirty white basically but I think
when you're painting in plein air
especially you've got to do what you got
to do because you've got a limited
amount of time the light is changing and
you've got to get that you got to get
that image captured so I'm putting this
color in here you can see it's a nice
kind of ecru color I'm gonna lift this
out a little bit I'm working on just a
Fabriano studio cold pressed paper it's
very inexpensive and I love it for plein
air work because I don't tend to do
really anything too rough to my paper
when I'm painting outdoors I'm just
getting it just the facts mam I'm
getting it on the paper and I'm going on
my merry way I'm usually kind of half
focused on my painting half focused on
what my kids are doing luckily this
Beach is usually pretty it's a really
big beach but it's usually not too busy
so it's easy to keep an eye on everybody
and not get too distracted I'm gonna
grab a little burnt umber to let me just
make sure that is a burn time brush yeah
you could use Van Dyck Brown or sepia
just a cooler Brown basically and I'm
dabbing some of that into the sand too
while it's still wet to give me that
kind of somewhat saying some dry say
some pebbles just get that get that kind
of texture in there and if you want you
could spatter with a toothbrush and you
can have more texture closer to the
bottom of the paper that would be what's
closer to the viewer and then I just
just feel how that's coming that's
coming along pretty dry I'm gonna take a
little bit of this green here I think
it's like I've already in hue and a
smidgen of my blue that I was using for
the sky and I'm going to just get a
little better take a little bit of
distant mountain in there a little bit
for the hind everything else that we are
painting there we go it's very hilly and
mean we have lots of islands and
mountains and hills and valleys and all
sorts of things like that I'm gonna grab
a little bit of that color I think I'm a
little more Brown in it though and I'm
just gonna define my ground area on the
other side of the riverbank there that
in and then I want a really earthy green
so I'm doing the yellow ocher hope that
helps you can see my palette there
they're saying this is another thing I
want you to I may use more colors when
I'm out plein air painting so I don't
because I don't have time to mix as much
however I am still not using every paint
color in the box okay so I just want to
make sure you know that they don't feel
like oh I've got all these paints I
better use them you can use all the
colors just don't use them all in the
same painting and this is getting
further away from us down here so I want
the I want to be a little bit kind of
tapered off a little bit you know and I
might use highlight colors about you so
far let's see one two three four five
six I've used six colors um you know so
and I and I know I'm gonna need some
lemon so I'm gonna go ahead and grab
that lemon so at seven counting the
white that I mixed to make a titanium
buff and you know sometimes you have to
be careful if you're using a student
grade Papes like these coat like this
koi boxes but I really haven't had too
much trouble getting like finding myself
in a muddy situation I find that you do
need to knock the intensity down on a
lot of colors to make them look
realistic
I love this time of day it's a great
time for photography although I am a
hard press to ever get a good photo of
anything I'm much better off to paint it
and remember it that way than a
photograph because my photographs they
just don't the I I just I just feel like
they're so one-dimensional and I feel I
can get a lot more information in a
quick sketch like this I highly respect
anybody that is a good photographer but
it's it's so worthwhile if you can if
you can do a little painting I mean I
need a darker green I think what I want
to do is take that green and grab a
little burnt sienna to it and see what
we get and maybe cool it off a little
bit of blue I feel like I just need
something a little bit darker back here
I'll push that back a little bit you can
add a little bit down here where it's
getting further away from you as well
okay and that's actually quite a lovely
color I mean I grow up a little more
blue into that but I think that would be
really nice to get into the water a
little bit too it's not too wavy here
because in two unless boats go by
because it is protected by the bay a
little bit of a little bit of movement
in there though and it's okay am i
dragging into a little the color and
some of the color comes down so it will
look natural okay the cool thing that I
think is a really interesting feature in
this landscape is there's all these kind
of like pylons that are we're actually
there it's like a pier that's in
disrepair it's and part of the pair is
still intact and there's so many birds
it's so loud there's so many birds that
congregate out there this is a big
osprey nest there and here are some
birds kind of flying into it it was so
active there's so many birds that day
it's like they'd all come home for it
from a busy day of doing whatever birds
do and you could see him fishing in the
water it was really really cool I'm just
gonna quickly blast the section you my
heat tool so that I don't have
feathering when I go in to paint it
but I found this area too kind of
challenging to paint but also really fun
so the first thing I mixed up with some
burnt sienna and some of that blue that
might be sorry I really don't know what
you're gonna call it what that blue is
it's almost like a process blue I'm not
exactly sure but it's that one if you've
got the coy paint box if not use on use
cobalt blue and I'm gonna start by
putting in this pier it's actually
looking Faro what it is it is almost in
the center slightly over over from the
center and I'm just putting in these
this like little it's like part of up
here I'm not gonna try to get it to
perfect I'm gonna tip this so you don't
want the glare on it that should be a
little easier for you to see and then
I'm actually gonna also put some ripples
in the water so if you want to leave
this out feel free this can this is
where your picture can go wrong I kind
of had to fix my picture at this point
so it was just like what are these lines
floating in the ocean basically hovering
in the ocean I was very bizarre-looking
so it took me a little bit of time to
get it right I will tell you that
they're they're very they're very
strange it's actually kind of like two
piers and when I went down so I went
down to walk down to it afterwards even
though I've seen it so many times when
you paint something you really look at
it for real instead of just just kind of
seeing it you really really see it you
look at it otherwise you go to paint it
you really see it and I was trying to
figure out what why are these different
it was kind of confusing and then when I
went out and saw it was actually two
piers and they were probably like 20
feet from each other but I couldn't
really tell that from where I was
sitting on the beach and I painted first
and one looked a second so that probably
wasn't that wise but but still it was it
was fun to paint so while I'm at it here
I'm just gonna go ahead and put some
reflections in the water to cool that
down a little bit though
there we go and then I took that same
sandy color and actually use that at
some of the tops of the piers because
they're very dark at the bottom where
they probably rotting and you know they
get wet and the tide comes exist this
title here the tide comes in and out do
a few birds coming out to their nest so
I I wanted to get one to show that and
then I also want to put some get some
rocks because it's very rocky and pebbly
ins lots of seaweed and stuff I wanted
to get that kind of down here in the
shore as well lift this up a little bit
this was fun to paint I can't remember
how long it took me to paint this but
the kids were having a good time playing
in the water we had spent the day in
Belfast and after we had dinner cuz
they'll always they always end up to
fall end up following in the ocean
wherever we go they end up getting
soaked even if they don't have their
swimsuits they just fall they said they
fall in that's alright they can swim so
after we went out to you know a
restaurant to eat and cuz that was the
thing it's like if you guys want to go
to a restaurant you got to stay dry
until then and then I said I want to go
over to that won't we go over to Sandy
Point after and and if they want to get
soaked and fine whatever we're going
home after her so that's what we did and
so pretty so pretty to be done be there
around as the Sun was setting and now
I'm gonna add a little bit more dark
like watery ripples around the seaweed
here you always see people walking their
dogs on the beach it's a friendly place
okay
and now we've got some like sea oats
over here on the side and I want to
begin by actually putting in their
shadow on the grass on the on the sand
and I didn't do that before and I kind
of had a hard time getting back to that
so I'm painting in with this dark brown
just
of the burnt umber burnt sienna a little
bit of blue and I'm putting in my shadow
because otherwise it's kind of tricky to
get that back in now let's mix up that
green again what do we do we use some
Viridian and we use some yellow ochre
and some lemon yeah that's pretty good
maybe more yellow ochre there we go and
we're gonna we're gonna flick up some
that's this grass this huge fields
around this place is beautiful I feel
better than I probably didn't need to
paint those piers in because they're all
get the first view are getting covered
up
oh that dry I'll go in with some darker
ones after I'm gonna take the yellow
ochre on its own and tap on some sea
oats that kinda looks like wheat
and then maybe I can go read them with a
yellow ocher and actually just a maybe
some lemon because what yellows tend to
be opaque and just kind of get a few
later grasses and after that dries I
could put in some darker ones and I'm
just gonna maybe tap in some darker sand
you could spare this powder if you
wanted to and I think that that just
about does it let me just hit that real
quick with the heat tool so I can go in
to add some darker grasses because
they're just a little too solid at the
moment there and if you're painting out
it would probably dry on you before you
even before you even uh before you even
knew it just wanna get it nice and dark
I don't know a lot of water my mic's
feel like I have quite a bit of water in
my mix that's the thing about these
water brushes sometimes they feed out
too much
um so I'm just gonna flick yeah I'm
gonna call that good so there is that
postcards plain-error postcards
postcards from the edge postcards
postcards so that's what you can do you
make all these paintings right with me
painting all these paintings with me and
then you write your little postcard
message on the back and you send it off
to a friend and then um you do them
again and then each time they're gonna
get better and that's good painting
practicing it's all good it all makes
you a better artist no matter what you
use for supplies no matter if you have a
box of Crayola watercolors or you have
you know the most expensive artist
quality watercolors out there you gotta
practice I hope you enjoyed this I want
to thank you so much for spending some
of your time with me today I know
there's so many awesome things to do
during the day and the fact that you
spent some time with me just warms my
heart and I'm so grateful placing a
thumbs-up if you enjoyed this tutorial
and until next time happy crafting