We’ll review the importance of a quick lay-in when doing plein air paintings.

Hello all you art lovers out there. Today I’m going to give you an example of how I start some of my plein air pieces. This particular painting was done at Caesar Chavez National Monument.

It represents several of the plein air paintings I actually start. So check out my starting process (watch the video), maybe there’s something you can learn from it. Mainly I want you to focus on how my lay-in is very quick.

I have a tendency to work from back to front with things that are furthest distance then come closer. There are time where as you may have seen on some of my demos, I tend to put the brighter colors in and then the darker colors. For this plein air painting I’m doing the sky first.

I’m going to build up some of the foliage to help give me depth of field as I go. As I lay more information in, I can determine whether I have enough depth or too much depth in some situations. But I start sky, build some foliage in front, lay-in the lighter color greens,

I get the shadowed area on the right hand side then go to the foreground elements to help me begin to build the basic foundation of values that I’m seeing.

That’s how I want to think of it. Laying in roughly, not fine detail, just quick elements so that I can build my plein air painting as I go. Putting the color that I think will help me establish the final colors that will come together eventually.

It will change as I began to fill in more and more of the details. But the basic background, middle ground, foreground elements that’s going to establish what I need as I move into the detail aspects of the plein air  painting.

Here I’m trying to get more of the middle and foreground area colors developed as close to what I’m visually interpreting as possible.

Then putting in the lighter tree foliage now and building the values around it.

When completed you see how roughly layed in this is. You can still see the loose brushstrokes. This is a good foundation for me to carry over. Good loose tree information.

Now I build the middle ground trees in the painting. Putting in additional branches, structure for trees on the left side.

Here is more leafy shapes building over top of the first lay-in. The rocks more detailed.

This is how the final looks.

This is how I would approach my first lay-in and build from there.

I hope you found this helpful. In the future I’ll show you the full plein air painting approach from beginning to completion. But my focus was the lay-in today. Happy painting.

First I begin by drawing a rough outline of the tree stump I’ll be painting. Then I wet the board behind the stump drawing so I can lay my paint in smoothly.  Remember from my other videos/blogs, that you don’t want it to be too wet. As it comes to a low sheen dampness,

then I paint in my light colors and afterwards my medium to darker colors. This back area behind the stump will be grass.

Similarly, I paint in the basic tree bark color, starting with the light areas, then painting in the dark areas. Doing it quickly and roughly allows for variations of tone to be my foundation for the bark as I paint.

I do the same with the top of the tree stump – putting in my lights and a little bit of shadowing tones.

Now use acetate to create extra texture on the tree bark. I’ve shown you this technique in past tutorials (check out Technique for Wall Texture or this one on Ground Texture for a refresher).

Painting some directional strokes and curvature lines help build the details of the tree bark. Adding darker shadow or groove lines help to break up the bark.

I’m returning to the grass area behind the stump, where I painted in my first pass of light and dark colors. As a second pass, I use light value brush strokes in the shadow areas, so that you can see the shape of grass blades. Then I paint in a darker value color into the light areas. (See previous post “Artist Technique Depicting Grass in a Painting.” This simulates grass without having to detail every grass blade).

Refocusing on the tree bark now, I add much darker lines to form bark. More shadows and lines help it stand out from the wood underneath the bark. Building dimension takes a few little lines here and there to create the look I hope to achieve.

Afterward I add some age lines or tree rings on the wood, including cracked wood lines (doing that with the dark shadow colors), building the texture of the bark. Then I come back and paint in lines of light, as if  the light is coming from the left hand side and hitting those edges. I’m able to define more of the textures with light spots.

I always think in steps of one, two, and three: The (1) middle tones, the (2) dark tones, and then those (3) light tones. It’s the simplest way to think of giving form and dimension. 1 – Middle tones, 2 – dark tones, and 3 – light tones! It may not always be in that order. It can be 1 – light tones, 2 – dark tones, and 3 – middle tones. However, the idea of 1, 2, 3 is a simple process to remember.  Even in the shadows or dark area, there is some light. But it’s toned down light to help build information or structure of what you are painting.

On top of the stump I’m painting light where it catches the edge of the cracked wood. This helps it to stand out and gives it more form.

Now to pull out a few more grass blades. These will be the accent lights (accents are what give you the final information to make it look like there is grass).

Below is a close-up of what the final tree bark detailing looks like.

You can give the tree bark more detail and texturing to make it really busy, or you can keep it simpler or cartoony, if you prefer.

What do you think? If you like this, please let me know. Is there something you would like to see me paint? Let me know. Don’t forget to subscribe to my videos on YouTube and check back here for the next blog post. Until next time, happy painting!

I use a badger brush and water from an airbrush, spraying lightly to help blend the strokes better.

Then I put in the back foliage. Think of the process as one, two, three steps: a dark value, middle value and a light value. My back foliage is the dark value that goes in first.

Then my tree trunk and branches over that. I paint the tree trunk in a wet-into-wet method which allows me to blend my colors as I lay on paint. In this situation, paint from the dark, shady areas to the lighter areas.

I’m not dealing with grass or ground in this demo as I’ve shown those techniques in other videos. My focus is strictly on the tree. Once I have the basic shapes, then I build in more details: Adding in darker tones on the tree trunk to give it more form; making lines to depict bark and groves in the trunk. I put lights into random areas of the shadows.

Next, I put in the middle values of the foliage over top of the trunk and branches. It’s helpful to angle the paintbrush in a way that allows you to quickly lay in paint for a leafy appearance without stroking every single leaf shape. We want to simulate a look of lots of foliage. Notice the shape of my paintbrush in the photo below on the right.

We may need to put extra line detailing in the trunk to give more form where needed. As more detail is added and more form appears, we may need to refine those details. In the same manner as the foliage, we want to simulate bark detail without putting too much information.

Now keep in mind that I’m giving you the simple method of approaching this. You can added as much detail as you like or make it as simple as you like.

I then add some reflective or bounce light in the back shadow side of the tree trunk to aid with more volume or roundness. This will give extra color interest to the tree, as well.

To accentuate the foliage, I add the light value leafiness in random spots. Not all over – just a few hotter areas to catch the eye and give dimension and form to the foliage, too.

Now you could add a few twigs or small branches, some in a middle tone, others in lighter tones, to make it look as if these branches are coming forward out of the shadow area of the foliage.

At this point (if you used Gouache or water pliable paint), I go back and spray water from an airbrush and use a badger brush  to soften areas that were too crisp or sharp. We’re creating variables of soft and sharp focus which allows rest points for the eye.

Here’s the finished look. Again, this is the quick, animation method of doing a tree. You can make it as cartoony or as realistic as you like.Next time I’ll do a close up on the bark for a more detailed approach.
I hope that was useful for you! Check out my other Artist Technique series to depict Ground, Grass, or Wall Texture. The technique I share when beginning these paintings are the same:

Depicting Grass in a Painting
Technique for Wall Texture
Technique to Depict Ground Texture

With each simple tutorial, you’ll learn industry tips and techniques to create your own, complete painting. Thank for your interest! Try it out and let me know what you think by leaving a comment below or on my Facebook Page. Be sure to follow along for more and subscribe on YouTube. Until my next video and blog, Happy painting!