Plein Air Painting

Today I tried two new things. First, I combined mint pants with dark blue stripes and pretty much rocked it. Second, I sat outside for two hours painting trees. This was slightly successful. I prefer my watercolors to be very detailed and realistic, so plein air has always been a bit intimidating for me. Today, though, I decided to give it a go and I actually kinda like the finished product. I chose to paint in my sketchbook just in case I didn't love the end product so the size of the piece isn't all that great.

The building on the side was a huge mistake, I should have kept the whole thing pretty simple, but it's too late now I guess. I really love the texture of the leaves, though, so I took a closer picture for you to see!

I have two sketchbooks, a normal one that I use for pretty much everything, and a watercolor sketchbook with thick watercolor paper. I use both frequently, but so far I have only shown you drawings in my regular book. Here are a few of the things I have been/am working on in the watercolor book.

Pretty fun! I love watercolor because it gives you so many options. You can go loose and sketchy, tight and controlled, dark and opaque, light and watery, detailed, not very detailed, or you can combine it with lots of other medias. You will probably see me use it with pen and ink a lot because it's my favorite combination. I also wanted to show you some photos of watercolor portraits because that is what we will be doing soon and I am looking for inspiration. Here are a few of my favorites.

So that is it for today. I think I am gonna go paint a little more:) Have a wonderful day! k loves bye