Plein air painting : Mountain barns

A few days ago I went on a mini-hike with Mefisheye. Since we started our work-holiday we take more time for ourselves and especially to go out sketching in plein air.

During this hike we came across a lot of barns, it is very traditional designs of this part of the Pyrénées and these two looked absolutely beautiful with the light we had that day. So we decided to go for some plein air painting of these mountain barns!

My tools for plein air painting

For outdoor watercolor painting I often use my homemade watercolor palette. I really like to use my colors for this kind of painting, as for illustrations, but I like it because a lot of the colors I have are really fitted for the outdoor.

I also use a mechanical pencil for my base sketch, a big flat brush for the base of the paint and a smaller angled brush for detailing.

Let’s paint!

I start with a very light and simple sketch. I try to focus mainly on getting the big shapes and getting my perspective right for the barns.

Using my big flat brush I tried to work with the wet on wet technique and do the background of the piece : the trees and the grass in front of the barns.

I then tried to define my tree shapes, but I admit I was not as successful as I hoped. I noticed I had some difficulties in rendering the trees. Since then I have tried to study them some more and even if I’m not exactly where I want to be yet, I’m on the way to better myself!

And here is the final painting, I tried to have stronger shapes in the end but the whole thing is a little messed up. However I am very happy about how the barns turned out and the over all composition of the painting.

I am also super happy about that new color of mine “Garden Green”. I have been using it profusely for this painting and it’s just the perfect shade for that kind of summer plein air painting.