Plein Air Drawing

definition

• Plein Air drawing or painting refers to the French phrase “en plein air” which mean “out in the open air.” It simply means doing observation drawings or paintings outside.

• The Impressionist painters of the late 1800’s loved the paint outdoors because the light would change and create different scenes.

Claude Monet, French 1840-1926

• He painted many paintings of the same scene at different times of the day to get different lighting and colors. Haystacks were a favorite of his.

Richard Diebenkorn, American 1922-1993

• Used shapes of color to help define landscapes often

Gwendolyn Waring

• A local Flagstaff artist that also uses the Plein Air style is Gwendolyn Waring. She uses paint and pastel to show local scenes.

• http://www.waringarts.com/home.html

The technique

• Find a good viewpoint. Use your viewfinder to help you. Try to fit a foreground, mid ground and background.

• Look for ways to draw the objects as shapes of color.

• Sketch with pencil first the blocked shapes in a contour drawing

• Add pastel or paint to the shapes as solid colors, not details yet.

• Add finer details at the end.

Grading

• Initial layout of scene using the viewfinder (how you compose the picture)…10 points

• Color blocking… 10 points• Details.. 5 pointsTotal 25 points

Additional info

• National Core Arts Standards: 1, 2, 3, 9, 11• SWBAT use correct tools and techniques to

create a successful plein air drawing or painting.

• Vocab: plein air, foreground, mid-ground, background, contour drawing