Plein Air Techniques for Artists: Principles and Methods for Painting in Natural Light

by Aimee Erickson

Take your plein air artwork to the next level through easy-to-understand workshop-style lessons and skill-building exercises.

In Plein Air Techniques for Artists, award-winning artist and respected workshop instructor Aimee Erickson demystifies how to capture a variety of light effects and guides you in strengthening your plein air skills through practice. This accessible book
  Materials and gear. Gain a basic knowledge of the possibilities so you can keep your options open and your plein air process fresh. Composition and value. Explore the impact of proportion, color, value, line, edges, shape, and texture. Color. Consider how knowledge and intention, your color palette, and what you see—your perspective—take turns being in charge of the color game, inventing rules and finding solutions. Light effects. Learn how conditions of the day—how much light there is, and whether it’s soft, diffuse, golden, harsh, pale, or dusky—affect everything we see and how we paint.  Design and the visual idea. Discover strategies for developing a visual idea, from creating serial studies to working with a camera to improvisation. 
Featuring exceptional still lifes, figures, and landscapes by other noted artists working in a range of mediums, Plein Air Techniques for Artists gives artists at all levels of experience the guidance they need to grow as a plein air artist.
The For Artists series expertly guides and instructs artists at all skill levels who want to develop their classical drawing and painting skills and create realistic and representational art.

Genres: Art

398 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 4, 2023

Reviews

[Annette Rowe]

awesome very thorough

I really enjoyed this book. I’ve gotten a lot of art books and there’s not much of it in there and I believe it there needs to be pictures and she shows pictures in different shades so much is taught in this book. I love it.

[Nancy Leigh-Smith]

The last half of the book on different lighting conditions was particularly good

[Tara Blais Davison]

4/5 Not only was this book a great source of plein air painting techniques but it proved to be an amazing source of lighting advice.

[Ginny Factor]

This artist uses oil paints and so the lessons and advice is most applicable to that medium. It is not as relevant for someone who paints with watercolor (like me) but I still found some parts that were helpful. Well written with lots of pictures as examples which I always find helpful.