In this video, artist Roy Boswell from Plein Air School shares 10 practical tips to improve your landscape painting quickly. These tips are accompanied by a live plein air demonstration.

The 10 Easy Tips

  1. Prep Your Palette Early: Put paint on your palette before you even leave your car. This lets you start painting instantly once you’ve set up [00:17].

  2. Stay Close to Your Car: Initially, stay near where you parked. This prevents “creativity-killing” long walks back to fetch forgotten equipment [00:23].

  3. Use a Sketchbook: Keep a sketchbook to plan your composition. This avoids “wipers”—paintings so hopeless you have to wipe the canvas clean [00:41].

  4. Define a Story: Have a simple narrative for your painting (e.g., one tree standing apart from a “chorus” of others). It keeps you engaged during the process [01:11].

  5. Create Light and Shadow Patterns: On sunny days, map out your light and shadow shapes first. If the sun moves or clouds come in, you still have your initial “roadmap” recorded [01:39].

  6. Understand Shadow Temperatures: On trees and shrubs, shadows often get warmer as they reach the ground. This is due to reflected “bounce light.” They are cooler at the top because of the ambient sky light [02:06].

  7. Atmospheric Perspective: Objects further away have less contrast than those close to you. This applies to both the landscape and the sky [03:27].

  8. Use Turning Edges: A “turning edge” is a place where light rolls over into shadow. This is essential for creating the illusion of form and three-dimensionality [04:12].

  9. Break Up Edges: Use a “knockdown knife,” palette knife, or spatula to drag paint across edges. This adds variety and prevents the scene from looking too uniform [05:31].

  10. Use Bridge Colors: Add a “bridge color” (like a thin blue edge) where shapes like trees meet the sky. This lowers the contrast at the edges to keep the viewer’s focus on the right areas [07:14].

 Video Details