Diving into plein-air season - part 2

I’m making it (sort-of)! So, as mentionned on my last blogpost, I will now talk about mixed-media, and I will mix this with talking about supplies, because they really go hand-in-hand (I don’t know what I was thinking about last time - probably try to make shorter blogposts, but… anywaay). And btw, I’m currently editing a video talking about mixed media for plein-air, I will link it here when I post it on Youtube. 

Oh, and other news, I am more and more seriously thinking about doing PleinAirpril, though I still have to work on the details to make sure I keep it on tracks and enjoyable during the month.

Why mixed media?

I used to paint a lot with watercolors and ink outside (especially during my summer holidays), on watercolor journals. Until very recently, I was using cotman watercolors by Winsor & Newton (their already curated plein-air set), and I tend to mostly use non-cotton sketchbooks (and more and more tone paper). Partly due to the supplies, partly due to my painting & color mixing abilities, partly due to some other reasons, I found it quite overwhelming and frustrating to paint outside. I could not render things the way I wanted, and the style I created was not so much to my liking (though when looking back at them, it was fun !).

Sketches from 2022 to 2023, my first years of plein-air

Lately, I have been following Ohn Mar Win on IG and YT, and I love her use of mixed media. I motivated me to try it out for myself, and see if it was something that could help improve the experinece. And here, I’m really talking more about the experience than about the final result, because I feel plein-air is much more about the experience than about creating a perfectly rendered piece!

And so, I slowly started bulding up my mixed media pencil case to complement my Portable Painter Micro. And it really was a game changer! It took a few months to find out what I really like, and how to use them, but it definitely made the whole experience more playful and joyful. Mixed media allow me to build up textures, to layer, to enhance contrast, to add details. It’s so versatile! And as I grew as an artist, I also know better the types of colors I gravitate towards and palettes that work for me. I’m not saying mixed media will solve all your issues, or that you cannot do plein-air without mixed media. I just want to share how it has helped bring more joy into my plein-air painting sessions, at this point of my art journey :)

Which supplies do I use?

I take mixed media as an opportunity to use some of the supplies I don’t grab so often in the studio. I started with all the things I had at hand, and now I’m slowly buying some extra colors that are “gaps” in my existing supplies. I try to have a variety of water-soluble and water resistant supplies, and also a variety of opaque and transparent ones. It helps with the layering. I put everything inside my pencil case. I love it. It si compact, it fits in all my bags. I forces me to take only a selection of supplies. The only downside is that I have a hard time making it stick to my Stablo easel (which is my only plein-air easel, and I really enjoy it!) and it tends have a tricky balancing dynamic when being used… It came with lots of slots for pencils, but the slots were too small for some of my supplies so I cut one seam out of two to get bigger slots. 

Some views of my big pencil case ;)

I use acrylic markers, which are mostly opaque and fully water resistant when dry. I mostly use Posca and Liquitex ones. I usually use them either to put a base layer, or for final details and highlights. I will usually only have two + white. I would either take two muted ones, or one for apop of color, or one dark for outlines. I am also considering having another light that is not pure white one to have more natural highlights. My selection of colors depends both on my mood and what I expect to be painting. And somethimes I just challenge myslef to use a marker that I tend to not use so much (I have this fear that all of my supplies will turn bad before I have a chance to go through them). I guess if I go on a plein-air trip for more than a few days, I will have some spare colors in a separate bag, so that I can switch colors around in my pencil case from one plein-air session to another.

In the big slots I also put some watercolor markers. I only have the Aquamarkers from DecoTime which were gifts from my mom, and she found them very cheap in a supermarket, but they are actually really nice for mixed media in sketchbooks. They are watersoluble (mostly) and transparent. I tend to grab a very light color for my initial sketch and some more random colors. I sometimes also take a dark one for outlines, as they are dual ended and have a fine point on one side (and a brush one the other). I usually have 2 or 3 with me.

In the smaller slots, I put my pencils and watercolor pencils. I change the colors very often, but I will usually have at least one fun highlight color, one really dark, and a lot of muted greens and earthy tones. I try to test my pencils beforehand on the paper I will be using, because different brands and different colors will show differently on different papers (especially when it comes to toned paper). I really like using watercolor pencils for distant trees and water, because I can soften them out while still keeping a few details, And sometimes they also work better than the normal colored pencils on wet paper (if I had a layer of watercolor underneath for instance). For the watercolor pencils, I use the Faber Castell Albrecht Dürer, but I will be testing some Inktense (that dry permanent) and some Caran d’Ache Museum in the coming weeks. For my usual pencils, I use Lyra Rembrandt, Faber-Castell Polychromos, Prismacolor Premier and Carand’Ache Luminance. The Caran d’Ache are on the very expensive side, so I have avery limited selection. So far, I find them to be more pigmented than the others I own, which is super nice to add some sharp contrasts. 

Finally, I have Neocolor II (from Caran d’Ache), which are watersoluble wax crayons. Those are incredible for plein-air and mixed media. They have lovely muted greens (I may have bought every muted green I found) and so many goregous earthy tones (I may have done the same…). Those are great for adding texture. They are quite opaque so you can layer them on top of something to tweak its color. My only issue with those is that they don’nt like very hot weather, and tend to melt a bit… So sadly I don’t take them outside for sunny plein-air sessions. 

I usually have a variety of whites with me. I tend to keep a tube of fresh white gouache (Shinhan) in my pencil case. It is useful for highlights, or for transforming my watercolors into gouache. I also always have a white acrylic pen. I don’t use gel pens or Inda Ink white pens, as they tend to not work hoy I would want them to… I recently added a white Neocolor II into my pencil case, and it works really well on toned paper, to create the white branches or barks.

I usually have a variety of drawing supplies and miscalleneous with me. I will have some fineliners, pencils, pencil sharpener, clips, erasable colored pencils, waterbrush, pipette to refill my waterbrush and sometimes a waterbrush filled with (permanent or not) ink. Most of these always sit in my pencil case. Others (like the ink pen) will change every few months.

All the things I put inside my pencil case ;)

How do I test my supplies?

One issue with mixed media is to know what to use on top of what… First, you don’t have to use every single type / supply that you have with you. I definitely don’t use everything all the time! Second, as nice as it is to do “proper” swatches (like squares, dots or whatever), it does not tell you so much apart from the color and how it reacts to water. Third, the best way to test your supplies is to actually use them to create a piece - but I know sometimes we can be short on time / creativity / motivation to do even a small sketch to test new supplies or a new combination of supplies. 

Sooo! Something that I have been doing more and more is to do sort of abstract-ish swatches, where I grab the supplies I put in my pencil case and see how they work together. If I am smart enough to do that before leaving for a trip / plein-air session, I can adjust my supplies based on the swatch. Or, I can refer back to the swatch to choose my supplies the next time. I do them on the sketchbook I will bring outside (supplies behave differently on different papers and all that jazz).

To do these swatches, nothing more simple! I grab everything and put marks on my sketchbook. I somethimes use my waterbrush to see what will bleed / mix / etc. And I just go with my instinct of what will look good where. Sometimes it does not look that good, but hten again - who cares? It’s a swatch! I use them to test everything I’m unsure of. Will the watercolor pencil show on top of damp watercolors? Will this acrylic marker smudge with water? Will the Neocolor II cover my fineliner? Can I take color with my waterbrush directly from my Neocolor II and put it on top of acrylics? 

A few abstract swatches on my plein-air sketchbooks

We now come at the end of this super long post. I hope it inspires you to try mixed media for your plein-air sessions. I will probably continue ti write about plein-air in the coming weeks, as PleinAirpril is coming closer! I will try to sketch out a plan, and write it somewhere here so that I can refer back to it in the midsts of April…

And if you’re interested, I can share more about my supplies, or my setup for plein-air. Feel free to ask anything in the comments, and to let me know what are your favorite plein-air supplies! :) You can see some of my plein-air adventures on my IG or YT…