One of the important skills to have when painting outdoors is the ability to draw the subject at the blink of an eye. The time is ticking away and the light is changing at a rapid pace. After you finally set up your equipment at your perfect painting spot, there is very little time to get tied up in the drawing phase of your painting. Too often I see novice painters wasting a lot of time by drawing and erasing, and drawing and erasing. By the time they are ready to paint the light has changed dramaticly. There is way too much time spent on the preliminary phase of the painting. Some painters like to sketch on a little drawing pad and enter value notes to capture how the light is falling on their subject. This is a pretty cool idea and has worked for others. I like to rely on my memory bank as I paint. In the beginning of my painting session I take in a mental picture of what I saw when I started the process. The whole idea is to keep it simple, draw quickly, however draw accurately in order to represent your subject well. Drawing in the main shapes of the scenery is all that is needed. I only allot myself a minute or two to sketch my scene on the canvas and I always draw with a small flat brush loaded with raw umber paint. The rest of the subject is painted in as I go along like a sculptor chiseling away at his block. I highly recommend having good drawing skills before tackling the great outdoors. It would make painting outdoors a more enjoyable experience. Now let's paint!
