Plein Air advice you don't want to miss.

In this video, I take you through a Plein Air painting session where I capture a beautiful house portrait located in Longmont, Colorado. This piece is titled *Fifth Avenue, Longmont Colorado*-a nod to its true location, far from the well-known Fifth Avenue in New York City.
Painting private residences presents unique challenges, especially when it's not a neighbor's house or a historic landmark. While I haven’t yet mustered the courage to ask a homeowner for permission to paint their house at 9:00 a.m., I’m working towards it. During my photo expedition for this piece, I almost approached another house but decided against it due to a potential domestic dispute nearby.
This session was intended as practice, allowing me to gather valuable reference material. In many states, old houses have been repurposed into businesses like apartment complexes, law offices, or community centers. These are ideal subjects for painting, as it’s unlikely anyone will object. However, for private residences, it’s always best to seek permission first.
The architecture of older homes offers a wealth of artistic opportunities-deep shadows, intricate details, and striking angles. In this painting, I focused on these elements, especially the porches and balustrades, which add both visual interest and complexity. The more ornate the house, like a classic painted lady, the more selective you need to be with what you paint, particularly when practicing or preparing for quick-draw competitions. My goal is to increase my brush mileage in the studio before tackling a finished Plein Air painting in under 2 hours.
Throughout the video, I discuss techniques like managing lost and found edges, leaving out details to highlight focal points, and using lines to guide your composition. I also cover how to avoid common pitfalls-like when wet paint mixes unexpectedly, as it did when I accidentally let green paint creep into the house's form. This created an effect that looked like vines but disrupted the intended shape, a mistake I’ll address in a future video. I’ll also explore how we perceive color versus how it truly appears against a white surface.#PleinAirPainting #HousePortrait #ArtTutorial #LongmontCO #WatercolorPainting #PaintingTips #ArtEducation #ArchitecturalArt #QuickDraw #ArtPractice #PaintingChallenges
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