Way back in graduate school we were taught the importance of designing our drawings in such a way to influence the viewer’s eyesight so it traveled through the drawing and picked out the most important elements before moving on to the next drawing or piece of manuscript. At the time I was training to become a medical illustrator and our audience was surgeons who were studying how-to manuals for performing various surgical procedures. Our drawings were step-by-step instructions on how to do everything from an aortic valve replacement to brain surgery.
The attention span of our audience was very short but we were taught the reader was much more likely to remember a series of drawings showing a surgical procedure than mountains of text. Little did I know how important that training would become as I pursued my current artistic endeavors. What I learned is simple…it all starts with design. Mother Nature is a really good designer but sometimes she needs a little help when it comes to painting her likeness on a canvas. To demonstrate what I mean I photographed a recent painting from start to end. By following me through the steps I hope you will come to understand that there is more to copying a landscape to canvas. You must engage the viewer and you do that with design, color and controlling the viewer’s gaze. As is my custom I will be painting from the field study I painted on a trip to Carmel a couple of summers ago.
On a 24″ x 30″ canvas I begin my design by dividing the canvas into thirds ending up with nine equal squares. My objective is to arrange the elements of the landscape in such a way that the viewer’s eye will be in constant motion and to do that I purposely place objects where the horizontal and vertical lines intersect.
At “A” the base of the rock lands exactly on the crossing lines. The angled line runs from “A” towards “B”. At “B” the vertically angled tree takes you up to the intersecting top third line. The shoreline runs from “B” to “C” where the base of the cliff lines up with the right side vertical line and also lines up with the right side of the main boulder back at “A”. The next drawing shows how the eye moves around the painting. The plan is to have the viewer enter the painting at “A”, visually travel to “B” over to “C” then back down to “A” where the process starts over. If I pull this off the viewer will become engaged and visually travel through my entire painting. You still with me?
Next I lay in a halftone drawing using a reddish wash to give myself a better look at the design before I commit to paint. I decide I need a “visual block” to keep the viewer from sliding off the right side of the canvas so I add a large dark boulder at the bottom right. I will add a dark element to the lower left of the painting to give it some balance. I’m thinking a dark bush of some sort.
I put in my darkest darks in the foreground and paint the main tree. Then using the foreground values as my guide I put in the distant cliffs. Using my plein air sketch as my value guide I continue to move around all parts of the canvas bringing the distant cliffs, middle ground trees and foreground rock formation all up at the same time. Detail of the foreground rocks
This was a blast to paint. Most of it is made up as I go, changing colors and shapes of the rocks to give it an organic feel. The finished painting, or so I thought
Once this was finished I put it in a closet for a month and did not look at it again until this morning. Once it was back on the easel I felt something was missing.
I decide it needed something else to draw the viewer away from the rock pile and up the hill to my center of interest. By adding a splash of color on the hill representing the poppies and other wild flowers that grow on the coast I believe the painting is now finished.
“Notan” is a Japanese term referring to exploring the harmony between light and dark. Artists use Notan sketches to explore the composition elements of a scene and the relationship of major shapes. A good Notan drawing simplifies a scene into three values…dark, light and halftone. It also acts as a memory and planning tool that helps the artist focus on essential elements of a scene, draw simple shapes and record important elements should the scene change as weather and sunlight alter a scene.
I was first introduced to the importance of the Notan sketch in a workshop I took with Skip Whitcomb. Skip starts every painting session with two or three quick sketches of the scene. The process takes him about thirty minutes. As part of the workshop Skip required students to do at least three sketches before starting a painting. Since that time I have come across many artists that rely on the Notan sketch process and for years it has been my practice as well.
The advantage of a Notan sketch over a camera is the camera records everything in the scene indiscriminately leaving nothing to the imagination. That being said I have come to prefer the camera over the sketch as the smart phone increasingly takes over every aspect of our life. Using the photo app in my iPhone has reduced the time to produce a Notan to a matter minutes rather than a block of time that cuts into painting time.
I recently took the opportunity to produce a Notan sketch and a Notan photo to decide once and for all what my routine was going to be going forward. Below are my results.
South of Monterrey on the way to Big Sur is this amazing scene, painted by many. On the day of my painting the fog was rolling in and out all day constantly changing the light. The scene was so captivating it was hard to decide what to leave in and what to take out. It was the perfect time for a Notan sketch so by the time I put brush to canvas most of the major decisions would have already been made.
Like many plein air painters my “go to” format is the horizontal on a 9″ x 12″ or 12″ x 16″ panel. I also like the long, narrow horizontal format I use frequently in Texas due to the lack of mountains or anything taller than a fence post. My first inclination was the long horizontal as seen in my Notan which took about ten minutes.
Just for kicks my second sketch was a square format and my third sketch was my usual horizontal.
The whole process took longer than expected because of the fog that would come in and obscure the distant cliffs that I wanted to include in my painting so all total it took almost forty minutes to get the sketches done.
Simultaneously when the sun was just like I wanted, I took a single photo with my iPhone and as the fog destroyed my scene, I quickly opened the photo app
to look at the scene in different formats.
I first looked at the long, horizontal format, cropped it accordingly and saved the image for future reference.
Then I cropped the same photo in the more typical horizontal for a 9″ x 12″ painting. Again I saved it for later.
Then I used the halftone filter to give me a Notan photo of my scene. The whole process took less than ten minutes which is an important consideration when the goal was to produce four paintings this day.
“On the Way to Big Sur” 9″ x 12″ oi/linen
When it came time to paint, the fog became unavoidable. In the end I gave in and included it in my painting, but the Notan exercise was well worth the effort.
Below is another example of sketch versus photo Notan.
I’m a sucker for old farm houses and this one is a favorite. I quickly produced two Notan sketches.
The long horizontal.
The standard format. Then I created Notan photos.
The long horizontal
The standard format.
The halftone Notan.
The painting. “Historical” 12″ x 16″ oil/linen
There is something that makes me feel more “artistic” drawing Notan sketches before beginning a painting. But at the end of the day, for me at least, its all about evaluating the scene for composition and values and the iPhone provides me the quickest means to an end while also providing me a permanent record. In less than ten minutes I can produce several Notan photos with complete halftone evaluations of my scene and I think it gives me a clearer understanding before I begin to paint.
Beyond packing plenty to drink, a midday snack and lots of sunscreen, painting en plein air can go from a beautiful day with Mother Nature to a fight for your life if certain precautions aren’t taken before throwing on the back pack and heading down a trail. I have painted plein air for almost twenty years and in that time I have encountered my share of treacherous weather changes, more snakes than I can count, rutting elk, a very upset larger than life brahma bull, wild pigs, bobcats, two black bears and bandits intent on taking my wallet. That does not include the number of times my life hung in the balance as I negotiated a narrow canyon ridge or large trucks narrowly taking off my backside as I painted on side of the road.
Over the years I developed a healthy respect for how quickly things can change when painting outdoors and have developed my own personal set of safety precautions along the way.
Don’t Post on Social Media.
The safest thing you can do for yourself and your family is to NOT post pictures of yourself while out of town. I am as guilty as anybody of posting on social media while traveling. Who doesn’t want to show all your friends that you are painting along the California coast or traveling to France to teach a two week workshop? I do you it. You do it. We all do it. STOP!
There’s no better way to announce to the world that your home is vacant and ripe for the pickings than to post pictures of yourself out of town or boarding a plane to Europe. Instead post date your blog so it is published while you are away. Then share your blog on Facebook and Twitter. This keeps you active on social media and it appears you are at home. If you must post on Facebook or Tweet something, post a picture of yourself in the studio or what you have on the easel. With a little planning you can post something several times while traveling to make it appear you are home working away at your easel.
Believe it or not the world can go a week without hearing from you. Please wait until you return home to post pictures of your trip, workshop or paintings.
Paint with a group (L to R) Rusty Jones, Bob Rohm, Bruce Peil and David BatesI cannot stress this enough. As much as I enjoy painting alone next to a running stream deep in the woods, it is far better if someone knows where I am. Painting with a group provides safety in numbers and companionship.
Let someone know your plans Whether you are painting a few miles from home or hiking into the back woods ALWAYS let someone know your plan, including what time you plan to return. If your painting excursion takes you away from your group or public view, leave a written plan with someone you know, a park ranger, hotel clerk or even a gas station attendant. Include a trail map with your plan highlighted in red ink, vehicle description, vehicle license plate number and a recent photo. Most importantly, let them know when you plan to return.
Make yourself visible. Most of us tend to dress fairly drab because we don’t want a brightly colored shirt reflecting onto our canvas while we paint. The problem is we blend in and therefore are hard to spot, especially if we are standing on side of the road or, in a worst case scenario, become incapacitated deep in the woods or on side of a mountain. Taking a hint from my running buddies I have started wearing luminous shirts over my painting shirt while hiking into and out of a location.
I buy an XXL so it fits comfortably over my other shirt. This one cost me $5 at Walmart and can be spotted a mile away. Once I get to where I’m going I take it off. On my arm is a Spot GPS device. More about that later. In addition, when I am painting on side of the road I put out safety cones. I put one at least 500 feet away, then one half way and one right next to where I am painting. Make sure you get the ones that have the reflective stripe on them. The ones pictured cost about $15 at Home Depot, Lowes or Amazon. We plein air painting types are notorious for trying to capture that last ray of setting sun and that is when we are most likely to get hit by a passing motorist. Headlights hitting the reflective stripe could be a life saver.
I also hang the luminous shirt on the roadside corner of my car because that shirt will be seen before my car.
Be trackable. Don’t rely on your smart phone. Before heading off on an unmarked trail or down that rarely traveled dirt road give some thought to the possibility of something going wrong and how you will handle it. As a society we have become too dependent on our smart phones and their GPS abilities. Anyone who has traveled west knows how difficult it is to find a signal in the mountains or northern Arizona for that matter. Good luck on much of Highway 1 along the California coast as well. How many of our smart phones require a four digit code to open? Heaven forbid, but if you are hurt, unconscious and someone else finds you, chances are they will try to use your phone to contact someone you know. If it is blocked because your phone needs a code, it can greatly hinder emergency personnel from contacting someone on your behalf. I had two personal experiences with this exact scenario just last year.
On the back of your phone tape the phone number of the person you need contacted if for some reason you are unable to make the call yourself and someone else needs do it on your behalf.
Now back to the Spot GPS device. The SPOT motion activated GPS is one of several type tracking devices on the market. I wear it clipped to my back pack. The Spot provides location-based messaging and emergency notifications that track you worldwide using satellite networking. There are no drop zones and once the SPOT is turned on you are immediately being tracked. Notice several buttons at the bottom. One is an “OK” button that notifies friends or family that everything is going as planned. Another button is for tracking so your contacts can track you on a map using their computer or smart device. Another is the S.O.S. button for emergency rescue. If you hit the S.O.S. button emergency crews are immediately notified of your location and dispatched to find you. To save battery life it shuts down when you stop moving for more than five minutes then starts up again when you begin moving.
What to do if you get lost?
Let’s assume first that you have left your plan with family, a friend, a park ranger or someone else you can depend on. When going hiking on an unfamiliar trail or down a road you are not real sure about, I make the following suggestions: Pay attention to your surroundings. Pick out landmarks going into a location so you will recognize them on the way out. Recognize when you are lost, turn around and go back. Monitor how you are feeling. Especially at high altitudes or in low humidity locations. Be aware of your physicality at all times. Hence the extra water and snacks. If you cannot get out on your own stay near an open area so emergency rescue can spot you from the air. Make a signal by placing your luminous shirt in open view. Start a fire for warmth at night and smoke during the day. And finally I thought I would share a few safety essentials I carry in my back pack and suggest you do the same. All of the items shown add about a pound to my pack.
Starting with the rather large knife on the left and going clockwise the following items are pictured: pocket knife, first aid kit, flashlight, utility tool, headlamp, emergency blanket and a 5-in-1 survival tool.
My latest addition is the lighted Powercap by Panther Vision. All my hunting buddies swear by them. Three different levels of light intensity provide plenty of hands free light. I want to try doing a nocturnal painting with it.
And finally the 5-in-1 survival tool. This tool is a must and should be every plein air painter’s back pack.
I hope you found this blog helpful and maybe gave you some food for thought on how to make your plein air experiences safe. If you have any safety tips that you use, not mentioned in the blog, please share. Happy painting everyone. “Runoff” 18″ x 24″ Oil/Linen
Way back in graduate school we were taught the importance of designing our drawings in such a way to influence the viewer’s eyesight so it traveled through the drawing and picked out the most important elements before moving on to the next drawing or piece of manuscript. At the time I was training to become a medical illustrator and our audience was surgeons who were studying how-to manuals for performing various surgical procedures. Our drawings were step-by-step instructions on how to do everything from an aortic valve replacement to brain surgery.
To demonstrate what I mean I photographed a recent painting from start to end. By following me through the steps I hope you will come to understand that there is more to copying a landscape to canvas. You must engage the viewer and you do that with design, color and controlling the viewer’s gaze. As is my custom I will be painting from the field study I painted on a trip to Carmel a couple of summers ago.
The plan is to have the viewer enter the painting at “A”, visually travel to “B” over to “C” then back down to “A” where the process starts over. If I pull this off the viewer will become engaged and visually travel through my entire painting.
Whether you are painting a few miles from home or hiking into the back woods ALWAYS let someone know your plan, including what time you plan to return. If your painting excursion takes you away from your group or public view, leave a written plan with someone you know, a park ranger, hotel clerk or even a gas station attendant. Include a trail map with your plan highlighted in red ink, vehicle description, vehicle license plate number and a recent photo. Most importantly, let them know when you plan to return.
Most of us tend to dress fairly drab because we don’t want a brightly colored shirt reflecting onto our canvas while we paint. The problem is we blend in and therefore are hard to spot, especially if we are standing on side of the road or, in a worst case scenario, become incapacitated deep in the woods or on side of a mountain. Taking a hint from my running buddies I have started wearing luminous shirts over my painting shirt while hiking into and out of a location.
In addition, when I am painting on side of the road I put out safety cones. I put one at least 500 feet away, then one half way and one right next to where I am painting. Make sure you get the ones that have the reflective stripe on them. The ones pictured cost about $15 at Home Depot, Lowes or Amazon. We plein air painting types are notorious for trying to capture that last ray of setting sun and that is when we are most likely to get hit by a passing motorist. Headlights hitting the reflective stripe could be a life saver.
Before heading off on an unmarked trail or down that rarely traveled dirt road give some thought to the possibility of something going wrong and how you will handle it. As a society we have become too dependent on our smart phones and their GPS abilities. Anyone who has traveled west knows how difficult it is to find a signal in the mountains or northern Arizona for that matter. Good luck on much of Highway 1 along the California coast as well.
How many of our smart phones require a four digit code to open? Heaven forbid, but if you are hurt, unconscious and someone else finds you, chances are they will try to use your phone to contact someone you know. If it is blocked because your phone needs a code, it can greatly hinder emergency personnel from contacting someone on your behalf. I had two personal experiences with this exact scenario just last year.
The SPOT motion activated GPS is one of several type tracking devices on the market. I wear it clipped to my back pack. The Spot provides location-based messaging and emergency notifications that track you worldwide using satellite networking. There are no drop zones and once the SPOT is turned on you are immediately being tracked. Notice several buttons at the bottom. One is an “OK” button that notifies friends or family that everything is going as planned. Another button is for tracking so your contacts can track you on a map using their computer or smart device. Another is the S.O.S. button for emergency rescue. If you hit the S.O.S. button emergency crews are immediately notified of your location and dispatched to find you. To save battery life it shuts down when you stop moving for more than five minutes then starts up again when you begin moving.
And finally I thought I would share a few safety essentials I carry in my back pack and suggest you do the same. All of the items shown add about a pound to my pack.
