I had the opportunity to paint with watercolor sketch artist and author of Direct Watercolor, Marc Taro Holmes, in Montreal, Canada. In this video Marc and I paint at historic Stewart Hall in Pointe Claire, Montreal, Canada, and talk about the challenges of plein air sketching.
Marc is an experienced urban sketch artist who has grown to love the direct watercolor approach to plein air painting; spending less time with pencil or ink, and painting with spontaneity and immediacy.
Marc Taro Holmes is the author of four books, including The Urban Sketcher and Direct Watercolor. His web site is citizensketcher.com/
I learned so much from this lesson about supplies for watercolor plein air painting, techniques for watercolor sketching and which paint colors to put in your travel palette for watercolor plein air painting. Marc makes watercolor sketching feel approachable and natural; I love his perspective that the point of painting on location is to connect more deeply with your environment and that your plein air sketches serve as a visual journal of your experiences and travels.
There is a companion video to this lesson, where Marc talks about his sketching set up and reasons for choosing plein air sketching. I've also included the FULL length demonstration as a part of this set of videos: learn.angelafehr.com/p/plein-...
+++Links referenced in this lesson:+++
Books by Marc Taro Holmes:
Direct Watercolor (my favorite!) amzn.to/2WlgFB0 (paid link)
The Urban Sketcher
Marc's favorite supplies for plein air painting:
Marc's supply knowledge base: citizensketcher.com/class-notes/
Colors in his palette (paid link): bit.ly/2MVdSeI
From Daniel Smith: Titanium White, Buff Titanium, Graphite Grey, Indigo, Neutral Tint, Titanate Yellow, Naples Yellow, Goethite Brown Ochre, Quinacridone Gold Deep, Green Gold, Olive Green, Perylene Green, Pyrrol Orange, Perylene Maroon, Raw Umber, Bloodstone Genuine, Lunar Black
From Holbein: Grey of Grey, Tyrian Purple
M. Graham: Transparent Red Iron Oxide
Artists who inspire Marc:
** I have a good article on what I learned from John Singer Sargent here : citizensketcher.com/top-posts...
** Re: Researching colors, I learned a lot from Jane Blundel : www.janeblundellart.com/ and Bruce MacEvoy : www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/wate...
** Re: Learning to paint, the guy I read/watched the most was Joseph Zbukvic : www.josephzbukvic.com/
**To find out about Urban Sketchers, you can follow the Facebook Group: / urbansketchers
**Here is the list of regional groups to find some actual people to meet. www.urbansketchers.org/p/list-... if you're on holiday somewhere, check here to see if there's a local group, and often - just like we did - someone in town will be happy to meet you to go sketching!