Although a majority of Leisure Painter tutors extol the benefits of painting outdoors and from life, we are also aware of how challenging it can be for most of us at times. Even when you overcome the shyness of painting in public, there are issues surrounding limited time or mobility, and ensuring you are safe and happy when painting outdoors. This month’s issue is packed full of advice on how to make the most of the British summer to paint En plein air and how you can achieve similar fresh results when you paint from photographs and sketches indoors.
Your choice of medium plays a huge role in producing the outcomes you are working towards. If you are looking for sketchbook inspiration, Tim Fisher demonstrates five techniques to produce one painting using water-soluble coloured pencils (pages 15 to 19). Paul Alcock (pages 23 to 25) also discusses the importance of sketches when painting from photographs of a harbour scene in this month’s painting project – in particular the importance of making tonal sketches using simple brush pens, and how to look at and simplify complicated detail.