Plein air watercolor set up

What’s the best palette for painters? We asked, and you answered! More than 25 artists share their favorites here (including DIY palettes).

Getting started with watercolor plein air is easier than you think! In today’s post, I'll share my top 5 favorite plein air painting setups.

Watercolour The painting outfit that I use at the present moment. I used to sit cross legged on the ground and paint on a block with the pallete sitting beside me when I first started doing waterco…

UPDATE: June 2022: My Plein Air Online Course: Painting Land and Sea is Now Available Painting outdoors en plein air can be invigorating, inspiring, meditative... and frustrating, inhibiting, and uncomfortable! I like comfort, so I've done a lot of research to assemble a plein air kit that is lightweight, stable, and functional.By nature I am a studio painter: I like a chair, regulated temperature, controlled lighting, access to all my materials, and most of all.... NO BUGS. But despite the…

In this post I'll do much more than just give you some great tips for Plein Air watercolor painting (Though I'll do that too). I'll also give you some

Plein Air Easels for Kids

An inexpensive and simple DIY plein air painting easel for watercolor or gouache inspired by artist/illustrator James Gurney.

Inspired by other plein air sketcher's palettes , I decide to try and make my own custom easel. It was fast, cheap and works great! I bought one sheet of coroplast from Staples, folded it over for extra strength, and then cut the holes to my specific needs. My little palette has a thumb ring on t

My last post about painting in the car got a lot of interest. I’ve been doing this for a long time, so I’ve got my system down pretty well. This is my kit for painting while in the pass…

For a perfect plein air palette, mix personal taste with tried-and-true principles of color selection—with expert advice from Michael Chesley Johnson.