The Autumn Plein Air Drawing with Colored Pencil Challenge is now over. I set out to draw ten plein air sketches between September 1 and October 31. Did I succeed?
Yes! I ended up with 14 drawings. Topics and techniques varied, but I met my goal.
I began and ended with a tree drawing. Nature turned out to be the most frequently visited subject. No surprise there, I suppose, given my inclination to draw landscapes and horses.
The most unusual thing I drew during the challenge was my subject for week 6.
The most fun thing to draw was the portion of rotted board I drew in the fourth week.
Here is the complete collection of plein air drawings. Click on the “week headings” to read more about each one.
Colored Pencil Plein Drawing Collection
Week 1
Getting started on anything is almost always the most difficult part of the project. Yes, I love to start new things, but sometimes it’s a big step.
And very challenging!
So I started with something familiar. A tree.
Week 2
The sky, and particularly clouds, have long fascinated me. I love weather. Like many others, severe storm warnings send me outside to watch and take pictures. Things have to get pretty bad before I head for the storm shelter. A characteristic that goes way back to childhood.
I drew two versions of the sky for the second week.
Week 3
Another drawing of the sky for week 3. This time, I used water soluble colored pencils, just to see how they performed.
This is also the only plein air drawing for which I did a little studio work afterward.
Week 4
Another favorite subject for the fourth week. Wood. This time a decaying plank from the back porch.
If I remember correctly, these same planks were the subject for an article on drawing realistic wood grain that I wrote for EmptyEasel some time ago.
Week 5
Back to trees and traditional colored pencils this week. But I used only three colors—a cool dark and a warm light for the tree and a touch of green around it—and a method that involved using nothing but line quality. An interesting experiment and pleasing results.
Week 6
A subject of a different nature for week six. This is the only man-made item I drew. Do you know what it is? Although I prefer drawing nature, I did want to stretch my drawing skills a little, so chose this coil of extension cord. Not a bad effort, if I say so myself.
Week 7
More wood, this time the top of a fence post. I used water soluble pencils for this, but used them in a traditional manner. The drawing began with a green under drawing over which I developed value and detail. I liked working with the water soluble pencils, but getting truly dark values was much more difficult because the pencils were so dry and hard. If I remember correctly, this is also the only subject that I revisited. I worked on it two days.
Week 8
Water media! The top drawing is watercolor. I intended to draw a wash of watercolor for colored pencil, but it was a cool evening and by the time the watercolor dried, the light was gone.
This drawing is water soluble pencil and another view of another evening. Alas! It didn’t turn out either, but at least it had colored pencil work in it.
Week 9
Somehow, it seems appropriate to save the best for last. I had just enough time while waiting for someone to draw this sprig of leaves. Of all the drawings I drew for this challenge, this one is my favorite. What do you think? It’s amazing what you can do with one pencil, one piece of paper, and a few minutes, isn’t it?
Colored Pencil Plein Air Drawing Week 10 Wrap-up
Did everything turn out the way I hoped it would? No, but then it rarely ever does. I always expect every drawing to be perfect and to be a masterpiece. As pleasing as some of these drawings are, none of them are perfect and I don’t think there’s a masterpiece among them.
But I did have fun and I did learn a few things during the challenge. First that it’s easier to draw from life than I anticipated. All I had to do was find my subject and identify the major details.
Is plein air drawing going to become part of my weekly routine? Probably not, but only because it’s so difficult to get outside some weeks.
I may instead incorporate life drawing into my routine more often. There were a few weeks when weather, health or circumstance made it a challenge to get outside to draw, but when I could have drawn something inside without difficulty.
Did you take the Autumn Plein Air Drawing challenge? If you did, how did you do?
