How to Draw Plein Air Landscape Art

What You'll Need

• •Sketchbook or panels/canvas boards with a toned ground
• •Pencils, charcoal, or a thin brush for an initial drawing
• •Oil paints, acrylics, gouache, or a digital painting app that supports layered brushes
• •A compact palette with a limited color set for faster color decisions
• •An easel, pochade box, or portable setup for outdoor work
• •Digital tools such as a drawing tablet, pressure-sensitive stylus, and brushes that mimic bristle, palette knife, and impasto texture

Step by Step

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   1. Choose a simple outdoor scene

   Start with a subject that has clear light and readable shapes, such as a tree line, a field, a shoreline, or a building edge in the distance. Avoid scenes with too many competing focal points, because plein air painting depends on quick, accurate decisions. Look for one strong light condition, like morning sidelight, late afternoon glow, or overcast softness. The goal is not to capture everything, but to make a clear visual statement about one moment.

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   2. Set up to observe the landscape directly

   Place your easel so you can see the scene comfortably without turning your head constantly. If possible, keep your palette close to the same light direction as the landscape so your color judgments stay consistent. Squint often to simplify the scene into large value masses. This helps you work from direct observation instead of relying on symbols or memory.

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   3. Make a quick composition sketch

   Use a pencil, charcoal, or a thin brush to make a simple drawing with the horizon, major land shapes, and main verticals or diagonals. Keep the drawing loose but accurate enough to establish proportion and placement. Focus on the big design: where the darkest darks go, where the lightest lights will sit, and how the eye will move through the scene. At this stage, avoid tiny details and try to create a strong, balanced arrangement.

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   4. Block in the largest value shapes

   Make an underpainting or first pass with broad shapes for sky, land, shadow, and major forms. Use a limited range of values so the structure reads clearly from a distance. In plein air work, the landscape should feel organized before color refinement begins. If a shape is wrong now, correct it early; it is much easier than fixing it later under layers of paint.

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   5. Mix color for the light you actually see

   Observe the local color of each object and the color of the light affecting it. Outdoor color is rarely simple: a green field may lean warm in sunlight and cool in shadow, while a white cloud may carry blue, gray, or peach notes. Mix smaller amounts of paint and compare them directly to the scene instead of guessing from memory. Try to capture relationships first, not isolated color facts.

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   6. Use broken color and confident marks

   Apply paint in visible strokes that allow nearby colors to interact optically. Instead of blending every passage smooth, place adjacent strokes of related hues so the viewer’s eye mixes them at a distance. This creates the lively surface associated with plein air landscapes. Keep your brushwork purposeful and varied: broader strokes for sky and distant masses, slightly more textured marks for foliage, earth, and foreground accents.

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   7. Keep the painting fresh with alla prima thinking

   Work wet-into-wet when possible and make decisions with enough speed to preserve the original outdoor impression. Try to finish the major effects in one session or in a small number of closely observed sessions, especially if the light is changing. If a passage becomes stiff, step back and simplify instead of laboring over it. The aim is a living surface, not a polished illustration.

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   8. Add selective detail and texture

   Only sharpen areas that support the focal point or clarify the design. Add thicker paint or impasto where sunlight catches edges, tree bark, rocks, or other tactile surfaces. Leave some support showing through in quieter areas if it helps the painting breathe. A few well-placed accents often do more than a fully rendered surface.

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   9. Check the whole painting before stopping

   Compare the entire work to the scene and ask whether the light still feels believable. Adjust the darkest darks, lightest lights, and major temperature relationships so the image reads as one unified moment. Stop before the painting becomes overfitted with detail. In plein air landscape work, stopping slightly early is often better than pushing past the freshness that makes the style work.

Going Digital

To make this style digitally, use a canvas texture and brushes that simulate bristle marks, broken edges, and opaque paint buildup. Paint on fewer layers when possible and block in the scene broadly before refining. Build optical mixing by placing separate strokes of warm and cool color next to each other rather than smoothing everything with heavy blending, and keep some underpainting or textured ground visible for the exposed-support feel.

Common Mistakes

FAQ