Saturday Plein Air - Sycamore Creek park

Today was beautiful! The weather finally broke from a long string of weeks of hot humid weather. We painted in Pickerington at their city park, Sycamore Creek. We've painted here in the past, and we looked forward to painting there again.

I painted looking across the pond to the willows. I've been working on brushwork and color mixing and feel I have achieved Ohio Green in my recent paintings. Now I need to work on painting more things than just TREES!

The surface I painted on today was a masonite panel with gesso that I toned with a warm tone. This brand of gesso dried very rough and really sucked the oil out of my paint. I don't mind that generally, but this was a bit too much. I may have to put another coat with a different brand on top of the other panels I prepared at the same time.

I have also been testing different devices for taking my photos in the field. Today, I was using my cellphone camera with an app I downloaded. The original cell phone camera is good, but there are only minimal options for customization, so I thought I'd try an app. I found "Open Camera" which has a huge number of settings, just like a regular camera. I thought this was going to be great! I've been disappointed in it, so may have to delete it.

I also recently bought a Nikon point and shoot camera. It has it's own quirks. I've been a Canon buyer for years, but thought I'd give Nikon a shot. Seems like I can't get a happy medium. The photos below are a combination of cell phone and Nikon.

 Added basic composition with a compressed charcoal.

 Midway into painting. Sucking the oil out of the paint, but liked the dry brush look.

Willows, 9x12, oil on panel