Last week the Plein Air painting group that I belong to met at a beautiful home in Knoxville that overlooks part of the Tennessee River and the Smoky Mountains. It was a gorgeous, sunny day and twelve artists gathered to paint the beautiful scenery. I am still relatively new to painting outdoors and to add more to the creative challenge I have been trying to paint with oils.
I am using water soluble oil paints which make clean up easier but the painting process is SO different from watercolor that it still feels foreign to me. With watercolor you paint light to dark, using the white of the paper for your lightest values. With oils, you paint dark to light and use white paint to lighten your colors. It is getting a little bit easier, but I still end up with a darker painting than I want. I keep forgetting to mix in that titanium white!
