Karen McLain shows how to recycle an old laptop computer into a plein-air pochade easel. (Direct Link to Video)
Karen McLain's website
Showing posts with label Painting Gear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Painting Gear. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
How to turn a laptop into a pochade easel
Karen McLain shows how to recycle an old laptop computer into a plein-air pochade easel. (Direct Link to Video)
Karen McLain's website
Monday, September 9, 2013
Your DIY Watercolor Pochades
Mike Aspengren says: "I hope you share the construction plans for your watercolor sketchbook pochade contraption. I've already ordered the hinges from Amazon. :)"
Mike, I haven't drawn up plans yet for mine (it's still a work in progress). But several other GurneyJourneyers have shared photos of their interesting variations:
Patrick OHearn built a rig that he call the "Gurney Casein Traveler Mark II" and took it on a fishing trip to the Alsek River in southeast Alaska.
Jason Peck built the "Steampunk Watercolor Pochade."
Jason continues: "Here it is an its other configuration. If I flip it around, I can use the Grey palette for oils, or casein. I coated the grey palette in polyurethane."
Matthew Mattingly went mobile with his rig, which he calls the Bi-Sketch-Cycle.
He says: "I've been enjoying using the rig and experimenting with casein as a plein-air sketching medium."
Here is Matthew's "Clementine Caddy."
....and here's one more by John Trotter. The cruciform panel shape allows you to rubber-band the long horizontal sketchbook, or clip a larger watercolor block or panel if you prefer. Note the 4-prong T-nut (1/4 20)
mounted into the plywood to hold the unit to the tripod.
Thanks, all for sending in your improvements and innovations. I'm working on my Wingsuit Aerial Video Pochade System" but I can't find the right brass nuts.------
I explain my DIY sketchbook pochade in the cicada video
and in this post "Go Vertical"
Sources for gear:
Open Box M pochade easels
Friction Lid Support
Southco adjustable friction hinge
Patrick OHearn built a rig that he call the "Gurney Casein Traveler Mark II" and took it on a fishing trip to the Alsek River in southeast Alaska.
Pat says, "The paper support is made from epoxy-impregnated marine plywood and the fold-down palette is Alupanel, two thin wafers of painted aluminum sandwiching a resin core. Alupanel is used a lot in the sign industry and is very sturdy and very light weight. Hinges are Southco SC 773 adjustable friction hinges. The tripod is a Dolica TX570 ultra compact that folds down to 12.5". All of that plus the casein paints, brushes, moleskin watercolor notebook, and misc other stuff fits easily into a backpack, along with all necessary fly fishing gear, water, lunch, and bear spray."
Jason Peck built the "Steampunk Watercolor Pochade."
He says: "The side palette is attached using 2 S-shaped brackets and a binder clamp. I used those little S-shaped brackets that you use to hold a canvas in a picture frame. They come in different sizes. All you need is a couple of screws, washers and a nut. I found some fancy looking brass nuts at the hardware store. I'm using a metal key ring belt clip so that the magnet in my water cup has something to grab onto. The black palette is used sort of like a drafting table."
Jason continues: "Here it is an its other configuration. If I flip it around, I can use the Grey palette for oils, or casein. I coated the grey palette in polyurethane."
He says: "I've been enjoying using the rig and experimenting with casein as a plein-air sketching medium."
...and his rig in the tripod/umbrella configuration.
mounted into the plywood to hold the unit to the tripod.Thanks, all for sending in your improvements and innovations. I'm working on my Wingsuit Aerial Video Pochade System" but I can't find the right brass nuts.
I explain my DIY sketchbook pochade in the cicada video
and in this post "Go Vertical"
Sources for gear:
Open Box M pochade easels
Friction Lid Support
Southco adjustable friction hinge
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Plein Air Tip: Go Vertical
Here's a helpful tip when you're painting outdoors. Try to arrange the angle of the painting surface to be:
- 1. Vertical (or perpendicular to your line of sight)
- 2. Adjacent to the view you want to paint, and
- 3. About the same size as your field of view.
 |
| Oil painting in progress on an Open Box M pochade easel. |
- 1. Close to the painting,
- 2. Vertical also, or parallel to the painting surface,
- 3. In the same light as the painting.
If you can do all these things, it takes a lot of the guesswork out of drawing or painting what's in front of you. When you have to look 90 degrees to the side or down to your lap, or if you have to allow time for your eyes to adjust for brightness differences, it makes it harder to make accurate observations.
Getting this setup right may take a little while, because it involves coordinating a lot of separate factors: whether you're sitting or standing, the size of your panel, your distance from the subject, and your easel adjustments. And sometimes this set-up isn't possible, such as in a subway or a restaurant, but if you can prop a sketchbook up on your knee, it helps a lot.
This is the same basic idea as the sight-size method used in art academies, but I follow the method a little less strictly, and I try to match my painting size to my view at the given working distance, not to the actual size of the subject.
Here's my new DIY sketchbook pochade easel in action. The pochade mounts to a lightweight camera tripod. The sketchbook is clipped to a plywood board, below which is the palette holder, attached to the board by friction hinges
The palette is the metal lid from a pencil box spray-painted white and held on with Velcro. Some of these refinements come from your suggestions--so thanks!The angled camera bar has various holes for mounting video cameras. At the moment it's holding a GoPro
on a kitchen timer.
The camera bar swings up and down, and is held in position with the friction lid support at left. It is currently out of the way in the down position.----
Read more:
Marc Dalessio video showing his sight-size landscape setup
Darren Rousar's website explains sight-size method
David Kassan demos his "Parallel Palette"
I explain the DIY sketchbook pochade in the recent cicada video
Sources for gear:
Open Box M pochade easels
Friction Lid Support
Southco adjustable friction hinge
GoPro Hero
IKEA Ordning Kitchen Timer
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Plein Air Gouache in Monterey
Gouache—or opaque watercolor—is a wonderful sketching medium because it's so portable, opaque, and fast drying. It's well suited to oil painters who want to travel super-light. I had a few tubes with me at the Plein Air convention in Monterey last Sunday.
Good thing, because I needed something opaque to cover a failed page in my watercolor sketchbook (better than cutting a page out).
For this painting, I set out to capture a lineup of painters in a warm color range, gradating both the background color and the silhouettes as you shift to the left. The morning sun edge-lit the artists and their easels, helping to separate them in some places, while they merged into the tone at the base.
(Direct link to Video)
You can watch the painting being made on this short video. Note the skateboard dolly shots by my son Frank and his buddy Justin Critelli, who operated the cameras while steering dangerously between tippy easels.
-----
Subscribe for free to the James Gurney YouTube Channel and see the videos before anyone else.
Materials: Designers' Gouache
, Caran D'Ache watercolor pencils
, Moleskine Watercolor Notebook
, and various sizes of flat watercolor brushes.
Good thing, because I needed something opaque to cover a failed page in my watercolor sketchbook (better than cutting a page out).
For this painting, I set out to capture a lineup of painters in a warm color range, gradating both the background color and the silhouettes as you shift to the left. The morning sun edge-lit the artists and their easels, helping to separate them in some places, while they merged into the tone at the base.
(Direct link to Video)
You can watch the painting being made on this short video. Note the skateboard dolly shots by my son Frank and his buddy Justin Critelli, who operated the cameras while steering dangerously between tippy easels.
-----
Subscribe for free to the James Gurney YouTube Channel and see the videos before anyone else.
Materials: Designers' Gouache
, Caran D'Ache watercolor pencils, Moleskine Watercolor Notebook, and various sizes of flat watercolor brushes.Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Pocket Easel or Monopod
The pocket easel or monopod is a clever lightweight solution for the watercolor painter or sketch-group artist who wants something more portable than a standard field easel. 
(Drawing by Jack Merriott) The paper is attached to a stiff board, which is balanced on the knees. A single strut, made from three sections, clips to the board and holds up the far side.
Blog reader Dave Rolstone has made this monopod, and says:
My Monopod was made from one leg of a very old and cheap camera tripod on which the head had broken. I made it about five years ago with the intention of taking it hiking along with a lightweight three legged stool. I’ve also used it at Life Drawing to get a low angled view. But I do prefer to stand at an easel or pochade box so I can move about and stand back.
Thanks, Dave (and to your wife for modeling its use)
The idea comes from Jack Merriott's 1973 book Discovering Watercolour: A Comprehensive Home Study Course
Here's a more standard metal watercolor field easel
.Previously on GJ: Merriott's Railway Posters
