PAINTING OUTDOORS
At the age of fourteen I started painting scenes out doors. After watching Mr Robert Payne, the schoolmaster I mentioned in the first chapter. This means you will need some equipment that can be easily carried in a small haversack or pockets. If you are going to stand you may need a portable easel, and a paint box that will stay flat on your thumb and a pot of water that can be hung on the easel. The other way is to have a sketchbook and a stool. The stool needs to be about the right height for comfort, both to hold the sketchbook on you knees and also to be able to reach a large pot of water on the ground. Make yourself as comfortable as you possibly can so that you can fully concentrate on the job at hand. Do not worry about anything else. Do not get engaged in conversation with passers by or members of the public. At least not until you have been sketching many times. Do not worry about what they may think or say, In any case they will not be as good as you are - and if they are any good they will respect that you are working and will need to get on with your work.
At fourteen years old, in Cornwall, I sketched up and down the lane with paper on a knee easel sitting on a three-legged milking stool or standing with pen or pencil. Back in London I continued to draw and paint outdoors. I learned to use pastels oil paints and acrylics. I also used water-soluble pencils for sketching and found them very convenient, as they, with one medium size paint brush and water, will be all that is needed to produce a reasonable sketch to be painted up large on returning home.
