Artists who love working outdoors in watercolor sometimes complain that PleinAir magazine pays too much attention to oil painters. To help remedy that perceived imbalance, Editor Steve Doherty spent several days in San Antonio, TX familiarizing himself with the work of hundreds of watercolorists as he judged the annual exhibition of the Texas Watercolor Society, and he taught a workshop in plein air watercolor painting.

In the digital edition of the February/March issue of PleinAir magazine, Minnesota artist Andy Evansen (www.andyevansen.com) offers a demonstration of how he uses quick value studies to establish effective compositions of his plein air landscape. He also provides an explanation of how he used one of those sketches when painting on location with transparent watercolors.