From Plein Air Fail to Moose Painting Obsession
Plein Airpril, Moose Migration, and Landscape Painting
Hello everyone! 😁
May is here! Summer heat is almost here too. Not a big fan of that, sadly.
April means Plein Airpril! It’s this monthly art challenge created by Warrior Painters, where the goal is to paint outdoors or at least paint outdoor things. They give you themes if you want them, but honestly, you can totally skip that part and just go with your own vibe.
But you know what also happens in April here in Sweden? The great moose migration! There’s a live stream of it, yes, real moose, live and I’ve been completely hooked. They even started the stream earlier this year because the moose were already on the move. It’s basically Moose TV, and I love having it on in the background.
Inspired by the stream, I’ve been sketching what I see in my little grey sketchbook. Just using a grey Copic marker, a brush pen, and a white Gelly Roll. Super chill vibes. I did try starting with a whole scene at first... yeah, that was way too much. So I scaled it down. Now I just pick a small subject, a rock, a tree, something like that. Even animals when I’m lucky. But of course, the second I sit down to sketch, the moose are gone. Typical.
Even though I haven’t done any actual Plein Airpril paintings, I’ve still been in full-on moose mode. I recently got a new landscape painting course (more on that next time!), and suddenly I’ve painted three different moose landscapes. Three! I had never even drawn a moose before this. And get this, I used to hate painting landscapes. But this course actually helped me enjoy it. Now I just have to fight myself... and colors. Because I can follow a course maybe once or twice before the “how-to” knowledge floats away again. We’ll talk about that later.
I also picked up my iPad Pro again (with Paperlike on it!) and started painting those moose scenes in Procreate. It reminded me how nice that setup is. Oh, and I just got a new (refurbished) iPad Pro with the M2 chip!😁 It arrived last week, but I haven’t painted much on it yet. Creativity dipped a little and, well, life happened.
Still, having that live stream playing has been such a peaceful way to reconnect with drawing. If you ever need something to relax to while sketching, try a nature or animal livestream. There are so many out there, you just have to know where to look.
This whole moose migration stream gave me a real creative moment, and I’m honestly just happy about that. Sure, no Plein Airpril paintings from me this time, and that’s totally okay.
I’ve also realized that trying to copy exactly what I see kind of ruins it for me. I start focusing too much on making it "realistic" and forget to just enjoy the process. I’d rather simplify and make it mine.
Maybe one day I’ll be able to conquer the whole plein air painting thing. But for now? This moose sketching moment will do just fine.
Oh, and if you're wondering about the stream, no clue if it’s still live when this post goes up. Sorry! 🙁
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