You’re likely familiar with Vincent Van Gogh, a famous artist who is known for portraying his unique perceptions through his art.

His art pieces are distinct. Van Gogh utilized impressionism, an art style that uses bold brushstrokes and bright colors to reflect the artist’s impression of what they’re seeing, which is quite often different from the realistic view.

As a result, even scenarios you might deem mundane, such as his room (The Bedroom) and a busy street in the South of France (Café Terrace at Night) became a few of his renowned masterpieces.

Why are we mentioning Van Gogh in a piece about sketching? Because Van Gogh’s approach can serve as inspiration. Whether you’re just starting out or you’re a novice, sketching is all about drawing what you see — your perception.

If you’re looking to improve your skills in sketching, whether it’s a sketch hand drawing or a beautiful landscape from the hills, you’ve come to the right place.

In this article, we’ll share tips for sketching outdoors, including the benefits and pencil techniques you can use to improve your skills.

Pencils ready? Let’s start.

Pencil Techniques For Sketching
Before diving into the tips, it’s important to know about different pencil techniques.
You may want to switch back and forth between techniques, depending on what you’re sketching. These techniques can bring your sketches to another level and help improve your skills in drawing.

The pencil is a flexible tool in sketching because you can create simple lines and complex shading to add depth to your sketch.

Here are six pencil techniques you can use:

● Hatching: Hatching is a drawing technique that uses parallel lines to create a shading effect

● Cross Hatching: Cross hatching is drawing an array of parallel lines that intersect with each other to form a mesh-like pattern

● Stippling: Stippling is a technique that uses numerous dots to add depth and shade to your drawing

● Scribbling: Scribbling uses inconsistent and abstract lines to form an image

● Smudging: Smudging is a technique that allows your sketch to achieve a blurred shadow by rubbing your fingertips on graphite

● Rendering: Rendering is a drawing technique that utilizes an eraser to remove the graphite from your sketching paper to produce a soft and blurred effect.

4 Tips For Sketching Outdoors To Improve Your Skills
More than just an enjoyable experience, sketching outdoors helps you become a better artist because you’re dealing with different surroundings rather than a more controlled setting when you’re in a comfortable environment indoors.

Here are four tips to improve your skills when sketching outdoors:

1. Ensure You Wear Clothes That Fit The Weather
Picture this: it’s sunny and you’re at the park sketching a small crowd of people.
You lose track of time and when you get home, you see that you have turned into a shade of cherry red. Yikes!

Check your local weather forecast and ensure that you wear comfortable clothes before setting out into the great outdoors.

If it’s sunny, wear a cotton shirt and bring sun cream, and if it’s cold or windy, put on a jacket.

Ultimately, the right clothes ensure that you don’t get a sunburn or a cold and allows you to concentrate on sketching!

2. Plan Your Sketching Route
Now ask yourself, where do you want to find inspiration to draw?

Would you like to go to the countryside and draw a scenic landscape or maybe opt for the local café in your city to get a view of the busy streets?

Plan where you want to go ahead of time, including and how to get there. Planning your travel can help ensure you arrive at your destination at perfect time — especially if your goal is to catch a sunrise or sunset!

3. Select Your Art Tools
Instead of carrying an easel or a heavy box of art materials, only carry the tools you need to allow you easier mobility.

Here are the tools you’ll need to sketch outdoors:

● H pencil: H pencils or hard pencils are used for light shading

● HB pencil: HB or hard black pencils are used for simple sketches

● 4B pencil: A 4B pencil is a type of black pencil that’s used for darker shading

● Sharpener: A sharpener is used to shave your pencil’s tip or lead to create finer lines and intricate details

● Soft vinyl eraser: An eraser used to blur edges, highlight and erase your pencil lines to give your sketch a clean finish

● Watercolor: A watercolor is a type of water-based art media that adds mood and brings your drawing to life

● Round brush: A round brush is a type of watercolor brush that’s used for delicate lines and small details

● Sketch paper: A sketch paper is used for practice drawing and works best for graphite and charcoal media

● Art bag: A bag that has numerous compartments to store your art supplies.

4. Utilize Your Perception

Sketching is the art of creating a rough drawing or outline, so don’t beat yourself if you don’t draw the small details perfectly!

Say you found a large crowd of people on the street.

Instead of drawing every single person you see, which can be time-consuming and stressful, you can opt to sketch the scene by quickly making a rough outline of their shapes.

An example of capturing a scene’s essence is Vincent Van Gogh’s Café Terrace at Night.

Van Gogh utilized irregular lines to portray the cobblestone street, different shades of yellow to achieve a light shining from the café, and shades of blue and violet to illustrate a starry night.

Benefits Of Sketching
Sketching is an exercise for the mind, eyes and hands. It comes with different mental and cognitive benefits, from managing your stress levels to improving the way you think.

● Develops Your Creativity
A 2012 study conducted by the National Center of Biotechnology Information found that drawing enables you to think outside the box or to explore ideas that are not limited to a set of rules.

Art is subjective and depends on your preference and expression.

No one will be grading your work so let your imagination run free!

● Enhances Your Strategic Thinking
Since you need to go outside of your comfort zone, sketching requires you to think because there is no set of rules to follow.

For example, if you ask different artists to draw a flower, you won’t get a standardized image.

One may sketch the flower using abstract shapes and a blur of colors, while another artist may create a more lifelike drawing to visualize their perception of a flower.

● Improves Your Mental Health
A recent study found that drawing and coloring promote your emotional well-being and help manage your stress levels.

Drawing allows your brain to release serotonin or happiness hormones and provides a calming method to focus your attention on.

Like drawing, coloring allows your mind to relax from racing thoughts.

● Improves Your Hand-Eye Coordination
Drawing develops your motor skills (moving your body to perform tasks) and hand-eye coordination since you’re only relying on your observations, instincts and your hand to create an image.

A drawing exercise that improves your hand-eye coordination is blind contour drawing, a drawing process that requires you to not look at your paper.

When you sketch without looking at your paper, the left side of your brain, which controls information processing, rejects spatial awareness or how something looks in reality.

As a result, it allows the right side of your brain or your creativity to take over.
This exercise enhances your overall coordination by trusting the movement of your hands without depending on drawing patterns from your memory.

Key Takeaways On Tips For Sketching Outdoors
Whether you’re only using a pencil or utilizing watercolors to add emotion and depth to your drawing, outdoor sketching is more than having a piece of art that follows a set of rules.

Sketching outdoors is all about improving your observation skills and strategic thinking, and most importantly — having fun!

We hope that our tips will help you progress in your journey of being a skilled artist!