The beauty of working at home is, that you can take as much time as you like for your painting. However, when you set foot outside, you are faced with a whole heap of problems.

As I may have mentioned in my other articles, you need to be both comfortable and warm. At all costs you need to keep your feet warm and wear old clothes with plenty of pockets. I also carry a hat that will fold up in my pocket.

You will come across many differences painting outside, often in inclement weather, so you need to be up for the challenge and also in the mood for it.

There are many drawbacks with working outside. The obvious one being the weather not holding up. What I tend to do, is make sure that I have already laid a fine undercoat on my surface before I set off. This, you will find, is a time saver, as you will come to the realisation that you need to work quickly.

What I personally find helpful, is to carry with me, like a cardboard frame border. I can then, after I have spent time looking at my subject, look through this and choose which bits I will draw.

You don’t want your painting to appear crammed full. This is why you only really have to draw certain parts that you actually see. Different parts would appeal to different artists. Some artists would like very strong subjects, with others favouring fragility. Less is usually better than more!

Get cracking by putting in some main lines with quite thin paint. You need your paint drying as soon as possible, so it is not worth trying to work at filling in all the white spaces.

The light can be going, a break in the weather etc. These are all normal conditions that you have to work around. Therefore, lay some of your colours, then try and get the main part of your painting filled in.

It is hard when you look at the picture you currently see to decide what colours to use. You need light and shade in your work, so this is something to bear in mind. So make sure you have both dark and light in your paintwork to give you good effects, shadows for example.

Like I said, do not spend much time filling in unnecessary details. The rule is just to do the basics. I am never afraid to put in strong details or not to do the actual same colours. After all, if the light changes you can hope it may change back again. You have to make a decision whether to stay or pack up and go home and complete it from memory.

It is very different and challenging to paint outdoors, but often the finished article is more dramatic and pleasing to the eye.