Painting on pedal enclosures presents a number of challenges that painting on traditional mediums does not. For instance, a pedal enclosure is made of metal and does not absorb water or paint like canvas or paper does. You also have to work around knob and footswitch placements, and the surface area is typically much smaller than normal – almost like painting a thumbnail image. These are challenges we will always have to work with, but to keep our painting skills sharp, we do a lot of plein air paintings.
Plein air painting is just a fancy term for painting outdoors. Although we use a different paint medium when painting plein air (gouache) than painting on pedals (acrylic), they react to water in a similar way when thinned with water, so familiarizing ourselves with the way the paint works on location helps to know how the paint is going to react on an enclosure as well. Another challenge with plein air painting is the constantly changing light. This encourages the habit of painting deliberately to save time before the light changes. Every brushstroke counts!
