My first Plein air attempt

Hint and tip -- just keep painting! Technique will come when you've developed a repertoire of brush-handling skills, and those don't just happen (I do wish they did!) they arise out of practice. There's not much light and shade in this, you've used colour to suggest everything (and there are plenty of accomplished painters who do just that), and perhaps you could do with adding a little more white to some of your tones, just to give you a lighter picture - start with the darker tones, work up to the lighter ones. But your drawing is good - the boat/barge looks right, the pollard trees along the embankment look as I remember them looking when I last ventured onto the canals, and yes you could have done with some smaller brushes, but you don't want to worry too much about that at this stage - get the big shapes blocked in, don't get too caught up with detail at this stage. Maybe you might try mixing a black, rather than using one from the tube (any mix of the three primaries, red, yellow and blue, will give you a variety of blacks, and more subtle greys if you add a little white) but I think I'm taking a shovel to a soufflé here: you're doing absolutely the right thing, painting en plein air (or 'outdoors', as one of our sadly deceased members would have it!), you've got a strong image on a fairly small canvas (bigger ones, canvas or boards, tend in my opinion to be a bit easier to start with) and if this is an early effort I think you've done well. Keep doing it. I think any of us here would say we'd have been very pleased if our earliest oils had turned out like this.

When working outdoors, or even plein air, I usually start with a Notan sketch, which is just jargon for a tonal sketch to identify the lights, darks and mid tones. There is no need for detail in a Notan just block shapes using three or four pens for the various shades. It tests composition as well as giving you a structure to commencing the painting.

Well done on just getting out there and giving it a go. I still haven't tried this yet. I have done sketching but not painting. You feel like everyone's looking at you, don't you. I don't think they are, or if they are they are looking and wishing they could do it I recon. It's still nerve wracking at first tho isn't it. Keep it up you will crack it. Practice makes perfect.