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| Detail of A Plein Air Oil Painting I did in 2006 on San Juan Island, Washington |
Becoming familiar with the color wheel and acquiring hands-on experience mixing different colors and seeing what happens helps artists get where they want to go because they learn which colors to add or refrain from adding to a painting so the painting more closely depicts the image as an artist's mind sees it.
I believe the lack of understanding colors is the biggest stumbling block for those desiring fluent tools with which to create art. When an artist has a good understanding of color, then addressing shape, form, and lighting, or mood in a painting happens easier.
Please forgive me, if anything I share is below your knowledge.
A student asked me to break down painting, into clearly defined steps. I can get to the basics of set up, what to have on hand, what I think about, how I move forward, and then… a big abyss opens in my mind and I have a hard time articulating the next steps.
They are choices. Decisions made based on the current information about the painting, as well as my mood, how much time I have to paint.
At any point, what to do next depends on how that painting evolves. It is infinitely variable. It is based on all the previous decisions. And whether I am patient.
They are choices. Decisions made based on the current information about the painting, as well as my mood, how much time I have to paint.
At any point, what to do next depends on how that painting evolves. It is infinitely variable. It is based on all the previous decisions. And whether I am patient.
I do not paint systematically like paint by number set. I paint in order of what draws my attention, or in accordance to the color I have on my brush and where I see the painting calls for me to add to it somehow. I listen. I listen for internal guidance about where to start and how to proceed.
I know it's a bit etherial; I listen to the painting. And where it is calling to have color or marks to note its beginning and becoming. Paintings evolve. And they often evolve to something other than a creator had in mind, because… some artists say paintings have a mind of their own. Perhaps this is how the subconscious communicates to us what is going on beneath the surface of what is already known.
If you think of a painting guiding you, letting you know what needs to be put where, it can take a little pressure off you making that decision mentally. Listen with your heart. Art is much more intuitive, so learning to listen to that message and inclination is helpful.
If you think of a painting guiding you, letting you know what needs to be put where, it can take a little pressure off you making that decision mentally. Listen with your heart. Art is much more intuitive, so learning to listen to that message and inclination is helpful.
The steps of painting: each step involves all the decisions I make as I paint and observe the results I am getting, as I try different ways of depicting what I see and evaluate or compare to what I want to obtain with each added paint stroke, within a painted image. Or I get reckless and I simply try stuff. Random efforts or calculated efforts, sometimes when I just trust and move forward.
To put things into perspective, though I have been a very confident painter (most of the time), it was only in 2012, after nearly 50 years of creating art that I suddenly realized, (while painting a mural in December outside in nearly freezing weather), that I was no longer afraid of paint! That was incredibly freeing! I was no longer afraid I would not be able to adjust a painting to suit me. It is quite freeing to not fear the results. (More on this later).
To put things into perspective, though I have been a very confident painter (most of the time), it was only in 2012, after nearly 50 years of creating art that I suddenly realized, (while painting a mural in December outside in nearly freezing weather), that I was no longer afraid of paint! That was incredibly freeing! I was no longer afraid I would not be able to adjust a painting to suit me. It is quite freeing to not fear the results. (More on this later).
Painting may seem easier than it really is.
Actually painting as a activity, is easy. However achieving a desired result is sometimes tricky; it requires hand eye coordination, patience, (lots of it), and and ability to be with the painting while it is not yet finished and may give every indication that it is not what a painter had in mind – yet. This is a lot like life. Learning to be with something in process, that is not finished yet. Living with incompleteness is a challenge, especially if we have the expectation of already wanting to have arrived.
When people ask me at a street painting festival what happens if I do not finish in time. And I laugh. I tell them. "If I do not finish before the end of the last day, at 6 pm on Sunday, I call it done." There is no way to not "finish". When you decide you are done with a painting. You are done. You may come back to it later, repaint it, change it or completely paint over it. But at the time you called it done, it is done. Much of my abilities to address problems in paintings evolved to seem easy, months or years later. All is much better when I relax. But I did not begin that way. I began with such high frustration issues that i would put projects away until my upset passed so I would not ruin something out of frustration.
Some teachers told me it takes two people to complete a painting. One to paint it and another to indicate when to stop. They often wanted to be the one who told me to stop way sooner than I was ready to call it complete. The saying made me laugh, because I was notorious for over working my paintings. Without being able to recognize it at the time.
When people ask me at a street painting festival what happens if I do not finish in time. And I laugh. I tell them. "If I do not finish before the end of the last day, at 6 pm on Sunday, I call it done." There is no way to not "finish". When you decide you are done with a painting. You are done. You may come back to it later, repaint it, change it or completely paint over it. But at the time you called it done, it is done. Much of my abilities to address problems in paintings evolved to seem easy, months or years later. All is much better when I relax. But I did not begin that way. I began with such high frustration issues that i would put projects away until my upset passed so I would not ruin something out of frustration.
Some teachers told me it takes two people to complete a painting. One to paint it and another to indicate when to stop. They often wanted to be the one who told me to stop way sooner than I was ready to call it complete. The saying made me laugh, because I was notorious for over working my paintings. Without being able to recognize it at the time.
These days I use a vibrational measure to asses completion. I assess, "Does it sing?" I know another odd way to approach artwork. It is a little bit like balancing huge rocks at the beach, in a river or on the top of a hill. There is a feeling inside my bones that lets me know the stack is in balance, and I can stop adjusting and feel the harmony of something in balance. When a painting meets that criteria, and the harmony vibrates, and it feels to me that the image sings. I am most satisfied when I work an image until I hear its completion song.
If I am not paying attention to this potential song early on, I might paint past the completion song, and miss it altogether and paint it out of harmony into chaos again…
in that case, it is like being in a spiral dance, I may keep painting until I hit another harmonious balance moment that will come around again, eventually.
If I have four days for a street painting, it take four days. Typically the amount of effort put into a painting will fill the allotted time, and then some, just to fix or adjust or correct or change that little itty bit that may not have been in the choir-song toward the end. But that nitpicking can go on and on and on if you let it. Street Painting events have an ending point which helped teach me to quit and enjoy looking at the finished work of Art. I can never go back and change or alter any of those images – they were in chalk and are long gone.
If I am not paying attention to this potential song early on, I might paint past the completion song, and miss it altogether and paint it out of harmony into chaos again…
in that case, it is like being in a spiral dance, I may keep painting until I hit another harmonious balance moment that will come around again, eventually.
If I have four days for a street painting, it take four days. Typically the amount of effort put into a painting will fill the allotted time, and then some, just to fix or adjust or correct or change that little itty bit that may not have been in the choir-song toward the end. But that nitpicking can go on and on and on if you let it. Street Painting events have an ending point which helped teach me to quit and enjoy looking at the finished work of Art. I can never go back and change or alter any of those images – they were in chalk and are long gone.
Learning to love the results helps keep artists producing art. As soon as displeasure escalates beyond enjoyment, people freeze and creativity may shut turn off until the activity is restarted and someone works through the difficulty or what was not happening according to a desired result.
Having strong opinions fuels creativity – unless those opinions are about the result being not good enough.
I am no longer a beginner. In many ways, I am masterful. However I am also always discovering and learning as well. Being too sure is not helpful to a creative process. Lots of people like to maintain a "Beginner's Mind" in life about most things; because being curious and interested in the process is helpful, versus too established in what is known. This is true with creating art as well.
I am familiar with and can articulate many minute aspects of how to get where I want to go, yet, I might not even notice all the subtle shifts I make to adjust my work in accordance with how the aesthetics of a painting appeals to me. These color or design shifts are often very subtle.
While painting, I also have to be selective about which aspects I will put into a particular painting. As I cannot include all styles or aspects in one painting if I want it to make sense to me, I have to select and chose, and remember the direction I was heading, or it could get complicated and very messy fast.
While painting, I also have to be selective about which aspects I will put into a particular painting. As I cannot include all styles or aspects in one painting if I want it to make sense to me, I have to select and chose, and remember the direction I was heading, or it could get complicated and very messy fast.
Before I get to the actual painting techniques, I want to bring your attention to these aspects, which are tightly integrated within the painting process:
Consider these, as in, notice. Creating Art is an observational process, it begins with noticing.
Just consider these:
1) How do we see what we are looking at? How is your view of it different or unique?
What do we notice. What aspects matter to us enough to include in a painting?
What matters to you?
2) What do we most want to preserve in order to tell the "story" of the image?
3) What do we want to accent, or minimize, in lighting or color or shadow, etc?
4) How do we want to depict what we see? Realistically? Figuratively, Impressionistically? Suggestively?
5) What color choices do we make? Bright? Saturated? Calm? Muted?
6) What brush size? Soft smooth blended strokes? or rough choppy paint -filled strokes?
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