The Laziness Factor

This morning it occurred to me that often my paintings succeed or fail based on how lazy I am. In the past, I have been given advice by teachers and peers that I know is sound, but I am too lazy to do what they recommend consistently, if at all. I know I am not alone in this, so read on if you want to see if any of these apply to you:

• A sketch done before you begin painting will save you a world of hurt later. Get you basic shapes and value patterns down on paper. Make alterations to the less than perfect scene you have chosen to paint until it becomes a good composition. Don't skip this step!!!
• Use a mirror to look at your painting as you progress. This works! It will make mistakes jump out at you like you've never seen that painting before.
• Think before you apply paint - take your time. My way to fix a bad painting used to be to apply more and more paint as fast as I could and hope for a miracle! That doesn't work.

You've probably heard all of this before, but when you are learning anything, it seems you only absorb what you are ready to hear, so I'm tellin' you one more time in case it's your day to listen.

In my last post, Wasting Time, I was working on a painting with a bad photo for reference and the inability to recognize that fact. I went back to that piece and analyzed what had gone wrong, and here is the outcome. It is better than my first attempt and I learned a lot from the experience.

Keep painting!

Wasting Time

This weekend I spent most of two days trying to paint a painting for which I had not prepared myself. I started on a new piece, working from a photo that I had taken last year. I knew something didn't feel right about the composition – it clearly had a disturbing feeling of being split down the center. Also, the photo was taken with a wide angle lens so things were out of whack already.

A bad reference photo needed to be analyzed more thoroughly.

My mistake was that I made a quick sketch or two, convincing myself that I had thought through the design problems and then dove into the painting. This resulted in painting, wiping off, repainting, wiping off etc., until I finally made myself put down the brushes because I was only wasting time and paint.

What did I learn?

• Resolve your composition issues up front – they won't resolve themselves.
• When you know you are not patient enough to paint mindfully, stop and go back to it later.
• Some days are meant for yard work or cleaning where you can turn your brain off.

Will I remember not to pick up my brush when this happens next time? Maybe not, but I'll try.

On a more successful note, earlier in the weekend I finished up a painting that I started outdoors. I broke my own rule about not touching a plein-air piece when I get back to the studio but was able to justify this, because I really needed the painting for an upcoming show.

The piece was going well enough that I was pretty sure I could finish it without disaster. I did follow the rule about not looking at a color photo, though, and I really believe this is crucial. I relied on the black and white photo to guide me as far as details and values but stayed true to the color that I had placed on the canvas when I was out in the field. I was happy with the outcome.

I got good results by keeping the colors I applied originally.

You will learn something every time you paint!

Outside In

How to successfully paint a bigger painting from a plein air study has always been a mystery to me.

I have learned a couple of things from D. Eleinne Basa – a wonderful plein air artist who taught a workshop that I was lucky enough to attend – that made it possible for me to finally do this.

1. Treat your plein air paintings as studies – information gathering exercises.
2. Don't mess with them when you get back to the studio.
3. Paint another painting to make improvements rather than re-working the original.
4. Don't look at the photos you probably took out there when you were painting. If you must look, change the image to greyscale on your computer and follow the color in your study.

There are good reasons for all of this. I have ruined so many potentially good works by trying to improve them back in the studio where the light is totally different. The photo I am looking at looks nothing like the real thing, and I am now confused about what I really saw out there.

For the past week, I have been working on a larger painting done from a small plein air piece, and this is the first time I have ever felt that I was successful.

I actually covered the study with plastic wrap so I could mix my colors and put a dab on the plastic to check my values, etc before applying them to the larger painting.

I did need to look at a photo, because I was painting a larger area of the landscape than I had done in the study and also was adding figures to the piece. But the greyscale image allowed me to keep my colors harmonious with the landscape I had originally painted.

Maybe these tips can help you achieve this out too!