Normally, I teach what to do, how to set up, design, compose, apply paint, build paint, build focal points and critique your own paintings by reviewing the 6 questions you ask yourself before you paint to make your plan, and checking if you’ve done it, all, so you become…as a painter… the best you can be.
This time, I’m going to tell you what NOT TO DO!!! I’m going to tell you 8 mistakes novice painters make which causes them to make very amateurish paintings, and they don’t know why. Lots of painters stay amateurs all their lives because they make these mistakes:
1. They use black. Black in the shadows, Black to paint black hair. Black to paint black clothes, black to paint a black horse… Black to outline where there is no outline… like between fingers. NO BLACK!!! DON”T USE BLACK!!!
2. They paint cartoons( when that is not their goal). If there is no three dimensional look… it’s a cartoon! If it looks like you’ve used a box of crayon colors to paint it… it’s a cartoon. The colors are flat. The colors are all pure hues, periwinkle, sky blue, lemon yellow, crayon colors…. Anybody… name a Cry-on color… uh lime green, forest green…__________, ________, applied delicately or strongly crayon colors are crayon colors .It looks flat and IT”S A CARTOON!!!! If it looks outlined… then the edges are all the same. Let me say it again: If the edges are all the same it looks outlined. If the edges look cut out, it is flat it looks like a cartoon!!!!
3. Amateur painters think bright means white! Don’t think bright means white!
4. Artists that don’t want to learn won’t finish their paintings. Let me say that again:
If you don’t finish your paintings, well, just finish them!!!
5. Beginner Artists use more than 5 values in a painting, or they use 2 or less.
6. The biggest mistake Amateurs make is they skip planning. ASk me…. Planning is BIG ! It’s everything when it comes down to being consistly successful!!!!
7. They don’t plan their Line! Then there’s Line… Either they don’t understand it, so they don’t even want to try to understand it or they think they are too above it…. The notion of line… pish tosh, pish tosh! Who needs line, when I can draw!!!! And I’m talking about myself, when I was 14 and introduced to line and the 7 primary functions of line. I was too above it all. At that time, my professor, failed to say, “It’s gonna have line whether you choose it or not! It’s gonna be good line or bad line, and most likely bad line if you don’t plan your line. And bad line fails your work, everytime.
8. Their paintings look like paint by number, because they paint like paint by number paintings! First it’s drawn, then this color goes in this little space, that color goes in that little shape. OOHH! There it is again over there. Better fill in the same color over in all the little spaces. They never do any under painting!!!! They never cover their canvas! There is white canvas showing everywhere!!!! White white white white everwhere! Until that last little white is filled in… there’s one, theres one … there’s one…..and ta da! Now I’m done! No, no, no!!!!! Do not paint-by-number patch paint!
So let’s review these horrible, disastrous mistakes and build a checklist of how to be a fabulous artist!!
1. Never use black. Mix your shadow color as a mother color and warm it up, cool it down as you paint your connected shadow throughout your painting! If you are painting something you recognize as black, remember you are painting a mirror!!! Black reflects color like a black shiny glass. We mix black, by reflecting color in it!
2. Unless you want your painting to look like a cartoon, you will always neutralize your color, all of it in your painting except for the brightest points of color. You will warn it up, cool it off. If one side of your painting is warm then the other side is cool.
3. Bright means more color, more pigment, not more white!
4. Finish your paintings! Start each painting with the dedication of producing a frameable piece of ART. Every artist improves as they learn to paint. The only way to learn is to finish your paintings and search out what you did wrong, decide why it is wrong and fix it. Then it is finished. Each time you paint, you will recognize more and more possible problems, revel in avoiding them, and build your painting ego…. As it should be…. with how magnificent and clever you are for handling, no caressing your subject in such an artful manner!
5. I cannot emphasize enough, I want to see your value plan. I want you to use your value plan. A value plan of 3 no more than five values plus or including white!
6 Here it is::::. Plan your PAINTING!!
1. Draw the line of your painting in thumbnails.
2. Draw the 3-5 values in thumbnails
3. Identify the focal points and make them support a hierarchy.
4. Identify the temperature of my painting overall.
5. Connect your shadows
6. If you have a good plan… make another one.
7. Decide your color scheme.
8. Decide your chroma.
9. Now choose! Stick to your plan! Plan to ask yourself am I sticking to my plan all the time you are painting.
10. You do all this before you start to paint or render! You do it everytime! And your paintings will be a 10! All you have to do is finish your paintings, doing 1-10.
Now again, in abbreviation form you can now understand “Plan”. Answer these questions before you paint:
1.What’s my line?
2.What are my forms? Are they puzzle- pieced together? Are my shadows connected?
3. What are my values? What are my focal points? And who is the big Kahuna Focal point? What opposites am I using to create my focals?
4. What’s the temperature of my painting?
5. My Chroma?
6. My Color Scheme?
Now, as you are painting ask yourself over and over again:
Where’s my plan? Am I sticking to the plan? Repeat questions one – six often, then remember:
1. No paint by number! Cover your canvas, no white showing and drop the initial under painting value so you can finish each area with the right value.
2. Neutralize all color – no crayon colors! Increase the pigment strength with no neutralizing at it’s brightest point of light, unless the item is a neutral color then put primary or secondary color in it to brighten it up at the focal point area.
3. Keep your hierarchy of focal points in check with one another.
4. Vary your edges! Use lost and found edges, Hard and soft edges!
5. Warm up, cool off. Warm up cool off. Warm up cool off.
6. Stick to your plan! If your plan doesn’t match your thumbnails from the beginning you are not sticking to your plan.
- Finish each of your paintings. Ask yourself the questions
over at the end a final time. This is how you have a fabulous time
painting and drawing in a very short investment of time and energy
getting over being a novice painter. This is how you can relax
and enjoy experiencing a perfect time of being in the zone, as often
as you like.
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