Painting Exercises
Dear Reader,
Barry Jon Raybould says ‘he spends 90% of his time doing painting exercises, and 10% on his master pieces.” Other artists I’ve read about say, “If a painting turns out to be a flop, it’s an exercise, if it turns out great, then it’s a master piece.” It doesn’t matter which way you approach art, the important thing is that you must practice and paint exercises if you want to improve. Art is HUGE! There are so many different aspects to it to master, a person could live as long as Adam or Methusala and never master every aspect of painting. Yet artists do manage to master some areas and produce the occasional master pieces. Each artists must decide for them self what area they wish to improve. The areas they chose effect their style, and helps with their artist’s voice.
With improving my artistic skills in mind, I’m going to work on a series of paintings. I did something similar with the thread “Different Starts,” where I took the same photo and used different methods to start the painting. The difference is, with this series, I plan on using the same outline drawing, and see how many different styles I can paint it in. Examples of styles I will use are:
- High Key,
- Low Key,
- Middle Key,
- a night scene,
- early morning,
- mid day,
- late evening,
- just for fun I’m going to throw in a Van Gogh style,
- or try some pointelist,
and I may think up a few more to try along the way.
You’re welcome to join in the fun, here is how I plan to get started.
- Draw several outline composition with 7 or 8 shapes, and pick the one I find most interesting.
- Use carbon paper and transfer it to each canvas.
- This will be a great time to experiment with different palettes as well, limited using Cad. Yel. Lt, Ultra M. Blue, Cad Red Lt, and White, I can throw in a fall scene using earth tones like Yellow Ochre, Indian Red, Ultra M Blue, and White. Another palette I’ve been wanting to experiment with is the limited palette with a warm and cool gray added.
- The number one thing I want to do is HAVE FUN PAINTING! The second thing, is to learn.
I’ll be posting my finished paintings on my blog for your enjoyment. I do have to finish my current painting before I begin this series of paintings. In the mean time, grab your easel and paints, and be adventuresome, and go out side and try a plein air. It can be addictive, I know I’ve been missing it with all these fall colors, I’ve been longing to be outside painting.
Until next time!
Donald
