Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Best painting tip you've ever received (watercolours)

Have you received any suggestions which have made you a better painter? Feel free to add your comments below, before today's blog entry sinks below the horizon. Here are a few tips which I received which impacted me.


1. Never clean your paint tray at the end of a day's work. Your tray provides you with a visual memory of what you mixed the day before. Its hard to pick up your painting where you left off the day before, with an empty palette.

2. Keep it simple stupid. Some of my best pictures, have the least detail. A good artist studies the scene, and then decides what to exclude.

3. "Put away that damned small brush." A professional artist and teacher said to me. And with that, he literally picked a small brush out of my hand and tossed it down on the table. A small brush constricts your thinking and you work from the left brain hemisphere.

4. Paint with a restricted palette. This is rather personal, I suppose, but I try to restrict my paintings to about 5 colours. I find that the smaller the palette, for me the easier it becomes to
create atmosphere.

5. Never paint after the sun goes down. I lose my ability to discriminate colour.

6. Its your call.....add what you wish.
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2 comments:

  1. Ron MorrisonSeptember 18, 2009 at 8:43 a.m.

    Coupla best tips:
    "Paint wetter longer", from Bruce Cryer who is a sig mem of the fed and a friend.

    "Use lotsa water, after all they call it watercolour...", Kiff Holland, one of the best anywhere. He also told me about Naples yellow which is on of the most useful colours...

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownSeptember 20, 2009 at 3:34 p.m.

    Keep the bright sun off your paper as well as your palette when out side painting on location. Other wise you will misjudge your values and go dark too soon.

    ReplyDelete

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