Category: art instruction

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Start sketching, drawing and painting

How to bring art in your life: start sketching and drawing

Are you creative?

If you love art, you should start sketching. Spring and summer are the best seasons to start, then, by the fall, you can already paint. While many people are specializing and trying to be experts in just one area of life, it is great to maintain some universality and balance. Adding creativity to daily routine changes everything for the better.

Being artistic

Being universal might not be that easy because everything has many aspects, whether it is art, writing and literature, music, or theater and dance. I still believe we need variety of uplifting things that make us more human and sensitive to happiness, sadness, joys and troubles of life. Art does that. It opens up one’s soul and redirects thoughts towards something unique, unexpected and beautiful.

New skills, new habits, new perception

We freshen up our life and bring something new into it. Why not sketching and drawing? These are the first steps towards painting and drawing. Sketches look great either small or big. The small ones we can use in art journals. The big ones can be framed or simply hang onto wall.
Adding visual images to your thoughts or at least having visual images in your head gives one’s life more color, more brightness and vitality.

My journey

Sketching and drawing are the areas I have explored since early childhood. I did not have a good paper or good pencils and pens, but I had a huge desire to capture everything around me. The urge to turn visual scenes into sketch or drawing was so intense that I would draw during school lessons and later at University lectures. I had drawn lots and lots of portraits of my class and school mates, as well as of my family and friends. When I was outdoors, I was sketching and drawing garden, streets, buildings, plants and flowers: anything, really.

Sketching supplies and what makes it easy

Sketching is much faster than, for instance, acrylic painting or even watercolor or pastel painting. It is a convenient genre to take outside because we do not need much: just paper, pencil or pen. It can be done with adding a little bit of watercolor. It can be done in pencil, watercolor pencils or pastels.

Using good art supplies

I never use paper which is called sketching paper and is supposed to work well for sketching. It is too thin to add paint, and tears and smudges very easily. Use of paper also depends on the purpose of your sketch. If it is just a quick reminder of a scene, sure, anything will do. I use for sketching watercolor paper that is a grade below the best watercolor papers which are heavy Arches and Saunders-Waterford papers.

Pen outlines

Pen works and looks better on smooth surfaces.  Watercolor marker paper was available a while ago, I haven’t seen it recently in our local art store. That was excellent paper for pen drawing, and I do not have or use watercolor markers. I have watercolor pencils. That is a slow way of developing watercolor painting; however, it does the job for people who are very comfortable with pencil and not with brush.

Try not using eraser

I would advise also not to use eraser until the subject has gotten some shape. Otherwise, one just keeps erasing without achieving any results. Focus and draw, trust your eyes, think about contrast, composition, values and effects, and not that much about perfect drawing. You can adjust it any time. Forgetting eraser at home when you go out sketching, will increase focus.

Watercolor painting, old house, spring

Old countryside house in pen and watercolor, 18 x 12 in or 46 x 30.5 cm

Million reasons to start sketching, drawing or illustrating:

if you are alone, but do not want to feel lonely;

if you have hard times getting the me-time and letting it all go;

if you are facing issues that affect your life badly and you want to escape them for a while;

if you are young or old, but do not want to spend all leisure time in front of a screen;

if you would love to develop a habit that helps getting rid of addictions;

if you feel that your memory is worsening and you want to sharpen it up;

if that is your dream, but you never got to it;

if you want beauty in your life and art on every wall;

go ahead and start sketching and drawing.

There is no better time than spring and no better place than outdoors to start sketching or painting.

Watercolor painting, water and rocks

Rocks and water, size, 22 x 15 in or 56 x 38 cm

On this large test watercolor painting, I explored a new masking technique. This painting was simply a test whether packaging tape works as a masking tool. It does. I cut around with X-Acto knife and, yes, it really works better than any masking fluid. However, it is applicable only to large areas, not the tiny ones. So, I kept adding paint, and this testing piece ended up looking like a painting.

How to bring art in your life: start sketching and drawing

Testing colors for a large watercolor painting. Looks great!

Here, I was testing the color combinations and layout for a larger watercolor painting. It looks attractive, yet it is just a pen and watercolor sketch.

Start sketching and drawing

Perspective is easy if you know how to proceed. Old buildings make a perfect sketching subject.

These are some of demo paintings done during and for my pen and watercolor classes.

More sketching: https://inesepogagallery.com/2014/03/02/sketching-in-watercolor-whats-the-advantage/

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The power of line: how to create and use a drawing

From drawing to painting, power of line

The power of line

The power of line is huge. Simple sketches in pencil or pen look impressive and artistically interesting. We are born with the ability to draw, but we just lose it as we grow up and get older. In order to simply look at something and draw it, one must practice. It will not happen right away, it will not happen on its own. One also needs to know what they have to look for and what they need to notice.

Perfection or discovery

Cravings for perfection can be irresistible, therefore, many people take credits for a drawing which they have created by tracing a photo or reproducing it on a larger scale using grid, display on a wall. Some artists edit the photo to obtain parts of printer paper size, so that it is possible to put them together in a line drawing. The question is: is that really a drawing or a copy of photography? To me, the latter is true. I do assume anything a drawing when we look at our subject and then manually draw it on paper.

Our eyes get it right

Is drawing difficult? In fact, it isn’t, but it takes time and practice, and anything which is somewhat time-consuming isn’t loved much these days. The general opinion is usually that camera gets our subject right and we might not get the right proportions when drawing. That is true to some extent only. If the distance between camera and subject is small, or the distance within the view is huge, camera will produce wrong proportions.

How camera distorts image

Camera draws closer the front part of the view or subject. It widens the middle portion and creates much more distant background part. This is very easy to notice in case of water reflections or shadows. When artist follows a photo closely, not the actual view in nature, the reflections will be stretched out for miles which would never be the case with reflection in nature.

Don’t take a picture

Many instructions start with: take a picture. I would like to say: don’t do that if you ever want to learn drawing. We have to trust our eyes and ability to recreate the same proportion, edge and line relationship and color transitions without additional tools. However, to get to the level when one can do the so-called “blind drawing” (you do not persistently look at paper or canvas but rather at your subject), you have to practice. That means making decisions and allowing the eye-brain signals to be transmitted to our hand with pencil or brush.

pencil drawing, summer in the country
pencil drawing, perspective

We can do it

That also means trusting ourselves more than a camera or grid. It also takes practicing daily or weekly and, at the end, this activity improves the brain functionality, memory and flexibility to an incredibly high level. When we sometimes look at a drawing, it seems it didn’t take time or efforts. It is due to the fact, that good art shouldn’t exhibit artistic struggles and technical difficulties, but mood and atmosphere of the painted subject. When we get past these struggles, the real creation takes place.

The principles and methods of drawing

Outline drawing for painting
Watercolor wash
More layers
Ready watercolor

There is an interesting thing: people, who cannot draw anything yet, believe they have to practice drawing a particular subject: portrait, landscape, still life or flower. That is definitely not true because once you can draw, you can draw absolutely anything. The principles and methods are actually the same regardless of what we draw. You cannot skip understanding values, shadows, highlights, proportions, relationships, contrast, perspective and negative parts. That is what makes drawing a drawing and eventually painting a painting.

Functions of drawing

Drawing has very different functions in the creative process. If it is an independent work of art, it will go through many stages until it contains all the above mentioned elements. If it is a sketch for use later, we will include only the most important lines. If it is a value sketch for painting, we will pay special attention to values, contrast and shadows. If it is an outline drawing for watercolor, we will have only slightly visible lines.

Old rural house, spring landscape

The rural house watercolor is a large and attractive painting in spring colors

Not what you draw, but how you do it

Therefore, it is not that important what you draw, but how you do it. Trust the power of line. It is rewarding. Sketches must help you in the painting process later, there is no need to overwork them and prepare for framing. Technique matters, but doesn’t mean it is the most important part of drawing.

Barn illustration, art classes
Illustration, barn drawing

Get rid of eraser

How to get rid of eraser? If your intention is to draw, do it. Erasing everything and starting over for numerous times isn’t helpful. You simply have to forget the eraser at home, so that you do not have it with you. When something does not come out correct, start from scratch, not from adjusted lines. Use focusing ability instead of eraser.

Watercolor painting, spring, countryside

Early spring, rural hills watercolor, size of this painting is 24 x 18 in or 61 x 45 cm.

Go reasonably large

Draw reasonably large subjects. Tiny things cannot show any shadows, values or important details. Drawing large isn’t more difficult, it is just a strange assumption and belief that handling a bigger subject is more complex. If the drawing is for creation of painting, large is much better. Unless you want to use magnifying glass, avoid details which are hardly visible because they don’t get noticed anyway. Keep details under control.

Power of line, draw large art

Manual drawing for artistic freedom

Drawing is a wonderful thing. It allows one not to use any additional devices. You won’t even need a camera if you have learned capturing the most important features of the subject. It also gives one a complete artistic freedom: skip whatever part does not improve your scene or subject or add whatever it seems to be missing. There are no restrictions. It is visible right away whether one was drawing from reality or they are modestly describing their perfected copy of a photo as a sketch from nature.

Sketch in actual size

I create pencil sketches in the actual size of painting: this time it was 20 x 24 inches or 61 x 51 cm. This drawing serves as a reference. Colors are all in my head and everything else what I need is in the sketch. I transfer it onto watercolor paper and then apply washes which get defined with every layer.

I take numerous pictures: with iPhone and with camera using different settings. However, I do not ever get the colors which are in the actual painting. Therefore, I’m trying to also take some pictures with background by placing something around the painting.

From drawing to painting, power of line

To learn sketching and drawing, please apply for April classes: Art classes

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Art instruction: online versus real, myths versus reality

Art instruction, online versus real

Art instruction in abundance

Art instruction can be found in abundance everywhere: there are numerous online classes, numerous websites that will give an idea of creating art and also countless real life events. 100% of students who attend my art classes have been watching YouTube art instruction videos, demos and suggestions. One would think they have learned a lot. In fact, it isn’t the case.

Birch painting in watercolor

 

What is the gain?

Most people after spending a lot of time with online art instruction videos haven’t learned anything. That sounds strange, but it is a fact. Most people who have been watching YouTube tutorials and demos do not know how to use the brush with acrylic, how to blend paint and how to mix the correct color they want. Most people who were learning drawing and watercolor painting using online video tutorials are afraid of water; they do not know how to apply watercolor paint, how much water to use, how to time the painting process and how to avoid muddy colors.  Most people, who were learning how to draw online, cannot draw anything on their own or using real set-up compositions. They can only trace a photo or use an outline printout for their drawing.

Reasons and causes

Why would that be? Why haven’t they become skilled after spending numerous hours at the screen? The main reason might be the one-sidedness. If one has a lot of artistic experience and knowledge of painting techniques and understanding of paint properties, they will benefit from such online art instruction videos. These, who have zero experience, most likely will not. I believe these art instruction videos are good for inspiration and issue solving. If you do not have experience, you will rather get confused and disappointed.

Two-way communication

In real and live class, I can see how somebody understood the demo or painting tip. You’d be surprised seeing what levels of moisture are applied when I am saying: make your paper wet. That ranges from flooded paper with puddles of water to slightly seeing shine on it. Graded wash is understood in very different ways: from thick layer of paint to no paint at all. Not to mention a wet paint application on wet paper and a dry paint application on wet or dry paper.

Timing

Timing is a very important part of painting with either watercolor, or acrylic. By not observing timing and making good use of it, the potential artist will definitely get frustrated. There are things which are easy to do when the timing is right and impossible to do at all if the timing is wrong.

On your own and on one side of screen

When you are sitting on one side of screen, nobody can check or see how exactly you are applying advice or tip. In a live class, I can see right away whether the paint is too wet, too dry, if there is too little of it or way too much of it. I can see right away who understood the technique and who is struggling with it. I am able to notice the weaknesses and the strengths right away, as well, and do that for each particular student.

Brushing techniques

Brushing techniques are probably the most important part of acrylic painting. Most people have absolutely no idea about these techniques. It is understood that it does not matter how you put the acrylic paint on canvas. Well, that makes the painting experience either pleasant or results in frustration when one cannot achieve what they want to.

Art instruction can be found in abundance everywhere: there are numerous online classes, numerous websites that will give an idea of that and also countless real life events. 100% of students who attend my art classes have been watching YouTube art instruction videos, demos and suggestions. One would think they have learned a lot. In fact, it isn’t the case. Most people after spending a lot of time with online art instruction videos haven’t learned anything. That sounds strange, but it is a fact. Most people who have been watching YouTube tutorials and demos do not know how to use the brush with acrylic, how to blend paint and how to make the correct color they want. Most people who were learning drawing and watercolor painting using online video tutorials are afraid of water; they do not know how to apply watercolor paint, how much water to use, how to time the painting process and how to avoid muddy colors. Most people, who were learning how to draw online, cannot draw anything on their own or using real things and their set-up compositions. They can only trace a photo or use an outline printout for their drawing. Why would that be? Why haven’t they become skilled after spending numerous hours at the screen? The reason might be the one-sidedness. If one has a lot of artistic experience and knowledge of paint application techniques and understanding of paint properties, they will benefit from such online art instruction videos. These, who have zero experience, most likely will not. I believe these art instruction videos are good for inspiration and issue solving if you have plenty of painting and drawing experience. If you do not have such experience, you will rather get confused and disappointed. In real and live class, I can see how somebody understood the demo or painting tip. You’d be surprised seeing what levels of moisture are applied when I am saying: make your paper wet. That ranges from flooded paper with puddles of water to slightly seeing shine on it. Graded wash is understood in very different ways: from thick layer of paint to no paint at all. Not to mention a wet paint application on wet paper and a dry paint application on wet or dry paper. Timing is a very important part of painting with either watercolor, or acrylic. By not observing timing and making good use of it, the potential artist will definitely get frustrated. There are things which are easy to do when the timing is right and impossible to do at all if the timing is wrong. When you are sitting on one side of screen, nobody can check or see how exactly you are applying advice or tip. In a real life class, I can see right away whether the paint is too wet, too dry, there is too little of it or there is way too much of it. I can see right away who understood the technique and who is struggling with it. I am able to notice the weaknesses and the strengths right away, as well. Brushing techniques are probably the most important part of acrylic painting. Most people have absolutely no idea about these techniques. It is understood that it does not matter how you put the acrylic paint on canvas. Well, that makes the painting experience either pleasant, or results in frustration when one cannot achieve what they want to. Most people do not know how wet and how dry watercolor paint should be, and I have seen how some would try applying it without any water at all. Sounds crazy? Yes, it is weird because we call it watercolor since it can be used only with water. Pigment in watercolor paint is activated using water, otherwise it won’t work. Without doing this properly, there is no watercolor painting, but we create a streaky smear. There is a principle which is always true when it comes to art supplies: the better quality art supplies are, the easier it is to apply them; and vice versa: the worse quality art supplies are, the more skills one will need to use them properly and to achieve good results. While many art instruction demos and videos are called “How to paint ….” they should be called, in fact, “How I paint ….” because there are lots of ways to interpret one and the same subject and one and the same theme. Many of demos also instead of “How to paint …” fall in the category “How not to paint …”. That’s just how wrong the demo or art instruction advice can be. With the wide-spread accessibility of internet and opportunity to share and post anything, we cannot be always sure if the advice we are given is correct or if it will ever work for us in particular. We have to approach everything selectively. That refers not only to art instruction, but also to any advice for any situation in life. We have seen by now how art instruction is given by people who do not have the slightest teaching or art experience, as well. Art instruction has become an area where everybody is an expert. Would anybody teach and give music lessons? Piano or guitar lessons, for instance? No, they would not. Would anybody without any knowledge and skill teach foreign language, math or chemistry? No, they would not because that means misleading the student and pretending that one has what they do not. When it comes to drawing and painting, it is assumed that having no experience is not an issue. Just teach it and everything will be fine, which is profoundly wrong. I would say if you want to see fast results and create a decent and interesting art, you definitely have to start with real and live art instruction. Let the art instructor see how and what you are doing because that is the only way to find out why some things absolutely do not work and what you should be doing to make this experience rewarding and uplifting. Realistically, the things one needs to learn are the main principles of drawing and painting, not the style and techniques of artist X, Y or Z. The truth is that once you have learned the basics and have established the foundation you will be able to create anything, draw and paint anything in your personal style and to develop a personal approach to any subject. That won’t limit you to just being able to paint one particular scene and subject. It will feel like: I can draw and paint any scene, any still life and floral composition. I can draw and paint anything. That’s why starting with techniques, values, color theory and composition is important. Practically, that means finding out what your brush, paint and pencil can do once you know how to use them. Therefore, I would suggest, we start with basics and go from simple subjects to very complex ones. Along with becoming skilled in art, drawing and painting are the absolutely best things to devote our free time and leisure hours to. This means also exploring ourselves, becoming smarter, better with decision making and invisibly growing new brain cells, as well, extending the lifetime of the existing brain cells. That means a better memory and an improved cognitive function.

Using watercolor paint

Most people do not know how wet or how dry watercolor paint should be, and I have seen how some would try applying it without any water at all. Sounds crazy? Yes, it is weird because we call it watercolor because it is used with water. Pigment in watercolor paint is activated using water, otherwise it won’t work. Without doing this properly, there is no watercolor painting, but we create a streaky smear.

Quality of art supplies

There is a principle which is always true when it comes to art supplies: the better quality art supplies are, the easier it is to apply them; and vice versa: the worse quality art supplies are, the more skills one will need to use them properly and to achieve good results.

How to or how not to

While many art instruction demos and videos are called “How to paint ….” they should be called, in fact, “How I paint ….” because there are lots of ways to interpret one and the same subject and one and the same theme. Many of demos also instead of “How to paint …” fall in the category “How not to paint …”. That’s just how wrong the demo or art instruction advice can be. With the widespread accessibility of internet and opportunity to share and post anything, we cannot be always sure if the advice we are given is correct or if it will ever work for us in particular. We have to approach everything selectively. That refers not only to art instruction, but also to any advice for any situation in life.

Teaching without skills? That happens

We have seen by now how art instruction is given by people who do not have the slightest teaching or art experience, as well. Art instruction has become an area where everybody is an expert. Would anybody teach and give music lessons? Piano or guitar lessons, for instance? No, they would not. Would anybody without any knowledge and skill teach foreign language, math or chemistry? No, they would not because that means misleading the student and pretending that one has what they do not. When it comes to drawing and painting, it is assumed that having no experience is not an issue. Just teach it and everything will be fine. Isn’t that a bit absurd?

Learn faster

I would say if you want to see fast results and create decent and interesting art, you definitely have to start with real and live art instruction. Let the art instructor see how and what you are doing because that is the only way to find out why some things do not work and what you should be doing to make this experience rewarding and uplifting. Realistically, the things one needs to learn are the main principles of drawing and painting, not the style and techniques of artist X, Y or Z.

Finding out what you can do

Once you have learned the basics and have established the foundation, you will be able to create anything, draw and paint anything in your personal style and develop a personal approach to any subject. That won’t limit you to being able to only paint one particular scene and subject. It will feel like: I can draw and paint any scene, any still life and floral composition. I can draw and paint anything. That’s why starting with techniques, values, color theory and composition is important. Practically, that means finding out what your brush, paint and pencil can do once you know how to use them.

Winter birch painting by Inese Poga
Painting which we created during recent art class

From simple to complex

Therefore, I would suggest, we start with basics and go from simple subjects to very complex ones. Along with becoming skilled in art, drawing and painting are the absolutely best things to devote our free time and leisure hours to. This means also exploring ourselves, becoming smarter, better with decision-making and invisibly growing new brain cells, as well, extending the lifetime of the existing brain cells. That means a better memory and an improved cognitive function.

Suggestions on how to choose art classes: https://inesepogagallery.com/2017/10/09/choose-art-classes/

Registration for art classes: Art classes

And some of our previous experiences: https://inesepogagallery.com/2013/09/20/art-classes-a-worthwhile-activity/

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Art studio: my reality needs a place to create, dream and live

Art gallery and art studio of Inese Poga

Art studio: creative sanctuary

Art studio is a place to create, recharge, work, relax, nurture big ideas, turn ideas into reality and dream. I like keeping my art studio well-organized, neat and clean. It is because I’m used to that since early childhood: we had to clean all rooms in the house on Saturday, so that we can take a relaxing break in a dust-free and neat home on Sunday and start fresh on Monday. Early childhood habits stay with us for a long time, and I am grateful to my mom who always showed such a fantastic example of how to decorate with self-made things, how to sew something that really makes us stand out and how to use flowers and outdoor finds to make the space extremely cozy, lovely and welcoming. Thanks, mom!

I was a good student.

Organizing everything decently: first rule of success

Therefore, my desk is always tidy and not overloaded; my painting tables are always organized so that everything I need is within reach. People who paint something more complicated than abstracted washes are aware that sometimes every minute we lose in crucial moments later requires working for hours to bring back the effect we had achieved. Timing is everything with water media, either acrylic or watercolor. That’s why I cannot answer phone, as well, if I’m in the middle of painting. Calling somebody is really bad habit unless there’s real urgency. I rarely use phone for calls, except when contacting doctor’s office or similar places. Phone is always at the wrong time. Always. There might be extremely rare exceptions when we are expecting a call, and even that is disturbing.

This is how you never need major cleaning

So, the studio is organized, tools and materials are in their right places, and cleaning never takes too much time. The golden rule is very simple: if you want to never look for something, find a suitable place for every type of items or every particular frequently used thing and always put it back where you got it from. I have no problem finding everything even when the power goes out: I do place everything back where I take it from and I also have a very good visual memory. Photographic memory, I’d say. Extremely good visual memory is the result of drawing and painting. I do not need any lists or written schedules since my head keeps it in the right order and allows recalling exactly when I need it.

Technology and reality

In my case, more technology has killed everything I was doing, and that has led to not that brilliant sequences. Therefore, I do not use and I am not willing to use any technology in my painting process. That means drawing and painting mostly from either real scenes and subjects, or imagination. That works well.

Changes in artistic preferences

When I was studying at the University and even after that, I was really in portrait and figure drawing. Some people later in my life destroyed any desire to draw portraits. I just started to feel that only nature won’t present itself with lies and in a pretentious manner. I found beauty where I had not noticed it before, like in some simple piece of weathered wood, withered leaf, opening bud or branch of half-dry tree with bird sitting on it. I mean that type of things. Classes require painting more robust scenes because my personal preferences do not necessarily suit the vision of somebody else.

Designate a special space for creativity

It is a huge advantage to have a specifically designed place for arts and crafts. I have a specific sewing place upstairs where fabrics, threads, buttons, zippers and all kinds of additional materials are neatly sorted in boxes and on shelves. I definitely need a place where everything is ready and waiting for creative outburst. I do not understand how difficult it must be doing arts or crafts at kitchen table since that can be used only for limited time. That is a bad situation.

Canadian houses do not support creativity

When we were looking for a place, I noticed that Canadian houses are absolutely not suited for creativity: there is a kitchen, dining room, bedroom, one or more bathrooms, but nothing where to create. Basement doesn’t work, in fact, for art because artificial lighting regardless of how good or white it is will always distort the color. Colors are true only by the real daylight and for somebody like me who is extremely sensitive to shift in a shade of color this is crucial. Being in a basement doesn’t do any good for nobody because we need the daylight and, especially, sunlight.

Art studio

Art studio: inspiration

Art studio, Ajax, Ontario

Art studio: achievements

Art gallery and art studio of Inese Poga

Art studio: beauty

Art gallery and art studio of Inese Poga

Art studio: pleasure

Art studio

Art studio: work

Art studio

Art studio:  inviting and rewarding space

If you do not have a place for your art studio but are very much interested in creativity and recycling things, sewing, crafting and similar activities: fight for it. We do not live only to sleep, eat and entertain ourselves at screens. I assume people who do not have any passion boring and just filling in the space where we could allow our creative spirit to lift us in previously unseen heights.

The many advantages of doing art

Art is helpful: it decreases addictions, helps overcome depression and bad mood, makes us more confident and self-aware, allows feeling not lonely, takes away sadness and despair, opens our eyes to new possibilities, fills us with gratefulness and appreciation and, finally: it is the best way of meditation ever because we have created something enjoyable and usable at the end, too.

Definitely, it’s time your family has an art and craft studio, too: to take a break from screens and to realize that genuine happiness means creation, not only consumption.

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Giving up is not a solution, acrylic painting tips

Tips for acrylic painting

I’d love to share some acrylic painting tips. I hope these painting tips allow to achieve more and paint better.

Giving up before seeing potential

I feel sad when some students discontinue classes just after one month. I can see the potential in attempts, but people with little experience in drawing and art usually don’t.  All it takes is usually adding a few dark and light spots, adjustment of edges and straightening out a few shapes. In fact, any acrylic painting can be whatever the artist expects it to be if we keep working on it and don’t stop prematurely.

If you know how to, you can improve anything

I’ve said that before: nobody becomes master within a few hours. Nobody. I also do not want students comparing their first attempts in art: this makes absolutely no sense. There was a reason artists used to cover up their art with a cloth and show it to nobody until the artwork was considered ready and finished. There are easy adjustments which can change the painted image to a great extent. We add tiny bit of sparkling light, sharp edge of very deep dark area, and everything improves.

Patience and ability to take risks

Patience and ability to take risks are two very necessary features for anybody who’d like to enjoy creating visual art. I have told this before: time-lapse demos make people believe that this is exactly the way one paints: one, two, three and here we go. In reality, we sometimes need to go over and over one spot for many times. With acrylic paint, there are no limitations of adding layers. We need to apply many layers to achieve volume and visually attractive effect.

Painting tips for acrylic painting
Once you know what principles are applied to creating a painting, just follow the steps and use layers and painting comes to life.

Applying color versus building it up

Smearing on paint in one color is not the same as building it up. I have quite often seen transparent trees and flat buildings, not to mention flowers without any volume. That means, there was no dark color blocked in underneath and the light color was used only in 2 tones. That cannot make a structure or subject look like it is having dimensions.

Think layers

Many people have difficulties thinking in layers: the most distant, underneath it all layer, the middle value layer, the defining layer and the highlighting and detailing layer. It is in the human nature to try getting it right away. I’ve observed how students sometimes start with details which should be implemented at the end. This approach is fairly essential in acrylic painting because we have to work from dark to light and from distant to close: that’s how the image evolves.

Painting tips, Garden, demo painting
Demo painting for garden landscape, basic layers

Keep the color on 

The other problematic issue is holding color on the spot we need it to be. We are practicing painting on a spot techniques. Quite often artist gets carried away and keeps blending and moving paint around until it results in everything being the same color. It is very important to learn using brush for painting on a spot which is like running on a spot: brush it on, but don’t move all around the canvas.

Brush must be clean

Finally, as I’m washing brushes after classes, I can immediately tell which brushes were used by me and which by students. My brushes are almost clean or have the last color in it. Students’ brushes are usually full of many colors, quite often dark colors which we applied at the beginning of the class. That means, the brush wasn’t cleaned during painting. That results in muddy and dirty colors which don’t shine and lack brilliance. We must clean our brushes frequently!

Tips for acrylic painting
We go layer by layer until the painting takes shape

Painting is easy and extremely rewarding

We must have patience and allow for some time to get where we want to be. It depends also on what our goal is. Any painting is nice and great if we do not expect it to become a top art just after a few classes or painting attempts. We can notice fear and indecisiveness in brush strokes which lack confidence. Therefore, taking risks and experimenting is very important, especially,  in visual art. We have to be persistent and even stubborn. I hope my painting tips help you!

Inspiration: