News

The next art reception at the Arts Arena, Delray Beach, Florida is December 18, 6-9pm

Tips

Apply paint fearlessly! Tedious detail bores the viewer. (Now if only I could adhere to this!)

Play! Experiment! Try a new technique, especially when you are in a rut, bored or staring at a white canvas or paper you can't bring yourself to touch a brush to.

Try painting with just one brush or doing a small painting with brushes no smaller than 1".

Some Painting Basics:

Block in your painting with solid masses of color for the large objects in your composition. Avoid painting any detail until you have this done. If painting in oil or acrylic, try to get the overall value (lightness/darkness) about right for each mass. For watercolor, paint the lights first and darken areas as needed later.

Put your center of interest (focal point) off-center on the canvas. Draw a tic-tac-toe on your canvas/paper so that each rectangle of the tic-tac-toe is the same size. Place your focal point close to one of the 4 points where the tic-tac-toe lines intersect.

The drama should be apparent around your center of interest - the highest contrast, brightest color, sharpest edges, etc.

Mix plenty of paint and several shades/related hues of each color you need (e.g a pale yellow, a medium yellow, an orangish yellow, a yellow brown etc.) so you can paint the lights and shadows of an object without having to stop to mix colors.