PaintBoss
Contributing Member
- Messages
- 1,495
Thank you Hermes. I hope I can be helpful. Go with it and go for it! I encourage going down a different road from the worn path. Branch out. It can be a bit instinctive at times. Sometimes you will stand there and not know what direction to take. That’s all normal. I have some tips.
Although I do think about a piece beforehand like Arty too, with lots of contemplation. I can do both. Just start, or start with an idea where to go. I have drawn a little bit beforehand, but I don’t find it always takes me very far if I get caught up in the painting. Unless there is something very, very specific I want to do and I know that beforehand. And like Enyaw sometimes I end up going where I didn’t expect to and it becomes something else. That is a surprise and enjoyable because it came out of me unexpectedly, and it wanted to “be”. Like a fun discovery. Or an insightful one.
My tip. I like to use my simple photo editor in my phone when I have several ideas that I want to visualize and am not sure which way to proceed. Sometimes I’ll take elements like colour from a picture. Or texture and I’ll put it together. See what I think. Or I’ve already started and I’m not sure how intricate or busy I want to be. But I have ideas. Maybe more white lines or maybe I want to outline something or block something in. I draw it in on my basic photo app. I’ll take a picture of my piece and play with it on my phone. So much easier than painting it and then having to go back and repaint. So I encourage this. It’s a lot faster too. Not sure about a colour to add or where to place something? Your photo app can be your friend!
And Enyaw, very often the next day I have a different feel for the piece I did the day before! I have a special suggestion for you because you are very fast and prolific. Do some that way. For sure. But I challenge you to slow down. I would like you to slow down and try a different route. That is what my professors would sometimes tell some students. And they develop more from that.
And that’s an idea for everybody. First of all approach it like you would like to. And then if you have time, and this is an open-ended challenge, I would like you to try one painting working opposite to what you usually do. I would say don’t plan, just do/ be for Arty for example. For the very fast people, take a more methodical and slower planned approach. Try glazes if you usually work alla prima for example.
This is how we have breakthroughs. So do what you would like to do first and then I’d like you to challenge yourself to do something opposite. If that makes you a little nervous or a little uncomfortable, that’s probably a good thing. Lets push to new individual frontiers! I find this often serves an artist well.
Although I do think about a piece beforehand like Arty too, with lots of contemplation. I can do both. Just start, or start with an idea where to go. I have drawn a little bit beforehand, but I don’t find it always takes me very far if I get caught up in the painting. Unless there is something very, very specific I want to do and I know that beforehand. And like Enyaw sometimes I end up going where I didn’t expect to and it becomes something else. That is a surprise and enjoyable because it came out of me unexpectedly, and it wanted to “be”. Like a fun discovery. Or an insightful one.
My tip. I like to use my simple photo editor in my phone when I have several ideas that I want to visualize and am not sure which way to proceed. Sometimes I’ll take elements like colour from a picture. Or texture and I’ll put it together. See what I think. Or I’ve already started and I’m not sure how intricate or busy I want to be. But I have ideas. Maybe more white lines or maybe I want to outline something or block something in. I draw it in on my basic photo app. I’ll take a picture of my piece and play with it on my phone. So much easier than painting it and then having to go back and repaint. So I encourage this. It’s a lot faster too. Not sure about a colour to add or where to place something? Your photo app can be your friend!
And Enyaw, very often the next day I have a different feel for the piece I did the day before! I have a special suggestion for you because you are very fast and prolific. Do some that way. For sure. But I challenge you to slow down. I would like you to slow down and try a different route. That is what my professors would sometimes tell some students. And they develop more from that.
And that’s an idea for everybody. First of all approach it like you would like to. And then if you have time, and this is an open-ended challenge, I would like you to try one painting working opposite to what you usually do. I would say don’t plan, just do/ be for Arty for example. For the very fast people, take a more methodical and slower planned approach. Try glazes if you usually work alla prima for example.
This is how we have breakthroughs. So do what you would like to do first and then I’d like you to challenge yourself to do something opposite. If that makes you a little nervous or a little uncomfortable, that’s probably a good thing. Lets push to new individual frontiers! I find this often serves an artist well.
I’d also say not just colour but texture is what I pick up from your piece. I find your work always dynamic and here again it is very strong. I love your colours- that yellow gold is beautiful. Against the purple it is a great combination! And that makes sense if people pay attention to the colour wheel. This is basic colour theory doing its wonderful work! The two colours work very well against each other because they are opposite on the colour wheel. Complementary colours.




There was no way I was having those lovely fireman come to get me up! Not if I could help it. Thank God she was home. I forgot she was.

