Hello and welcome back to my studio.
Today I'm going to be talking about a question that I get asked a lot,
and that is how to avoid overworking a painting.
This is also closely related to that other question of when is a painting complete?
So I'm going to show you a few tips and tricks that should be able to help you
solve this problem and at least give you a few things you can pull out of thin air
when you're really struggling to get that painting to look a little more fresh
or maybe just how you hoped it would turn out.
Now, overworking a painting is something that you're going to do.
We've all done it.
You push on just a bit too far and you end
up with a painting that just doesn't have what you were planning.
And that is actually a key right there.
Do some planning.
All too often beginners get into a painting because they have a nice
photo they're working from, or maybe it's the scene in front
and they're not sure of exactly why they're painting it.
It's just a pretty scene.
To create a painting of that photograph, you need some planning.
And I don't mean a boring, long planning session.
You can make this quick and fun as long as you have a specific goal.
The number one thing you want to achieve with that painting.
What is the one thing that you cannot do without?
Very often it may be simply the play of light on a particular object.
It could be a tree, maybe some animals, maybe with a certain kind of light.
So by having that one thing that you need
to get right, then you can plan your painting a lot better.
This generally involves something like composition.
Where do you want the viewer to look?
If you can figure out the composition, then that is a big part of the battle won.
Now we forget there is another crucial part of the painting.
You've got to have fun with your painting.
If you're not having fun, there's no point.
This is one subject that I find so many artists really struggling with.
Getting so caught up in the painting, not out of engagement or being in a flow
state of creativity, but rather hell bent on making this painting work.
And we got that white knuckle thing going as you clutch the brush and really get
so wound up about it, thinking about the end result.
What's it going to be, is it going to be good enough?
And all of that sort of negative thinking.
But if you approach the painting
in a sense of fun and with a light spirit and just relax a little into it.
Get that sort of flow state going, that free flowing creativity.
Whether it's just you applying paint and enjoying that experience,
you are going to get a much better painting and one that is unlikely to be
overworked, because overworking is a symptom of uncertainty,
self doubt and trying to maybe impress someone else and not yourself.
Another state of mind issue is working with a light touch.
That simply means not trying to force anything.
It means relaxing physically, mentally and feeling the paint do the work.
Let there be a communication between
the brush, the canvas and the medium that you're using.
And that means taking notice of what
the brush is doing, how much pressure you're applying to the canvas.
You shouldn't be forcing the brush,
it should be light in your hand and lightly applied to the canvas.
Look at the paint that you put down.
What does it look like?
Does it look like a nice fluid buttery stroke?
Or is it perhaps looking a little over blended or forced?
Or digging into other wet layers?
And now it looks muddy.
So keep a light touch and you'll have better results with the paint itself.
Those clean colour notes will happen and you won't get into creating an awful
mess mixing paint on the canvas that shouldn't be mixed.
Now, if you've done your planning and you've got into that flow state
of creativity and you're not being too hard on yourself and you're just moving
with a gentle approach, ask do you need to use warmer colour or must it be cooler?
Must there be more contrast perhaps between light and dark?
Those are pretty much the only questions you need.
Just get that objective, that goal and you're done.
Now, here are a few specific tips that I can give you.
And these all come from my course How to Loosen Up Your Painting.
So a few specific tips I can give you.
Number one, of course, use a bigger brush.
Those big shapes are going to help you avoid overworking the painting.
Don't go into the tiny brushes and ruin
all that big shape painting that you struggled with in the beginning.
Another tip I can give you is paint small.
A smaller painting surface with a bigger brush.
Well, you can see that that is giving you
less opportunity to fiddle with a lot of detail.
Details are really not going to help you.
What you are painting is shapes of light and colour.
So that's all you need to think about.
I also suggest working a little quicker.
Sure, sometimes it's not possible.
You may be painting in a certain style that requires you to spend hours
and hours, but each thing has its own ability to be overworked, as I said.
So if you normally take 5 hours to do
a painting, try and do it in four and a half.
See if that extra little bit of time saved is going to help you stop a bit sooner.
Now my favourite is of course using lots of juicy paint.
I want a painting to look kind of luxurious, even more generous.
It's a case of being able to see
the paint, see that it is a painting made up of brush strokes.
And texture that you get from the paint and perhaps a bristle brush looks great.
I want to look up close at a painting, not just from far away, but up close.
I want to see those brush marks.
Final quick tip is the edges of shapes.
Not every shape must be crisp edged.
If every shape is crisp edged,
it's very likely the painting is going to look tight and overworked,
kind of lifeless, maybe almost like everything has been stuck on.
You don't want that.
Pick some things that are not that important in the painting.
Give them soft edges.
Soft edges will help to suggest volume.
Also a lightness and airiness
and atmospheric sense what you want the viewer to focus on your focal point.
There will be your hardest edge.
Everywhere else will have softer and even
some very soft, diffuse edges, depending on the subject.
So those are a few good tips I can give you, and I cover these in a lot more
detail with examples in my course How to Loosen Up Your Painting.
So if you're interested in that,
have a look at the link below and check out the course as well.
And the next painting you start do
a little bit of planning and have a lot of fun.
Just ease into it, no pressure, and enjoy the fantastic opportunity you
have to create something beautiful and stress free.
All right, if that sounds good, give that a try as soon as you can.
All right. If you haven't subscribed to this channel,
of course you're going to do so right now I hope.
Hit the notifications as well so you don't miss the next video.
And of course, check out the free painting course I have for you up here in the link.
Well, until next time, enjoy your painting.
Take it easy and cheers for now.