Hi, everyone. My name is Chelsea Lang. I am an alla prima oil painter who specializes
in portraiture with energetic brush work and when I am not in the studio,
I love geeking out about the psychology of mastering the craft of painting.
So, today, I want to talk to you about how I practice effectively,
work toward my goals and ensure that every time I sit down to the easel, I'm one step
closer to mastering my craft and becoming the painter I want to be so that you can too.
If you enjoy this video, make sure to check out my YouTube channel where I talk about
mastering the craft of painting every week. Alright, Let's get started.
One of the most common refrains we hear as artists is about our talent. Artists show work
we've spent years learning how to make only to hear, "I wish I had your talent,
I can't even straw a stick figure." On the surface, we probably catch ourselves thinking
about all of the things we had to learn and practice to make that particular painting
but there can be deeper, more insidious takeaways from this way of thinking that go unchecked.
When we get with a painting, we might wonder if we're just not
talented enough to see it through or look at artists we admire and wonder
how much more talented they are that they can make paintings we can only dream of.
In psychology, this comes back to what researcher Carol Dweck
called Fixed vs Growth Mindsets or the idea that we are either born having what it takes,
a fixed mindset, or we practice and learn over time to achieve our goals, growth mindset.
These might be terms you've heard before or maybe you're familiar with the 10,000 hour rule
popularized by Malcolm Gladwell which states that you need that much time
of intensive practice to achieve mastery over complex skill set such as painting,
but these ideas about learning goals and mastery are just the beginning. So how can
we put those to work for us as painters and reach our potential or even become masters ourselves?
First, we need to have a goal. It isn't enough to sit at the easel and put in
mindless reps of painting. Without knowing where you're going, you're much less likely
to identify areas that need improvement and actually spend your time on what matters.
If you've heard of that 10,000 hour rule, this is an important caveat to it - It's not just that you
spend 10,000 hours drawing or painting, it's that you know exactly what exercises you're needing
and that you're thoughtful about how you go about them
or put another way - you can't just do drills and expect to become the painter you dream of being.
You have to have direction, know what it takes to bridge the gap between where you
are and where you want to be and go into each practice session thoughtfully and
strategically. So, both in general and in this particular painting, I had a clear goal.
I chose this reference out of about 3,000 I took of this particular model.
I chose it because the photo was in focus, the light and shadow pattern was interesting
and I thought the model's pose was captivating. The color was appealing and the list goes on.
But I didn't stop there either. I didn't simply take that reference and say, "Okay, well, let's
paint this one" because there's so many different directions that I could take this reference.
I could crop it to include the span of
her arms in a wide landscape format. I could zoom in on just her face.
I can include details of the background or I could paint it as a vignette without any background.
One of the toughest stumbling blocks I see trip artists up is they don't set themselves up for
success in their planning and that often takes the form of choosing a reference that doesn't
align with the kinds of paintings you actually want to make and once the reference is chosen,
you're flying by the seat of your pants to figure out how to interpret it on the canvas.
So, if you're drawn to striking color and light,
maybe you paint with a reference of a subject you like but in lighting that's dim
and produces colors that are dull and you hope that if you brighten up your colors on the canvas,
the problem will be solved. Or maybe you choose a subject that you love but
in a pose that isn't flattering and you hope that you can correct the pose mid painting.
Maybe you found yourself in exactly these situations before or perhaps you're a careful
planner or you faithfully reproduce exactly what you see in your reference and feel this doesn't
apply to you, but in my experience, we often come far less prepared to a painting than we think
and wind up having to replan our paintings midway through because we suddenly realize
that the models top is the completely wrong color to harmonize with the rest of the piece
or the silhouette created by the value structure is unclear or we have no plan for the background.
So, for this piece I planned. I tested a number of different backgrounds, color schemes, value
structures, aspect ratios for the canvas until I arrived at a mock up that already looked like the
painting I wanted to make and I knew I was happy with that mock up and that plan and this helps me
work toward my larger goal of creating portraits that have striking light, color, and brush work.
I actually have a full Pinterest board of paintings that inspire me, that embody
these things that I look at before the start of every painting. So, it's not even that my goal
is expressive alla prima painting or expressive portraiture. I can look at this collection of
paintings and see the patterns and trends across a number of artists of the qualities of composition,
lighting, color, edges, brush work and value structure that really speak to me.
Having a goal that's that concrete is valuable.
That being said, you might be curious about the role of improvisation or feeling like this
approach seems awfully stifling if you're never allowed to be intuitive, energetic,
or leave a part of the painting to some kind of chance, and you'd be right.
See, this is just the beginning. The role of planning is to help get really clear on what works
and what doesn't work for you, for your aesthetic, the kinds of paintings you want to create.
It actually accelerates the process of exploration helping you to avoid side trips, down painting
techniques and styles that don't result in the kinds of paintings that you personally love
and it creates a mental library or a toolkit of compositions, mark making techniques,
and approaches to taking the painting from start to finish, etcetera, that will work
for you and over time, you'll have mastered so many of these the can sit down to a reference
and understand intuitively how to see it through to a finished piece that you love
and that's what we want in the end.
We want the freedom to sit down and trust our own instincts as to how to create an original work
in our unique voice but we also want an efficient way to experiment and discover what works for us.
So, let's say you're on board, you want to plan a piece you know you'll like before you even
set brush to canvass. Is that it? With a plan in hand, will you be able to create
the painting of your dreams? Well, probably not and that's the reason
that painting does come down to a number of hard skills that require practice.
Things like intuitively understanding the marks each of your brushes make
or exactly the consistency of paint to mix up take time and practice to develop a feel for.
If you want to create Sargent-like brush work, you'll probably need to practice making and
controlling a full range of marks just like he'd employ before you could comfortably insert them
into your work or interpret them in a way that makes sense for you and we can practice this
on our own, pushing for a greater range of marks then maybe we automatically put down.
But the fastest way to increase these skills while also developing a feel for when to use
them in a given composition is to study the masters and in doing so, allow yourself to
stand on their shoulders and allow yourself to learn without having to reinvent the wheel.
Creating studies or copies of masterpieces is the basis of so many art programs the world over
and with good reason. It's a proven way to improve and do so quickly but what about being original?
It's natural to worry that copying comes at the expense of originality but when you allow yourself
to explore a range of art that you're drawn to, it turns out that copying actually enhances our
creativity and allows us to create works that outsiders will consider more creative not less.
Here's why... When we sit down and faithfully examine and attempt to replicate a masterpiece,
we aren't just mindless copy machines. We're stretching our minds to imagine
ourselves in the place of our favorite artists.
We have to think about how they'd hold their brush or set up their reference or create harmony in
their color palette or simplify a complex set of forms into just a few brush strokes which means
we aren't just copying, we're practicing being a better painter than we are today and when we
do that from a diverse set of viewpoints or from the perspective of multiple artists that we love,
we start to see connections of how we can combine our favorite things about our favorite artists
and in doing so, create new work that is not only of a high caliber but also aligns with the aspects
of painting that we are most passionate about and that's how I set myself up for this painting.
I actively studied the kind of brush work I was interested in. I tested how I could
achieve the drips running down the canvas and later, how I could touch them up effectively.
I compared my color harmonies and composition to paintings I love to
make sure that I was setting myself up to create a finished product that I'd like.
And finally, I treated this as play. This I think is one of the most overlooked aspects of working
toward your goals without burning out. I knew I would make this painting for you right now
watching this channel and I was super excited about that but also a little
nervous because I want you to love this painting and get a ton out of this video.
So, instead of trying to make a painting unlike anything I'd ever made before or
trying to make a painting so perfect that I would surprise even myself,
I let myself pick a subject and a way of working that I would feel at ease with.
I chose a subject I painted before and always enjoy
in a way of working that wasn't especially tight or tedious
but also not trying achieve Richard Schmid levels of looseness and expressive brush work
because that would be a really high bar. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to do that but sometimes,
I need to make a painting that isn't about pushing and instead about enjoying what I'm doing.
I trust that so long as I'm being mindful of my goals generally,
I will be working toward the kinds of paintings I'm excited to make.
I can look at the trend of my paintings over time instead of expecting that every
is objectively closer to my goal than my last painting was in every conceivable way.
So, I hope this last take away is one that you take time to pay attention to and make space
for in your own painting practice. Tune in and ask yourself "What would be fun to paint today?"
as much as you ask what exercises would make you a better painter
because you could have all of the painting instruction in the world
but none of it matters if you're too burnt out to get in the studio and paint
and the best remedy for at is to create a painting practice that you look forward to.
And that's it.
I hope this video has helped you to build a clear road map to your painting goals
and I want to thank Proko for having me on and letting me share all of this with you.
If you'd love to hear more about how you can master your craft and find your style,
make sure to check out my YouTube channel via the link in the description.
I'm excited to see you there and until then, happy painting.