5 Pieces of Prep That Can Help You Make Looser, Bolder and All Around Better Paintings
You see it. You’re inspired. You paint it...right?
Not so fast.
Again and again the representational artists on the show talk about all the thinking they do before they put brush to paper or canvas. And the reason is simple:
“Artists are visual people,” says Ep. 22 guest Sarah Sedwick, “we need to see something in the physical world.”
A pretty landscape is not a painting. Even a photograph is not a painting. Artists MAKE paintings. Paintings are about translating inspiration into paint.
It turns out this is a pretty complicated task. So complicated in fact that it can’t all be done in your head.
To make make it less complicated, to make bolder work, and to make the process more fun, guests on the show turn to a series of studies before they begin painting.
Here are a few studies guests suggest.
THUMBNAIL STUDY
Flip through the sketchbooks of the artistic greats and you’ll see these unassuming workhorses in the margins.
A thumbnail study is a generic name for a small study, maybe 2-4 inches wide. Sometimes they are value studies (see below) done in Sharpie or they are quick graphite sketches capturing just the big shapes.
Artists use thumbnails to begin to gather basic information about their reference. It’s a place to begin thinking about shapes, composition and format and to get that thinking into the physical world.
You might use a thumbnail to answer the question, does this subject work better as a square or a rectangle (format)? Is 8x10 better or 14x16 (also format)? That tree seems weird there...where should I move it?
Thumbnails are a great place to begin taking out unnecessary things. Just because you see it in your reference doesn’t mean it should be in your painting. A thumbnail is a place to audition your subject matter.
Because they are small and quick, they offer a great place to try a bunch of things out. Do one... or better yet, do several.
Things to keep in mind when doing your thumbnail:
A thumbnail is a place to audition your subject matter.
A thumbnail is a great place to begin working on your design. It’s a place to catch things that might trip you up later. For example, it’s often good to have your focal area follow the rule of thirds. You can draw a quick thumbnail and check that. How great to be able to make these changes now and not after you’ve spent hours at your canvas.
Pro tip: Make sure your thumbnail is the same ratio as your painting. If you know you’re going to be painting on a 12x12 canvas, make sure you draw your thumbnail in a 2x2 square. Same for the rectangles. This may sound like a small, unimportant thing, but it will save you a TON of trouble later on.
VALUE STUDY
You’ve heard the saying that value does all the work, color gets all the credit? It’s true. But to get great color, you need strong value.
Take all the color out of your subject and you are left with the value. Value is the black, white and grey of a picture.
A value study can be invaluable in helping you plan and double check the important parts of your painting.
For example, your viewer's eye (almost no matter what else is happening) will go to the lightest lights next to the darkest darks. Knowing this, you can do your value study and then double check that you have, in fact, your lightest light next to your darkest dark.
Even the professional artists on the show will finish a value study and realize, “Oops.”
Value studies are also a great way to begin playing with shape and mass. See where you can make a value slightly lighter or darker so that it’s part of a bigger value shape. Remember one value may be a lot of different colors. If you look at a landscape, at the very far background the hills, trees and barns may all be very light in value even though the colors themselves shift between blue, green and red.
(Look at how many colors artist Andy Evansen, Ep. 12, has in one value above.)
A value study can help you make sure that the lights and darks of your painting plan are strong. This study can also be invaluable in helping you plan the important parts of your painting.
Learning to see value is critical for strengthening your work. Value studies are a great way to begin practice seeing that way.
You can do a value study with a graphite pencil pressing the pencil harder to make darker values. You can also use grey marker pens for the various values.
Some artists, like Evansen, even pull out their paints and paint the value study with a grey or grey blue. It’s a great way to warm up with your brush.
NOTAN STUDY
A Notan study is a value study that is only black and white. Doing a notan is an incredibly powerful way to force yourself into choosing light or dark for a particular value in your painting.
Again, so much of painting is simplifying. There are thousands of values in the real world. But you’re not going to paint all of them. That means you have to decide to make them lighter or darker.
Notans help you do exactly that. They force you in an extreme way to decide are your middle greys going light or are they going dark. And in the process, these studies help you make sure you have interesting shapes.
PRELIMINARY SKETCH
A preliminary sketch is a bit more thought out, has more details and often a bit larger than a thumbnail. Some artists will do a preliminary sketch at the same size as their final painting as a warm up and final check on their composition and thinking. Other artists may do it a bit smaller, but begin to include more detail.
A preliminary sketch can be done in a sketchbook. You want to make sure you get the information correct. That is important. For example, the angle that a roof tilts or how large a head is compared to the body.
A preliminary sketch trusts that you have the big pieces in the right place, but now you're making sure you’re translating everything correctly. Plus it’s a great way to begin warming up.
COLOR STUDY
Isn’t it interesting that we’re this far in and only now comes in color?
That speaks to the importance of value and shape. Color is important but it may not be AS important as you think.
Many artists don’t turn to their color studies until they have their value and composition figured out. Only then do they begin to introduce color. THAT’S how important value and composition are.
A color study is a great way to warm up with your brush and many artists do them as a way to practice mixing colors and to see if their color plan will create a harmonious painting.
Watercolorists Carol Carter (Ep.16) and Peggi Habets (Ep.4) both have painting processes that rely on the paper being just right before they drop in clean water or additional pigment. Color studies are a great way to practice the where and when before they commit to a larger sheet of watercolor paper.
SMALL PAINTNG STUDY
Even after all of these steps, some artists choose to do an additional study beyond a color study. They approach it through small version of their larger painting, or a painting study
For artist Melanie Morris, Ep. 34, the small painting study is often much looser and so she refers to it after she goes large to make sure she is keeping that loosness after she goes large.
For realistic painter Todd M. Casey, Ep. 24, the small painting also acts as a reference for his larger work. He will refer to the small work to make sure his shadows have the right value as they move out from the object or that the colors create form as he wants on objects.
For Casey, whose paintings take many many hours, his small paintings are also a way to test if he still loves his subject. At the end of the small painting, if he finds himself bored, he’s certainly not going to advance into the larger painting.
THE VALUE OF STUDIES
Even the most skilled eye needs time to think about how to translate their subject from the real world into the painting world. What to leave in and take out. Where to put this shape or that shape.
This problem solving takes time and consideration. The studies above give you the time and space to do just that. If you work through studies, it means that by the time you get to the actual painting, you can truly enjoy being in the moment, experiencing the beauty of playing in paint and responding to the needs of the painting under your hands.
Basically, these studies give you confidence. And confidence is the main ingredient in bold, fresh paintings that you’ll love creating.
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