Aaron Holland Fine Arts

 

This is a list I liked from C. JohnHolcombe's website, taken with his permission.You may visit his website by clicking here.

 

Like any craftsmen, painters accumulate practical hints: here are just a few :

Talent is no more than persistence in recognizing and solving problems. Continual practice is essential.

The crucial question is not how to paint but what. First decide what you want to paint and then how you'll do it.

Start with an image in your mind and paint that.

Ensure you put in every stroke as best you can, even in underpainting. Each stroke should follow naturally from the previous and lead on the next. Think before applying paint.

Work the whole picture at once.

Experiment widely: even professionals must take risks if they're to maintain freshness.

Decide where and how to focus attention.

Aim to create a beautiful painting more than learn to paint.

Work from large to small.

Do everything as simply and economically as possible. If you can bring an element to completion quickly, do so.

Grasp the importance and significance of what you see: developing that is more important than technique.

Practice and reflection are needed to understand what is taught.

Crucial to painting is seeing, i.e. sustained concentration and unlearning many preconceptions.

Don't paint what you see: understand what you're seeing and paint that.

Paint from dark to light.

Try to indicate form and texture of object by modifying brushstrokes.

Highlights occur where a plane changes direction.

Centre of interest is always in the light.

Eye prefers warm colours to cold.

Highlights should be shaped to lead eye as desired.

Add touches of colour to where shadow meets light.

Make areas lighter by making the area lighter or by making surrounding area darker.

Treat similar areas similarly. Keep shadow areas and background similar in tone.

Darks get lighter as they go further back.

Darkest shadow is closest to light.

Highlights on cold areas are warm, and vice-versa.

Value is more difficult to control than hue. Keep the values simple, and plan.

Third dimension is not only to be created by value: you should use colour temperature, edges and colour intensity.

Keep shadows consistent for material - e.g. heavy cloth has darker shadows than thin.

Edges can be hard or soft, and/or outside (pointing out from picture and indicating thickness of plane) or inside (pointing in.)

Hard edges rivet attention. Use them for composition and to create depth.

Use more colour and less white to make paint brighter.

Use colour to unify and/or make something happen.

Reserve most intense colours to areas in light.

Warm colours advance, cold colours recede.

Decide on one or two dominant colours: de-intensify others.

Make blacks darker by adding warm colours.

You can't paint hues and values at the same time: they need separate brushstrokes.

Chalkiness is muddiness that is lighter in value, and from same mistake: blending too many colours.

 

© C. John Holcombe 2007. Material can be freely used for non-commercial purposes if cited in the usual way.