Pep Talk

 

It is never too late to start painting. You don’t even have to quit your day job. All it takes is letting yourself enjoy incompetence. The less you know the faster you grow and the only way to learn is trial and error. Art schools, workshops and YouTube videos may give you some ideas on what to try but ultimately, you decide what works for you. The things that do not work when you experiment are important in learning process. If you don’t have enough of those, it means you are not taking enough chances.

Go to museums and galleries and see what impresses you the most, regardless of what other people like. Then figure out what it is specifically you like about a piece and try to use it as fuel to move forward.  Practice is important and the way to put in the time it takes is staying excited about it.

Most of what you will learn has been around for ages. Instead of repackaging it, I have listed some of what you may find useful. The content here is compiled to remove some of the time or cost obstacles you may have in pursuing what makes you happy. However if those are not a problem, I do encourage you to find an artist you admire (both the person and the work) find out if the artist is also a good teacher and take a workshop with them. Supporting other artists living their dreams is a good thing. If you do take a workshop, take responsibility for what you want to learn. Study the artist work closely ahead of time and have your questions lined up before the first day.

Now let’s get to work.

Daryoosh Mosleh

 

Basics:

 

Going to art store and looking at all the paint options can make you quit before you start. Starting with Limited Palette (4-5 colors) can reduce confusion.  Mark Carder has a great videos on that approach: 

Color mixing demo


Cesar Santos on Selecting Brushes.

 

Workflow

 

For Inspiration (If his style is your thing)

A painterly approach

Study

Another study that is great to paint along with

Grisaille Palette

Visual Story Telling

Fun (but not for everyone)

Multi layered paint

 

 

Paint Application:

 

Brush Strokes (Part 1)

Brush Strokes (Part 2)

Bob Ross style of paint application for landscapes

Demo of a looser approach to paint manipulation

Be creative on how you apply, remove or manipulate paint

 

Color:

 

Colors Strategy

Colors in shadows

Sculpting with color

How color changes as light fades

Shifting Hues

Skin Tones

Color perception - David Briggs has more details about various aspect of color on his website:

                                https://sites.google.com/site/djcbriggs/colour-online

 

Light:

 

Glowing Light - You could paint along this simple study 

Sphere

Light in painting

How to light your still life set-up 

Portrait Lighting

Reflected light color

 

Visual Perception

 

What you paint is not always what people see

 

 

Edge

 

Seeing edges - He uses a digital medium but principals apply to oil painting as well.

 

Water

 

Waves

Tropical water

Ocean

 

 

Here are a few reference materials you may find useful in getting started:

 

Free Training

 
 
 
 

Books

 

Color and Light by James Gurney

Oil Painting Essentials by Gregg Kreutz

Alla Prima II by Richard Schmid 

The Artist's Handbook on materials and techniques (If you want to get technical)

Charles Bargue  Drawing Course (If you want to practice forms)

 

Schools and Workshops

 

Groups and Societies

 

Art Renewal

The Portrait Society of America

BoldBrush

 

Podcasts

 

Savvy Painter . Here is a Sample

Artful Painter

Creative Pep Talk

The Creative Endeavour

ArtHoles for those that are interested in art history 

 

Answers

 

Wet Canvas

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