Students often struggle to understand what their painting is about.
This understanding is key because it's all wrapped up in your story and what you want to say. It follows that students often feel they have little of import to say therefore this is irrelevant to them. Your story is important because it will help you design a work that you are passionate about and will help you to focus on the important elements that attracted you in the first place. Thereby helping you avoid over-stating support and background elements. What am I most interested in? your painting (story, poem, sculpture, composition, drawing etc) must have a purpose and, yes, the purpose can be learning but more than this – why paint it? What is it about? What drew you (pardon the pun) to want to paint it? Without your want, your passion to paint it, there’s no story, there’s no purpose. Might as well put your best foot forward and crack it! We’ve talked about this before, sometimes it comes down to making yourself want to paint “it”. Do your research, study your subject, create design thumbnails etc (this research and study also has another purpose for discussion later). Design your painting, what can you use to create a painting with strong design? So what made you want to paint this? Was it a fleeting light? Shapes interlocking and overlapping that piqued your interest? Unusual colours juxtaposed? A strong light/dark contrast? People involved in some interesting activity? An idea – what if I put this with that? Whatever it was that intrigued you is your story. It’s really only necessary to explain it to yourself, to keep you on track, write it down. So then your painting becomes a concept about how to tell this story and the visual language you’ll need to tell it. For example, let’s talk about a stiped canopy. I might want a strong light and use the stripes and shadows to help me describe the shape of the canopy. There’s probably a door or a window under the canopy, this could be used for a strong value contrast – lightest light against the darkest dark. There might be a group of people nearby, can you link them to the canopy/doorway? Is it a shop, they’re going to walk through the door? People walking out with shopping bags filled with goodies. My focus must stay on the canopy and elements that help me describe the scene and the story of the canopy, maybe it's blowing around in the wind. Exaggerate anything that leads to the focal area, minimise supporting gorgeousness. What's your why? ciao bei pittori xx
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I know many creatives and many of them never finish a work. The same work is done and re-done and done again because it’s never right. There’s always something out of place, a comma, an invisible brush mark, a chord that seems not right – not perfect = imperfect! We do it again and hope it will be better next time.
And so now, this work gets put aside in the hope (read dread) the next one will be better. What people don’t realise is, there’s no such thing as mistakes. What happens is, we get a different result from what we expect, we don’t know what to do with it. This is often the result with watercolour, we have a vision and an eye on our goal – but something happens or we return from a cup of tea to find our painting looks different from just 10 minutes ago. We’ve become so results driven we’re forgotten to enjoy the process, play to our medium’s strengths and just have fun playing with the paint. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying don’t attempt specific subjects, what I’m saying is have fun along the way. Explore your paint and ask yourself “What would happen if …?” or tell yourself “I’m just going to have a play with this and see what happens!” - my favourite way to start new work! It banishes fears and performance anxiety and sets up an easier happy attitude!! happy painting dear friends!! Amanda
One of the reasons I love watercolour painting is the speed at which I can achieve a painting. If and when I'm clever, I can have a painting today! It took me a long time to get to this point - I've been painting watercolour close to 30 years - it's not an overnight process!!
A huge obstacle for watercolour newbies is allowing the watercolour to have it's way. There's a saying "before I paint, I'm in control, once I put that brush down the watercolour takes over". The secret is, until you get a really good feel for water balance in your brushes, paint and paper, you need to let go and stop trying to control the uncontrollable. Watercolour, as it should be painted, will be difficult for you. Embrace "mistakes" and "accidents", runs and bleeds and allow the painting to speak to you and tell you what it wants. Have another read of my webpage "About Me" and note the last sentence - "I love watching paint dry!" Stop fiddling and controlling and start watching what the paint does and note that where the water goes the paint will follow. You'll start to notice the really cool effects and passages - watercolours will paint themselves if we let them and they'll certainly do it much better than we can! When we're painting watercolour it's time to stop and smell the roses! The scary secret is, you might not get the results you wanted or expected and you certainly might not know what to do next - that's the shock of it!! Use your artist's sense of composition, value structure and design to decide next steps - does it need more darks or lights? are the shapes correct? is it balanced and unified, etc etc. Make a cuppa and watch the paint dry!! ciao i miei belli amici!! Amanda |
AuthorPaintBox Tips, secrets, random thoughts, Poetry in watercolour is made in the freedom of the here and now. Amanda Brett Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working - Pablo Picasso There are no mistakes in watercolour, just some extra surprises!! Categories
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What my readers and viewers have to say
Your emails are so informative! I must confess I've watched a couple of your demos from beginning to end, and it makes me want to watercolor!!! I've only ever painted with oil or acrylics and haven't know how to begin with WC. Your content is excellent!
Susan VN Hi Amanda
Thank you for your tips. They inspired me to practise and I realised I haven’t been loading the brush properly. I learnt about adding more paint, and not water, to washes. In today’s tips I like the idea of painting with purpose. Your tips are very helpful. I very much appreciate receiving them. Elizabeth Hi Amanda I enjoyed your post and generous tips. Looked up Dan Burt I begin to see that you can colour any subject to give it pizazz so long as the tone and form is correct Certainly adding value now to my attempts Thanks heaps Annie
Yes very wise words. Agree with not fussing and agree with comments about good quality paint. Well written and inspirational as always. Cheers Janet xxxx Archives
July 2023
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