One of the most common messages I receive, is from beginners, asking if they ‘need to loosen up.’
Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.
Painting in a loose, impressionistic style has the allure of freedom and artistic and personal expression. But when you’re thinking about your drawing, composition, and colour mixing, achieving fluid and expressive brushwork feels elusive.
So, what can you do to practice? How can you keep a balance between realism and looseness?
The key to looser brushwork lies in mastering the subtleties of your tools and learning how to let go of unnecessary precision.
The 1 Reason Most People Fail at Brushwork
I’ve been practising and teaching brushwork for over 20 years. Using traditional to modern techniques, including long handle, short handle, sable, and hog, I’ve seen first-hand how proficient brushwork can transform your painting, but over the years, I’ve also learned that people who want to achieve fluid, expressive paintings often end up failing.
Approaching brushwork with a mindset of control and perfectionism isn’t the answer. You could think you would achieve more by focusing harder, using better brushes, or spending more time on details, but the truth is that the fear of letting go is holding you back.
One of my favourite brushes does everything ‘wrong’.
Bristles have fallen out.
It doesn’t hold much paint anymore.
The bristles are splayed, and there’s a thick paint build-up near the ferrule.
I love it.
The imperfections in the bristles create unpredictable strokes and texture that a new brush can’t achieve.
(There is a Japanese term called Wabi-Sabi. This is my wabi-sabi brush!)
The secret to loose, expressive brushwork lies in understanding key elements—your brushes, paint consistency, surface, and how you hold the brush.
Whether you’re wondering how to learn brushwork or simply want to improve your expressive painting skills, this guide will show you how small adjustments can make a huge difference.
6 Key Variables That Influence Brushwork
Have you got control issues?
To paint looser, you need to understand the factors that shape your brushwork. There are countless variables that affect the look and feel of your strokes, and tweaking them will help you achieve a more fluid, expressive style. The biggest one is control.
When you move from pencil to paintbrush, a simple mistake will unwittingly hold your loose painting back.
You’re holding your paintbrush like a pencil, not a brush.
The further back along the handle you hold your brush, the less control you have.
The less control, the more loose a brushstroke will be.
My trusty old brush
1. Bristles: The Foundation of Brushwork
Each brush behaves differently; understanding them is key to creating varied and dynamic strokes. The type of bristles is the most fundamental factor influencing your work; this article looks at the most common bristles used in artist brushes.
Length and Width of Bristles: A wider brush (in relation to your canvas size) covers more surface area and encourages bigger, bolder marks, perfect for a loose painting style.
Absorbency: Bristles like sable hold more water, allowing for smoother, continuous strokes, while hog hair brushes tend to release paint more quickly, creating textured, broken lines.
Snapback: This refers to how much the bristles spring back after being pressed into the canvas. Brushes with more snap create sharp, defined marks, while softer bristles make for smooth strokes.
Age of the Brush: A new brush behaves differently from an old one. As brushes age, they soften, lose bristles, and create unpredictable marks. Many artists, myself included, prefer older, worn-out brushes because they allow for more spontaneous textures.
Splay: Match the brush’s splay to the mark you’re trying to create. Imperfections create unpredictable strokes and textures.
Pro Tip: Don’t be afraid to experiment with those worn-out brushes you’ve moved to the back of your studio space—they might just give you the loose, textured strokes you’re after.
Thick impasto paint mixed on the canvas
Thin diluted paint, creating a soft fluid effect
2. Paint Consistency: Thick vs. Thin
The consistency of your paint is another major factor in brushwork. It affects how the paint interacts with your brush and canvas, and how it flows across the surface.
Thick Paint: Using paint straight from the tube creates bold, textured brushstrokes. This works well for impasto techniques or when you want to emphasize texture and create broken edges.
Thin Paint: Diluting your paint with water, oil, or a medium will allow it to flow more smoothly, leading to softer, more blended strokes. This is great for glazes or for creating a more fluid, looser style.
Mixing on the Palette vs. on the Canvas: Fully mixing your paint on the palette will give you a consistent color, but mixing directly on the canvas adds color variation within each stroke, adding depth to your work.
Experiment: Try mixing partially on the canvas instead of fully on the palette. This can help loosen up your brushwork and introduce beautiful colour into your strokes.
Smooth canvas vs textured
Adding surface texture onto the canvas enables looser brush handling and broken edges
3. Surface Texture: How the Canvas Affects Your Brushwork
The surface you paint on—whether it’s a smooth board or a textured canvas—significantly affects the look of your brushstrokes.
Smooth Surfaces: A smooth board allows your brush to glide, creating clean, solid blocks of color. This is great for controlled work but can feel too tight for looser styles.
Textured Surfaces: A textured canvas grips the brush, breaking up the paint and creating more dynamic, irregular strokes. This helps when you want to achieve a looser, more expressive feel.
Absorbent Surfaces: Some surfaces, like raw canvas or watercolour paper, absorb the paint, creating soft edges and a stained look. This is ideal for loose washes or underpaintings.
Pro Tip: If you’re struggling with tight brushwork, switch to a rougher surface. It encourages broken, unpredictable strokes.
4. Speed of Application: Fast, Medium, or Slow?
The speed at which you apply your brushstrokes directly influences how loose or tight your painting looks.
Fast Brushstrokes: Quick strokes create energy and movement. To achieve looser, more expressive brushwork, practice speeding up your application.
Medium Speed: A balanced, medium pace allows for some control while still maintaining a sense of flow. This works well when you want a mix of precision and looseness.
Slow Brushstrokes: Slower strokes are more deliberate and careful, which can result in tighter, more controlled work. However, slowing down for specific details and then speeding up for broader areas can create a lovely dynamic balance in your painting.
Try This: Set a timer and force yourself to make faster brushstrokes during your next session. The sense of urgency can help break your perfectionism or reach for tea and biscuits to calm down!
Close grip giving more control
Loose grip further down the brush gives freer looser strokes
5. Brush Handling: Different Angles, Different Effects
How you hold your brush and the angle you use it, will change the quality of your strokes. Experiment with different grips and angles to achieve various effects.
Flat, Side, Tip: Using the flat side of the brush gives you broad, even coverage while using the tip creates sharp, precise lines. Holding the brush at an angle or even using the handle to scratch into the paint adds more texture and unpredictability.
Hand Grip: Holding your brush close to the ferrule gives you more control, but holding it further back encourages larger, freer strokes. You can even extend the handle to force yourself to paint from a distance, making it harder to get stuck in the details.
Pro Tip: Mix it up. Switch between gripping the brush close to the ferrule for details and farther back for broader, looser strokes.
6. Pressure: Strong vs. Soft Application
The pressure you apply with your brush dramatically affects your brushstrokes.
Strong Pressure: Pushing hard into the canvas creates thick, bold strokes with visible texture. This is great for emphasizing specific areas of your painting.
Soft Pressure: A lighter touch results in delicate, whisper-thin lines that can soften your overall piece. This technique is useful for transitions and highlights.
Varying Pressure: Combining intense and soft pressure in the same stroke creates dynamic brushwork. For example, start with heavy pressure and gradually lighten as you move the brush, creating a stroke that fades out smoothly.
Exercise: In your next painting session, alternate between heavy and light pressure within the same stroke to create varied lines.
Putting It All Together: A Recipe for Looser Brushwork
To paint looser, you don’t need to throw out everything you’ve been doing. Instead, it’s about tweaking the variables—the brush, paint consistency, surface, speed, handling, and pressure. By experimenting with each of these elements, you can find a balance that feels more expressive and spontaneous.
Looser brushwork is about embracing the process and using your brush as a tool for expression, not just control. When you learn to experiment, push boundaries, and stop obsessing over the smallest details, your brushstrokes will naturally become freer.
Final Thoughts: Practice Makes Progress
The more you experiment with these variables, the better you’ll understand how they influence your brushwork. Remember, painting looser isn’t about being careless—it’s about learning to trust your instincts, work quickly, and make bold choices.
If you’d like to learn more about how your canvas choice, brush method and paint mixing can all work together, I’ve got a new ‘How to paint like Monet’ launching in the next couple of weeks; whoop whoop!
Look out for the materials list for the course next week so you can loosen up and let your creativity flow.
There is nothing more daunting to a beginner artist than the question, “How much do you charge?”
Putting a price on your artwork can make your stomach drop, trigger imposter syndrome, and cause you to get flustered.
The idea of selling your work can sometimes lead to giving your paintings away for free, convincing yourself that the ‘exposure’ will bring future commissions.
With this in mind, I wanted to share my experiences with the emotions that can hold you back, the factors that influence the value of your art, and how to develop a pricing strategy. Hopefully, this will give you the clarity and confidence you need so you’ll be prepared the next time someone asks about your prices!
How much should I charge for my art?
You’ve poured your soul into each piece, laboured over the canvas, and tweaked it until it feels right. Now comes the moment of truth:
How much is it worth?
Pricing your work is a balance between perceived value, market trends, and career growth, but often, the main problem is an inside job.
Getting over imposter syndrome
Many beginners struggle with imposter syndrome, feeling that their work isn’t good enough or that they don’t deserve to charge for their creations.
When a customer utters the immortal words, “How much is that?” You have to try to look at the situation through different eyes and think logically about it. If you were making any other product, determining a price would be pretty simple.
You’d calculate your material costs, set an hourly rate for the time it took to make the product and compare your price to what the market or shops around you are selling for.
This would give you a baseline.
Nearly all of the factors below can help guide prices for your artwork, particularly when taking on commissions.
1. Time Spent /Customisation and Personalization
Calculate the hours you have spent creating the piece to give you a baseline. Commissions are often tailored to the buyer’s unique vision and theme; this level of customisation involves design work and sometimes personalised colour schemes, which can take longer.
2. Quality of Materials
Artist-quality materials can significantly increase the cost and justify a higher price. Consider the cost of your materials—canvas, paint, brushes, or digital tools.
3. Size and Complexity
A piece with intricate details or a complex composition can be priced higher due to the skill and effort involved.
Landscapes or seascapes can often be larger scale, increasing material costs and the time required to complete them.
Portraits, in particular, require skilled craftsmanship and can take hours of meticulous work.
4. Consultation and Planning
Designing a portrait often involves multiple consultations with the subject to understand their preferences, mutilple sittings, and make adjustments.
5. Your Experience
As a beginner, your prices may be lower than those of more established artists. However, as your portfolio grows and you gain recognition, you can adjust your prices accordingly.
Ego is the Enemy
The intrinsic value of art is deeply personal. It’s tied to the time, effort, and emotion spent creating it.
For some artists, this value is immeasurable; it’s the culmination of years of practice, the perfect stroke of a brush, and the precise blending of colours. Or it might be a deeply personal piece that has felt like a struggle.
However, while intrinsic value is important, it doesn’t always align with market value—the price someone is willing to pay.
The market value of your artwork is influenced by factors like your reputation as an artist, the materials used, the size of the piece, and current trends.
You may feel a piece is worth £2,000 because of the weeks you spent perfecting it, but if your audience sees it as worth £200, that’s the market value.
This is where your ego gets involved.
If you were offering a coffee and walnut cake for sale and somebody said,” No thanks, I don’t like walnuts,” you wouldn’t take offence, think the walnuts were bad, or feel overwhelmed; you would just think. No worries.
There will be someone in the room who loves walnuts! You just need to find them.
Selling art is like selling anything.
“To sell well is to convince someone else to part with resources—not to deprive that person, but to leave him better off in the end. This is what it means to serve: improving another’s life and, in turn, improving the world.” – Daniel H. Pink, To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others
The Endowment Effect
The worst time to put a price on your work is the second you’ve finished it.
Why?
You might price it too high.
The endowment effect is a cognitive bias that can cause people to value something they own more than its market value, often irrationally.
It’s why companies offer free trials, or car dealerships get you to sit in the front seat of a car. The more you have a personal connection to the item, the higher the value you place on it.
Suppose you’ve been gruelling for hours, days, or years! on a painting, you’ll have a lot stronger bond to the value you feel it deserves, due to the investment it took you to create it.
(p.s. Ninja move: You can use this effect to your advantage by offering a 30-day free home trial of the artwork)
Mirroring your market can be a great place to start if you’re unsure how to gauge your prices.
Look at local shops or galleries selling similar paintings and note the other artists’ pricing range. Also, look for red dots—the little dots that are placed over a painting label when it sells. This gives you an idea of the actual price someone is willing to pay.
There are often pricing bands that the majority of works fit into. Of course, there will be outliers selling for thousands, if not millions, of pounds, but this guide is for beginners.
As a general view of local or small galleries, 80% of the sales will often be under £1,000 in price.
The most popular price range for a small (under 30cm)—to medium-sized painting (under 60cm) is usually £150 – £500
Understanding Social Media vs Gallery Representation
If you start selling in the UK, you won’t have to charge VAT (value-added tax) on your sales. (There is a threshold of £90,000, based on your business’s turnover, not profits)
However, most galleries are VAT registered, so there will be 20% VAT on any sales you make through the gallery.
Physical Galleries often take a 50% commission on your sale price, so you must be aware of this when setting your prices. (online galleries like Saatchi take a 40% commission)
Here’s a quick breakdown:
Sale Price on a U.K based gallery wall not framed – £645.00
VAT amount: = £107.50
Since the gallery is VAT registered, the sale price includes 20% VAT.
Gallery Commission = £268.75
Gallery usually has a commission of 50% of the ex-vat sale price.
Artist’s Share: = £268.75
Deduct Material Costs, Material Costs: £40.00
Artist’s Profit after materials:
£268.75 – £40.00 = £228.75
Final Profit for the Artist – £228.75
So the customer sees a £645.00 painting, but you, as the artist, receive £228.75. Why would you ever want to get into a gallery?
Collectors, contacts and kudos.
Many collectors will not buy directly from an artist but only through a gallery. Established gallery owners know their best clients well and will have a list of paintings or styles they are looking to buy.
Also, seeing a collection of paintings together on a gallery wall can give customers more confidence that the size and style will fit what they want. Many galleries offer hanging services, art advice, and payment schemes. They have retail spaces in prime locations, and there is prestige involved in purchasing a painting from a gallery.
They also talk to customers, tell your story and don’t show any of those personal insecurities you might have about your own work!
To start with, you’ll be doing everything, but the goal is to get to a point where it makes sense for you to spend your time painting.
If you begin with the idea of gallery representation as a goal, you can incorporate that into your pricing.
‘In an ideal world your prices should also include a buffer to make it worthwhile for someone to represent you. Artists, in my opinion, need to distance themselves from daily commerce — this is why you need to be able to reward dealers who can share your magic with the greater world. Intelligent, long-term pricing accommodates friendly partnerships, maintains your integrity, and makes your progress viable in an ongoing manner. Intelligent, long-term pricing buys your freedom.’ – Robert Genn, The Painters Keys
Starting on social media can be a great place to start, as many gallery owners are also looking for new talent. If you’re selling consistently online, you become a much more attractive option for a gallery.
Now that you understand the factors influencing your art’s value, it’s time to develop a pricing strategy.
Developing an art pricing strategy
You can price in many ways; here are some common art pricing methods:
Pricing artwork by square inch
Pricing artwork by time spent
Pricing artwork by comparison
Grab a number from the air!
Cost per inch is one of the simplest to use. You can tweak the cost depending on your working style. Create tiers and scales for different sizes.
You can also price drawings or sketches less per square inch than paintings.
If you paint small, highly detailed portraits, the cost per inch will be higher than for a more impressionistic style, reflecting the time it takes to create the piece.
You can click the toggle at the top to choose either time-based or price-per-inch-based pricing.
There is also a box to enter the cost of materials. (You could also add overheads into this section)
Here’s an example of a 6 x 8-inch Art Pricing Chart:
6 x 8 inch (48 square inches)
£1.50 per square inch – £72
£2.00 per square inch – £96
£3.00 per square inch – £144
£4.00 per square inch – £192
How do you decide on the price per inch?
Start with £1 or 2
This is a baseline figure.
After you’ve sold five paintings at this price, increase the number.
Rinse and repeat.
One of the most important things to remember is that if you don’t have any prices on your website or social accounts, customers will often assume it’s super expensive or not for sale at all. 99% of the time, they won’t email to enquire about the cost either.
How to label your paintings on Instagram.
If you want to sell your paintings, potential customers need to be aware they are for sale. Here’s a format you can try:
All of these original paintings are available to buy. Email me at [your email] or DM me for more information.
Write the size in cm or inch – 15 x 15cm Write the medium – Oil on Canvas Write the title – “View over Delft.” Is post & packaging extra or included? – Plus P&P Is there a framing option or do you sell unframed? – Unframed
It will clearly state that your paintings are for sale, that they are originals, and indicates the size.
And as a final note, Van Gogh sold ‘The Red Vineyard’ for 400 francs (then £16) at a Brussels exhibition in March 1890. Four months before his suicide, it was the only painting he sold in his lifetime.
In 2022, one of his paintings sold at Christine’s auction house for over $117,000,000 million. (£88 million)
With a price range between $20 and $117 million, it’s no wonder determining the price for your first painting can be intimidating!
(The Wetting Agent was previously called ‘Acrylic Flow Release’)
I find using a stay-wet palette really helpful when my acrylics dry too quickly in the studio.
I’ll often premix colours on a tear-off palette and transfer the paint piles into a stay-wet palette. It acts as a loading bay where I can keep my acrylic mixes workable for a few days.
I currently use the Daler Rowney Stay Wet palette above, and it consists of two layers :
An absorbent paper layer that is soaked with water – acts as a water reservoir.
A sheet of grease-proof paper acts as a membrane to prevent all water from entering the paint immediately, as well as a lid.
I lay my acrylic paints out on top of the grease-proof sheet, and as the acrylics dry, the water in the paint is replaced by the water held in the absorbent paper layer.
It definitely keeps paints workable for longer, but there are a couple of caveats.
When I leave mixes in there for longer than a few days, the water in the palette makes the paints much more fluid, so they blend into each other rather than keeping themselves separate. And once the lid is on, and it’s a warm week, there’s also the risk of mould growing on the damp paper.
I often advise using heavy-body acrylics for their greater stability. They can handle excess moisture and are still workable even if they dilute slightly. However, I have found that using Golden Open Acrylics and Golden Fluid Acrylics, which are a lot more fluid to start with, not as successful.
The Masterson Sta-Wet Super Pro Palette – you can see the yellow sponge
In the Golden Paints tests, the Mastersons’ Palette incorporates an absorbent sponge instead of paper underneath to hold the water.
They also tried using treated water (rather than tap water, which I usually use) to see if that would make a difference. Distilled water made a huge difference; the sediments and minerals have been removed, which helps reduce mould growth. Then, they added the Golden Wetting Agent, (which is a soap or Surfactant) in different ratios to help saturate the sponge.
Heavy Body Titanium White after a month in a Sta-Wet Palette using distilled water – taken from the Just Paint Blog, Golden Artists Colours Inc.
What was interesting about the results was that the heavy body acrylic maintained a pretty good consistency for weeks! It didn’t really move; it stayed in a more stable, thicker form.
The real key is to determine how much water to add to the sponge to achieve the desired consistency for the medium you’re using.
I tend to saturate the absorbent sheet and then pour off the excess water.
You can see a video from 12 years ago of me setting up a stay-wet palette. (I’m still using the same one!)
Anyway, I will try it myself with distilled water and see how I get on. Let me know if you give it a go.
As a side note, I saw that Masterson makes a large Super Pro Palette version, similar to the A3 size Daler Rowney used to make, which is now out of production. I’m always running out of paint-storing real estate, so I think on this occasion, I’ll have to go big!
I’ve just finished making my NEW acrylic still life painting course, whoo hoo!
This time, the subject is a single-stem peony inspired by its layers of ruffled petals and delicate colour palette. I’m running a launch-week offer!
You might feel intimidated by the complexity of painting peonies, struggle with basic drawing techniques, lack confidence in your colour-mixing skills, or are unsure of how to start.
Don’t worry; I’ve got you covered!
This is a self-paced, downloadable video course. I’m excited to guide you through creating the delicate details of a peony in an impressionist style.
I demonstrate this with acrylics, but you can easily follow along with water-mixable oils or traditional oils.
Last week, we explored Carlson’s theory on angles, and I received an interesting comment from a reader asking how complicated it would be to apply the principles to colour.
“I especially love black and white painting. I’m looking forward to trying this. How does it work then with colour? Seems it could get quite complicated.” – Laura
Well, it’s simpler than you might think!
I thought it would be handy to demonstrate painting trees using just four colour mixes. I’m using water-mixable oils, but you can follow along with acrylics or traditional oils too.
Preparing Your Palette: Mixing the Base Colours
Let’s get started by mixing the four base colours in different values. Remember, value refers to how light or dark a colour is.
From left to right, Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Green Light, Permanent Green, Ultramarine Blue Light and below is Pyrrole Red.
First, the sky mix, using white and a small touch of Ultramarine Blue Light.
This gives us a light, airy sky colour. (Note how there was a little bit of green left on my palette knife, but it works for this painting.)
Next, we’ll create the ground mix. Take a bit of the sky colour, then add some Cadmium Yellow Light and a touch of Cadmium Green Light. Mix these, and finally, add a speck of Pyrrole Red to drop the saturation slightly.
This creates a natural, earthy tone for the ground.
For our slanted plane, we’ll mix Cadmium Green Light, Permanent Green, Cadmium Yellow Light, and a speck of Pyrrole Red.
This gives us a vibrant, rich green that’s perfect for those angled planes in the landscape.
Finally, the trees. Combine Permanent Green and Pyrrole Red to make a lovely rich dark green, then a touch of Titanium White to lighten the value.
This mix gives us a dark, yet vibrant green that will make our trees pop against the background.
OK, colours ready, let’s go!
Applying the Principles of Carlson’s Angles
Applying the principles of Carlson’s angles, use the sky mix for the top parts of the canvas, the ground mix for the base, the slanted plane mix for angled surfaces, and the tree mix for the trees themselves. Keep your strokes loose and varied, and remember to think about the direction of light and shadow. This will add depth and realism to your painting.
Here’s our subject drawn out with a pencil. You can download the sketch from the blog to follow along. I’m using a size 4 round Aspen brush from Princeton and water, both as a diluent and for washing the brush.
Blocking in the Darkest Values for Tree Trunks
First, I start with the darkest mix and block in the shapes of the tree trunks. Focus on the overall shape rather than individual details.
Next, I move on to the tonal masses of the trees. Instead of painting each leaf or branch, I combine the shapes into one tonal mass to create a cohesive look.
Make sure to paint the cast shadows under the trees; this really helps establish the illusion of a strong light source.
Once the tree trunks and masses are blocked in, I wash the brush out well in water and dry the bristles on a paper towel.
Adding Depth with Slanted Planes and Ground Colour
Now, I jump to the slanted plane. Follow the shapes as they weave between the tree trunks and leaves in the foreground.
After cleaning the brush, I paint in the ground colour. This lighter value starts to bring more life to our landscape. Be sure to include all the little dashes of light between the trees to add depth and interest. The point on the round brush can be handy for this.
Final Touches: Painting the Sky and Enhancing Details
The final, lightest area is the sky.
I apply the sky colour a little bit thicker and paint in some sky holes. If you’re using oils, remember you need to be more deliberate with your marks to avoid the colours blending together and becoming muddy.
Okay, so here is our painting simply blocked in, we haven’t mixed between the colours yet, just used our first mixes and it reads surprisingly well.
Now, we can start refining and mixing our initial four base mixes to add subtle hues.
For instance, a little white added to the darkest mix helps to separate a tree trunk. Mixing between the greens helps with the distant trees. If you wanted, you could develop the painting further by adding stronger warm red-based mixes, but this approach already looks great, and just keeping it this simple effectively demonstrates the theory in colour.
So that’s it!
You can create a beautiful, cohesive landscape with just four colours and an understanding of value. If you have any questions, leave a comment below.
As a beginner landscape painter, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the vastness of nature and the complexity of capturing it on canvas. But when you break down the scene into shapes, values and planes, you can instantly improve the sense of depth and realism.
In last week’s post, we looked at the theory of angles and how they relate to a landscape.
This week, we’re going to put the theory into practice.
By stripping away the colour, it will be easier to see how the value relationships work in our subject.
Materials you will need:
4 x 4-inch or 6 x 6-inch square canvas board or canvas paper
Step 1: Understanding Carlson’s Four Planes of the Landscape
To master landscape painting, it’s crucial to understand Carlson’s Four Planes of the Landscape. These planes are —sky, ground, slanted, and upright—and they serve as your compositional building blocks.
Step 2: Draw Out the landscape
I’ve drawn out the main shapes of the landscape with an acrylic marker. This is by Daler Rowney, and I’ve filled the empty marker with Sepia High Flow Ink. Make sure to keep the spaces between the trees. These negative spaces allow for dashes of sunlight.
Asking the question, ‘What angle is this object facing in relation to the light source?‘ can help you group the subjects. So, if we look at the trees, they are growing vertically, so they would fit within the upright plane. This faces away from the light source, so it is the darkest value.
I’m using a round brush and an N2 neutral grey.
I’m using pre-mixed greys for speed, but you can mix your own grey using Black and Burnt Umber, or Ultramarine and Burnt Umber.
I dip the brush into water and use that to alter the consistency of the paint.
If I feel the brush dragging a little on the canvas surface, I add a touch more water.
I’ve also got a piece of kitchen roll to the side. I can dab the bristles onto the paper towel if the brush contains too much liquid or pigment.
Step 3: Paint in the slanted plane
I’m still using the round brush, but jump up to the next lightest value for the slanted plane. This is for areas of the painting facing away from the light, but not fully exposed to the sun, so usually within the mid values.
It could be a hill in the distance, a roof, or a mass of leaves. On trees, you’ll often have the trunk as an upright plane, but the top of the leaves grow out at a slanted angle so they receive more light.
I’m using a few different greys and tweaking the values between them.
Neutral Grey from Golden Acrylics
Step 4: Paint in the Ground Plane
Once the slanted plane is in, I swap to a larger square brush to paint the ground plane.
This is much lighter than the slanted plane but not as bright as the sky. This area is often lighter in value than you think it should be.
Step 5: Paint in the Sky plane (light source)
We can jump to the lightest value, sky plane, for the light source of the sky. I’m using the square-edged brush and the corner of the bristles to paint in the sky holes. This helps to move the viewer’s eye across the painting and completes the value hierarchy.
I swap to the round brush for the final details of the gaps between the trees.
By understanding and applying Carlson’s Four Planes of the Landscape, you can break down complex scenes and create beautiful, realistic landscapes. Remember to start with a simple sketch, look for the shapes that are grouped together, and maintain consistent lighting variety.
You can watch a short 1min 30 video of the steps on YouTube below:
In this lesson, I want to show you how to start recognising light and dark relationships in a landscape.
Once you ‘see’ how the light falls on the main masses, such as the ground, trees, and mountains, painting the values accurately will be much easier.
I first encountered this simplification of the Four Planes of Landscape Painting in Carlson’s 1929 book ‘Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting’.
I’ve found it’s a surprisingly helpful way of stopping and accessing what you’re looking at in terms of groups of planes of masses and simplifying the enormous detail and overload you can face when painting outdoors.
Understanding how light interacts with the landscape can transform flat canvases into lifelike scenes with depth and realism.
Detail over Depth
Painting the details on a tree, trying to capture the flow of water, and adding highlights to sparkling water can be the most attractive elements of landscape painting.
However, relying on your intuition to ‘feel your way’ can easily result in a loss of basic tonal structure.
The 4 planes help to solve this by giving you an understanding of light.
To illustrate this, first things first; we’re getting the glue gun out!
Modelling the 4 planes of Landscape painting
Here’s a basic three-dimensional model of a simplified landscape.
There is a tree, a bush, a sky, and a hillside.
All elements are white foam core and have a white local value.
You can see this change in value when we orientate them at different angles to the light source.
“The key to this Theory of Angles is, then, that the big elements with which the landscape painter has to deal are, first of all, light masses and half-dark masses, no matter in what sequence you name them.” John F Carlson, Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting
1. Sky plane
This is usually the lightest value. But it can vary on a sunny or overcast day.
2. Ground plane
The ground plane receives the most light from the sky, the next lightest value. (There are exceptions, such as snow and bright reflections)
3. Slanted plane
The slanted plane is for hills and mountains; it reflects less light than the ground plane and is darker.
4. Upright plane
This includes vertical surfaces like trees and buildings. This plane is usually the darkest.
Once you have a visual concept of these planes, you can more easily manage tonal values and create depth in your landscape painting.
“These masses or elements are light or dark, or half-dark or half-light, not because of any colour cast they may have, but because they present different angles to the light that falls upon them from the sky”
John F Carlson, Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting
Next time, we’ll try this theory with a landscape painting.
Hue refers to the base pigment of a colour, which is what most people think of when they hear the word “colour.”
Let’s say we’re trying to mix this colour:
Step One: Make your first best guess from the tube colours you’ve already got. Select a tube to try. I’m going to try Cadmium Red Medium.
Step Two: Add white to reveal its undertone and colour bias.
Then, you can focus on whether you need to go warmer or cooler.
Step Three: Look at the colour chart and find the pigment you started with.
I need to go cooler.
I don’t have any Cadmium Medium Hue, so I’ve gone for Naphthol Red Medium.
Step Four: Check your new mix. It’s better, but it’s still not there. Let’s go cooler.
I don’t have any Primary Magenta, so I’ve jumped to Quinacridone Red.
Getting much closer, but I’ve noticed there are some cooler tones in the shadows.
I’ve got a Quinacridone Magenta from Winsor & Newton. Let’s try that.
Too far.
It’s gone to cool and needs to be warmed up.
Step five: Combine your colours.
By mixing the Quinocridone Magenta with the Quinocridone Red, I can create a colour that better matches the range of hues in the flowers.
The key to success?
With every mix you make, think about the warmth and coolness of the colour in relation to other colours in its family. Then, you will be much closer with your mixes.
If you don’t have as many colours, you can still learn about your different pigments by making swatch scales and adding white to your pigments.
You have to rearrange the squares as the HUE changes.
Zero is the best score you’re after.
2. Value
VALUE is sometimes also called TONE, and it refers to the lightness or darkness of a colour.
Observing value is one of the core elements in creating depth, mood, and visual interest. It gives your drawing form and solidity and plays an integral part in your paintings.
Not recognising the importance of the value structure will unintentionally create a struggle in your art. It will make colour mixing harder, your compositions won’t work, and your paintings can look amateurish.
The great thing is you already know what you’re looking for.
When you draw, you think in value
When you draw, you’re already thinking in value. Drawing is making sense of a coloured image and turning it black and white.
The problem is, colour lures you in.
How light is this yellow? (Detail of Wheatfield by Vincent Van Gogh)
Because it’s bright, you’d think it is light.
Say whaaat? Why is it so dark?
All Colours have a Base Value
Each yellow pigment will have an inherent lightness.
In this range of yellows, Cadmium Yellow Primrose is the lightest.
Cadmium Yellow Primrose
Cadmium Yellow Light
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Cadmium Yellow Dark
In black and white, they still appear relatively close in value.
In this range of yellows, the inherent value is darker.
You can see the difference most clearly when you compare the Raw Sienna to the Cadmium Yellow Primrose.
Wheatfield, Vincent Van Gogh
Here’s the whole painting. Notice how Van Gogh has created different varieties and focus throughout the piece just by utilising the different values of the yellows, from the darker Raw Sienna yellows on the right-hand side to the lighter Primrose yellows in the centre.
When we focus on the value, it’s easier to see how the majority of the colours are within the darker end of the value scale.
All Values are Relative
Just as with one colour appearing warmer or cooler depending on what colour it is placed next to, the same is true with value.
And that’s why it can be so hard to judge.
In this Wheatfield painting by Van Gogh, the yellows appears bright and light. However, when viewed in isolation, they are a darker value.
This doesn’t seem right. Why do the central yellows appear brighter?
They appear brighter because they are surrounded by darker colours.
This is called ‘simultaneous lightness contrast.’
The two central squares above are the same colour. And the same value.
But the square surrounded by black appears lighter, just like the yellows in the Van Gogh painting.
How can you start to develop your ‘value vision’?
Closing your eyes can help.
If you look at your subject/reference and painting so they are within the same frame. Then close your eyes.
Slowly open your eyes until you identify the first lightest shape.
Does it match what you’re painting?
Does the hazy image look the same lightness and shape?
You’re trying to see the most basic value structure of your subject into tonal masses. These simple masses with hold the structure of your painting together.
Once you get accustomed to this technique you can then practice ‘squinting down’ from when your eyes are open.
You don’t always need a wide value range
When you’re composing a painting, it doesn’t always have to be high contrast (wide value range)
Here’s a second Wheatfield painting by Van Gogh.
Wheatfield with a Reaper, Vincent Van Gogh
You can see the figure in the wheatfield due to the difference in colour.
Notice how the figure practically disappears when I’ve turned the painting black and white.
The values of the yellows within this painting are mostly a mid value.
Here are 3 yellow swatches.
To mix the darkest swatch, we can look for a yellow pigment with a similar value.
I’m using Yellow Ochre.
Then add a touch of Raw Umber to darken it. (If you have Raw Sienna that will be very close straight from the tube)
Then I lighten the mix by adding some Hansa Yellow Light.
For the lightest mix I add a touch of Titanium White and a little more Hansa Yellow Light.
The key to success?
With every mix you make, think about the lightness and darkness. How would you approach it if drawing in black and white?
I use a grey scale value strip also called a tonal strip, to help me.
It goes from black to white, with each ‘step’ having a number for easy reference. I print it out and make hole punches through each value square.
I can use those as a viewfinder to judge tonal values in a reference image.
When that colour just about ‘disappears’ into one of the grey values on my strip, I know that would be the closest value to check my paint mix against.
Notice how numbers 4, 5 and 7 match the swatches.
When you’re aware of HUE and VALUE, there is one missing piece to the puzzle.
3. Chroma
Chroma originates from the Greek word “khrōma,” which means “colour”.
It describes the saturation, or purity of a colour, how dull or intense it is.
In the series of swatches above, Green 1 has the highest chroma. The chroma reduces as the ratio of grey increases, with 10 being a neutral grey.
3 shades of grey
When I talk about ‘neutral grey’, I’m describing a grey that doesn’t shift towards warm or cool.
You don’t need to always add grey to lower the Chroma.
If you think of chroma as a purity of colour, Cadmium Yellow Light, straight from the tube, has a high chroma.
If you mix in any another lower chroma pigment, you will reduce the chroma.
By adding a lower chroma red (Cadmium Red Medium) to the higher Chroma Yellow (Cadmium Yellow Light) we have lowered the chroma by using colour, rather than a neutral grey.
Are you still with me? it’s a lot of Chroma’s
All pigments have a Chroma Value
Just like colours have different tonal values, they also have different chroma values.
Here’s a range of colours on a scale of light to dark.
But which one has the highest chroma?
When in grayscale, it doesn’t show us the chroma intensity, just the lightness or darkness (value)
This colour has the highest chroma in the range.
How do I know? I look for which colour had the most pure intensity, the richest more purest pigment. All the white based colours or the earth colours take away the purity.
How does this help you in your painting?
If you can judge the chroma of the scene, you can select appropriate pigments that have a matching chromatic range.
Here’s a painting by Anton Mauve.
Morning Ride along the Beach, Anton Mauve, 1876
It reads as a bright morning at the beach, with clear blue skies.
That should be vivid and high chroma?
But when we take colour swatches from the painting, look how dull they are.
Actually, all low chroma colours.
What would happen if you boosted the saturation of the colours?
You can see in the swatches, all of the colours now have more saturation, but the painting has a completely different feel.
You might love, super intense, vivid colours or prefer subdued, subtle mixes. There is no right or wrong answer, it’s more of a case of looking at the style of paintings that you’re trying to create and matching the chromatic qualities.
4 methods for lowering chroma
There are 4 main ways to reduce chroma (apart from adding white)
Add a lower chromatic version of the colour
Add a complementary colour
Add a neutral grey
Add a black
Each method will give you slightly different results depending on the pigments you use.
In the example above, I’ve started with high chroma Cadmium Orange on the top row, and added different ratios of colours to reduce the intensity.
I’ve added Burnt Umber as a lower chromatic version of the colour.
I’ve added Ultramarine Blue as a complementary colour
I’ve added Neutral Grey as a Grey
I’ve added Mars Black for a Black
Note how the different mixes all look very similar in the low chroma oranges, even with different pigments.
Each method has pros and cons. The main thing to be aware of is the colour bias of the particular pigment you are going to use, how it shifts, and how it affects other colours.
The key to success?
Observing and experimenting.
You won’t truly understand how a pigment behaves until you try it with paint.
Find a painting you like and experiment with choosing a colour palette.
If you only have a few colours, see how far you can push them, or try to find a subject that already fits with the colours you have.
Note how colours change under different lighting conditions and how the highest chroma isn’t always in the lights.
Start to look at objects and try to guess the highest chroma areas. When you’re aware of it you’ll start to train your eyes to notice more.
I really hope you found this helpful; if you’d like to learn more about colour mixing and how to put the theory into practice, you might enjoy the simple colour mixing course.
I demonstrate this with acrylics, but the same principles apply to oils.
This epic coffee and walnut cake is from Tate Britain café I sampled after the Singer Sargent Exhibition. Painted with the equally buttery cobra oil paint water-mixable oil paint, but the techniques would equally apply to painting with acrylics or traditional oils.
I hope it brings as much warmth to your day as the cake brought to mine!
Reference Image for the painting
Materials you will need:
Surface: 10 x 8 inch (20 x 25cm) canvas board
Paint Colours
For the foundational layer, known as the initial block-in, I used acrylics due to their fast-drying nature.
Burnt Umber (Golden Acrylic Paints)
Titanium White (Golden Acrylic Paints)
Neutral Gray 8 (Golden Acrylic Paints)
Following the acrylic base, the rest of the painting was created using water-mixable oils.
For the coloured ground, I’m using a mix of Burnt Umber & Titanium White diluted with water.
The wooden tabletop felt quite warm, a little too orange, so I wanted to mute that intensity down to concentrate on the cake so it stood out more.
It was diluted with water and applied thinly to allow the subsequent oil layers to grab on. You could also paint this layer with WMOs if you prefer.
I’m drawing with a 0.5mm mechanical pencil, HB
There is a simple triangular and circular shape to the composition, and I sketch out quite loosely. As long as your drawing is within those basic shapes it will read as a cake on a plate.
The reference image was in a square format but I felt the plate could do with a bit more breathing space. I also shortened the fork to include the end of a handle and added a top to the milk jug.
Step #2: Draw in the darkest value with a paint marker
Once the pencil drawing has been corrected here and there with a light erase, I draw over the top, just looking at the key dark areas, with an F & W Daler Rowney mixed-media paint marker.
The marker allows me to see the shadow shapes more clearly and get an idea of how the dark accents can be used to move the eye through the painting. The marker is filled with a fluid acrylic paint in Sepia.
The milk jug at the top was starting to take my eye, so at this stage, I decided to keep that quite sketchy and focus on making the cake more realistic.
I’m using Neutral 8 Grey from Golden Paints and a little Titanium White, diluted with water and then washed onto the plate. I’m not looking for any variation in application or tonal range. I’m not trying to get anything perfect; I just want a closer value to the reference image.
Step #4: Mix a Black with Water-Mixable Oils
Use 2/3 Ultramarine Blue to 1/3 Burnt Sienna and mix a Black using the palette knife.
Pro tip: You can check how neutral your mix is by adding a speck of white. Then add more blue or more orange to balance it out.
This mix is used as a base to mix a grey colour string for the plate and the fork.
Although the plate appears to have only a couple of colours, there are a surprising number of subtle shifts in the shadow areas on the plate and on the edge of the fork.
Colour string of greys used for painting the plate. Notice how the darker tones are warmer and I’ve cooled the lighter tones
For all my mixes, I use a palette knife. Due to oils’ slow drying times, I can leave these piles of paint out on the palette for the duration of the painting. They can be used to grey down colours and adjust the saturation as I progress.
There is also a sketchy, muted brown around the plate. This was applied using the size 4 black hog. The stiff bristles respond well to faster movements with the brush.
For the entire painting, water was exclusively used as the diluting medium.
Step #5: Block in the cake
Without buttercream, the cake falls apart.
This was the stage of the painting where it felt like nothing was going to work.
The cake felt blocky, the fork looked stuck on and the plate felt too simplistic. When self-doubt creeps in, you need to just ask yourself.
Q.Have I finished blocking in all areas?
A. No.
Ok..calm. Finish blocking in all areas then check again.
Step #6: Mix your buttercream
This looks like it moved on quite a bit, but interestingly, the fork is the same, the cake is the same, and the plate is the same. Just by having the lighter mixes of the buttercream, our focus is now on the top of the cake.
Colours mixed for the buttercream frosting
I mixed 3-values, so I can get a sense of light hitting the top of the cake. Once all of these areas are blocked in, it’ll be much easier to compare the values.
Step #7: Add a sprinkle of walnuts
I mixed a range of oranges using the Permanent Yellow Light, Pyrolle Red, Burnt Sienna and Yellow Ochre.
There are some darker values in the walnuts that almost have a purple hue, so I mix a little Ultramarine Blue in with the Pyrolle Red.
Step #8: Layer up your colours
I can now start overlaying colours onto the base mixes, breaking through some of those sharper lines to create a more impressionistic pattern of colours on the cake surface. The plate and the background remain unchanged.
I’m mostly using the filbert brush, but will occasionally swap to the round brush for fine details.
Step #9: Paint the reflections on the fork
When painting chrome surfaces, try to imagine the shape without any highlights or reflections. This allows you to concentrate on the different reflected colours that are showing in the surface.
Then the highlights can be painted on with Titanium White. I’m using the round brush for these details.
It’s always amazing how much the highlights bring the chrome to life! I’ve also added a darker cast shadow around the bottom of the plate to give it more solidity.
Step #10: Finishing touches
Coffee, Cake & Critique, Will Kemp, Oil on Canvas Board
I pushed the buttercream a bit by adding some more titanium white into the mixes. Also, a few more high saturation yellows on the front and edge of the cake.
Hope you enjoyed the lesson.
If you’re intrigued by water-mixable oils and want to delve deeper into how they stack up against acrylics, explore the most suitable mediums, accelerate drying times, master the technique of layering from ‘fat-over-lean’, and learn the art of glazing, then the Beginners Water-Mixable Oil Course might be perfect for you.
Walking through Chelsea, I kicked off the adventure at Birley Bakery with a delectable almond croissant, crispy golden-brown pastry, toasty warm out the oven and the sweet almond paste within.
Baked goods in hand, I was on the search for John Singer Sargent’s former home and studio.
Sargent (1856–1925) is known for his fabulous brushwork.
He painted portraits of society families, powerful art collectors or theatrical performers draped in satin, lace and rich velvets. He contrasted bolder, impressionist brushstrokes on the fabrics with a lightness of touch on the features.
Born in Florence in 1856 to American parents, he lived in several European countries as a child before shaping his artistic reputation in Paris. (You can see a portrait of his tutor in the article: Singer Sargent & Friends)
In 1886, Sargent settled in London at the centre of society with an accomplished circle of friends that included Henry James, Claude Monet and James Abbott McNeil Whistler.
I thought I’d share with you a little seascape sketch that I did the other day.
It’s filmed in real-time, so you can actually see how long I take and how my decision process works when drawing.
You’ll see moments when I pause and reconsider what pens to start with and what pens I end up finishing with. You also see me having a cup of tea throughout the sketch because sometimes, just having a brew will give you that little bit of contemplation time to decide what to focus on next.
If you haven’t got 10 minutes to watch it all, I’ve also made a shorter 60 seconds edited version on YouTube shorts (and a 90-second one on Instagram)
Watch along in real-time as I sketch the shoreline of Porthminster beach, St Ives, Cornwall
60-second version below:
Sketching Pens, from Left to Right: Pentel Aquash Pen, Lamy Safari Fountain Pen, Liquitex paint marker, Pentel brush pen, Muji 0.5mm gel pen.
Close-up of the different sketching pen nibs
The sketching pens that I use:
MUJI 0.5mm gel tip pen
Pentel brush pen
Liquitex grey acrylic marker
Lamy Safari Fountain Pen
Pentel Aquash water pen. (This is an empty pen that’s just got water)
The real trick to this technique, and the thing that’s the most enjoyable to do, is to lay down areas of permanent ink with the first pen and then add in other areas with non-permanent ink. Then, when I wash over that area with a water brush pen, you get a beautiful soft wash effect.
The Sketchpad is by Handbook, their trav.e.logue series; it’s relatively small but perfect for backpacks, and the flask is from the Thermos Ultimate series, which is exceptionally good at keeping your tea or coffee hot. I find the 900ml version keeps the tea hotter for longer, but the smaller size is nice for shorter trips. We’re talking 24 hours hot.
Sketch Location
I’ve also added the sketch location using What3Words. If you haven’t come across what3words before, it’s an amazing free app you can use to locate any 3m x 3m square in the world. Each square across the globe has been assigned a unique combination of three words.
It can be handy if you’re showing your work in an obscure location or delivery drivers keep on missing your address, as they do quite often in Cornwall; recently, we used it when we broke down on the A30! Also great for outdoor sculpture trails or street art installations. If you’re ever visiting St Ives in the future, you can track down the exact sketch spot.
I hope you enjoy it, and if you want to learn any more about urban sketching or landscape sketching, you can follow the links to learn more about the courses.
“Making art is dangerous and revealing. Making art precipitates self-doubt, stirring deep waters that lay between what you know you should be, and what you fear you might be.”- Art & Fear
Yesterday afternoon, I found myself lost in a maze of handwritten notes about books I’d enjoyed and was excited to recommend.
Twenty minutes in, an article about Da Vinci piqued my interest, so I moved to the comfy sofa to fully concentrate. An endeavour that culminated in me falling asleep.
Ironically, I’d sat down to share the secrets of avoiding procrastination, mastering time management, boosting art sales, and living a more creative life – but I had gotten distracted.
That said, reading about Leonardo was not only fascinating but enlightening.
Architect, engineer, scientist, sculptor and painter. His first job was as a theatrical producer and set designer, teaching him tricks with perspective that he carried on through into his paintings.
The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci, Tempera on Gesso, c.1495-1498
Notice the viewpoint and how the angle or perspective of the table top has been shifted very slighlty towards us to reveal more of the surface but still sits comfortably within the composition, I’d never really noticed this before.
If you wanted ideas, he was your man.
Leonardo’s interests were broad, and new subjects compelled him so intensely that he usually left projects unfinished, which meant working with him was a nightmare. Clients would avoid relying on him because he couldn’t be trusted to finish.
“to urge Leonardo the Florentine to finish the work on the Refectory of the Grazie, which he has begun, in order to attend afterwards to the other wall of the Refectory of the Grazie; and that agreements to which he has subscribed by his hand be fulfilled, which shall oblige him to finish the work within the time that shall be agreed upon with him.” From Leonardo by Martin Kemp
He spent most of his time observing nature or pondering on scientific theories. In his defence, he was just getting interested in other more captivating subjects, like how to fly or understanding human anatomy.
Really, he was just being curious, which is making me feel a lot more soothed about my limited attention span.
“In addition to his instinct for discerning patterns across disciplines, Leonardo honed two other traits that aided his scientific pursuits: an omnivorous curiosity, which bordered on the fanatical, and an acute power of observation, which was eerily intense.” – Walter Isaacson, Leonardo Da Vinci
So, after reading (or revisiting) over 20 books in 2023, here is a list of 5 books that have sparked my curiosity and given me some ideas and principles I’ve tried to adopt in my daily routines.
Live a More Creative Life
The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron
“But do you know how old I will be by the time I learn to really play the piano / act / paint / write a decent play?” Yes . . . the same age you will be if you don’t.”
― Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
The Artist’s Way is laid out as a 12-week program to get back in touch with your creative self, with exercises, activities, and insights that help you overcome creative blocks and discover your true potential as an artist. Ever heard of ‘morning pages’? This book will show you how this simple practice can revolutionize your creativity and bring clarity to your life.
I read this book as an art student and can’t remember finishing the whole 12-week course, but I adopted two key practices that I use to this day.
Morning Pages
Artists’ Dates
Morning pages are so handy to stop your mind whirring over issues. The practice is to write freehand using a pen and paper, three pages of a train of thought. No editing, no re-reading, no punctuation. Just pure free-flowing words. If you’ve been tied to your keyboard, writing longhand for three pages can seem to take ages.
Your handwriting might not be able to keep up with the speed of your thoughts, but it can be very beneficial. Just getting any ideas, worries, or frustrations down on a page has a really therapeutic effect.
You’re not looking for solutions; you don’t re-read to try and discover your problems; you just write. The process is the cure.
I also love the concept of ‘Artist Dates’.
If you want to feel inspired, you need to book a date with yourself to go to an event, a museum, or a show. Preferably on your own (although I often bend the rules a bit and go with Vanessa)
So check your calendar for the next month. Where are you going to get inspired?
Making a date, actually going to a museum, going to a bookshop, going to these things on your own rather than with friends is the key; otherwise, you tend to end up just going for a coffee….( erm…I can confirm that is mostly true but we still had fun)
Face the fear of creating your art
2. Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (And Rewards of Artmaking) By David Bayles and Ted Orland
“What separates artists from ex-artists is that those who challenge their fears, continue; those who don’t, quit. In large measure becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive.” – David Bayles & Ted Orland, Art & Fear
This book is particularly helpful if you went to art college but haven’t quite fulfilled that potential that you dreamed about whilst quaffing ale in the student union. It looks into the fears we all face – fear of failure, not being good enough, or not being understood. The authors, both artists themselves, share personal stories and advice on their own art journeys.
One key thing that beginners often get hung up on is their own style. If you’re searching for your style and have trouble thinking you’ll never find a unique voice. The exciting thing is that your unique voice is just by being you! Yay.
It’s a short read with motivational insights. The Artist Way is a slower-burn 12-week program; this feels like a little motivational boost when you need it.
“To all viewers but yourself, what matters is the product: the finished artwork. To you, and you alone, what matters is the process.” – David Bayles & Ted Orland, Art & Fear
Make Time for Your Art
How do you control your attention to focus on what matters in a world that’s trying to distract you from living the creative life you dream about?
These next books help you to make time, appreciate the dedication needed for deep artistic work and prevent yourself from becoming distracted from the task at hand.
3. Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day By Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky
“What Will Be the Highlight of Your Day?
We want you to begin each day by thinking about what you hope will be the bright spot. If, at the end of the day, someone asks you, “What was the highlight of your day?” what do you want your answer to be? When you look back on your day, what activity or accomplishment or moment do you want to savor? That’s your Highlight.
Your Highlight is not the only thing you’ll do each day. After all, most of us can’t ignore our inboxes or say no to our bosses. But choosing a Highlight gives you a chance to be proactive about how you spend your time, instead of letting technology, office defaults, and other people set your agenda.” – Make Time by Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky
‘Make Time’ is helpful if you’re struggling with finding time for your art. Juggling your schedule with your passions and everything else can roll into one. The authors both used to work at Google, and they have some great frameworks on how to prioritize your day. They also talk about social media and ‘infinity pools’. Apps that can continue to show you an exorbitant amount of things to distract you from what you want to get done.
The two main methods I use from the book are:
Daily Highlight
Time Timer
Illustration from: Make Time by Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky
I’ve found the daily highlight is a great way to be able to set a focus for the day that you’re excited about, but you know you can achieve without getiing into the minutiae of the to-do list. It’s also a great way to remember what happens on a daily basis, especially if things are super busy. (Another good method for this is ‘homework for life‘ by Matthew Dicks from the book Storyworthy)
My brothers and sisters often laugh at the other method I use.
It’s a timer.
Meant for and used by kids.
And I love it!
You turn the dial, and the red wedge gets progressively smaller as the timer runs down.
I have it on my desk, and I can quickly glance at how long I’ve been working rather than checking an app on my phone and getting drawn down another path! If you want to draw for 10 minutes, set a timer. See if you can answer your emails in 20 minutes and still have time for painting in the hour; set a timer.
It’s not for everyone; Vanessa often tidied it away when it first arrived because, for her, there was no conceivable reason why anyone would need it. And apart from anything else, it was ruining the look of the new coffee table.
But if you find yourself jumping from task to task and not fully concentrating on what you set out to do, it might be worth a go!
Beat Procrastination
4. Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life by Nir Eyal
You can start to see a theme with my procrastination!
‘Ten-minute rule’. If I find myself wanting to check my phone as a pacification device when I can’t think of anything better to do, I tell myself it’s fine to give in, but not right now, I have to wait just ten minutes.” – Nir Eyal, Indistractable
What I find interesting about Indistractable is the author, Nir Eyal, had previously written a book called ‘Hooked’. In Hooked, Eyal goes through the mechanics of what makes tech and social media apps so irresistible. Indistractable is like the antidote! Giving strategies on how to maintain our focus and achieve what we set out to do.
The biggest takeaway from the book was that it’s actually not usually the external triggers and influences that stop of from doing the things we want to do but internal emotional triggers.
“As is the case with all human behaviour, distraction is just another way our brains attempt to deal with pain. If we accept this fact, it makes sense that the only way to handle distraction is by learning to handle discomfort. If distraction costs us time, then time management is pain management.” – Nir Eyal, Indistractable
How to stay focused, not get distracted and do the hard (uncomfortable) work.
Make More Money with Your Art
5. Good Art Does Not Sell Itself: The Artist’s Definitive Guide to Visibility and Opportunites by Shirley-Ann O’Neill & Laura O’Hare
“Emma explained how she traced the success of her art career back to taking a mentor’s advice in her early career; to actively seek opportunities to share her work no matter how small. An art prize led to an exhibition, which created more exhibitions, and collectors, art critics and media began to notice here work.“- Good Art Does Not Sell Itself – In relation to the work of sculptor Emma Rodgers
This was my most highlighted book of 2023.
It takes courage to show your art and make the decision to come out from your studio into the realm of criticism. This is an amazing book to have by your side.
It’s packed with practical strategies for marketing, building a brand, and finding the right opportunities to showcase your work.
It’s split into 4 sections and each page is like a mini-blog post that you can take advice from.
Mindset & Habits
Getting Artwork Ready
Opportunities to get visible
Implementation: artist visibility path
The different sections are good for different stages of your work. Some of the ideas on increasing the visibility of your works can help you to stay focused on the long game of creating.
One painting hung in a cafe or posted online can lead to a group show, which can lead to a solo exhibition. Every step is a stepping stone that’s hard to see at the start but builds over time.
Notes on the Quotes: Good Art Does Not Sell Itself
This book is relatable, informative and incredibly useful.
Their insights and recommendations are not only easy to understand but also applicable to real-life situations you find yourself in as an artist. You’ll find yourself nodding along and saying, I can do this! Highly recommended!
I really hope you find one of the ideas or books of interest, because even as a relentless pursuer of new shiny interests and ideas, some of the practices have really stayed with me and helped.
But as with everything, it’s unrealistic to say I’m a changed man, so at this moment, I’m sitting comfortably on the sofa nursing a hot brew, saying it’s ok to go down the odd rabbit hole and fully committing to a few creative ponderings.
I love the couple of days after Christmas. It’s like having surprise days off.
No pressure for Christmas Dinner, no expectations on what you could, should or must do. It’s like a deep chill. It can be a nice time to reflect on what’s worked on your paintings and what hasn’t over the year.
Go back on your phone camera roll from 2023 and see where you went, what you sketched, or what you painted (Or what you wanted to paint but just didn’t get the time to start)
Also, take the pressure off and enjoy your inspirations no matter how quirky or obsessional they seem.
I’ve been enjoying photographing festive drinks! hic
Then December 28th dawned.
This period can start the stirrings of being a bit lost at sea. I call this the ‘nearly new year blues’
You start to put expectations on yourself for the year ahead.
What massive artistic brilliance are you going to have to ‘show’ this year? will you ever find your unique style? Or just even do the paintings you said you were going to do.
Everyone else seems to be super productive, it’s enough to crack open the Christmas chocolate again!
But having been here before, have faith. Every brushstroke you make, every line you draw and every new idea you jot down will carry your practice through.
Your journey as an artist is not defined by the destinations reached but by the courage to take action.
This year might not have brought you the goals you anticipated, but the worst thing you can do is get stuck in your own head, ruminating about what you could or should have done and, as a result, do nothing.
So, as you prepare for the coming year, embrace the unknown. Every artist’s journey is unique. Keep creating, keep exploring, and most importantly, try and remember this sense of calm and freedom you felt waking up on boxing day, it will serve you well in your paintings in the year ahead.
Now, all I’ve got to do is remember my own advice!
Airtight Resealable Palette | £13 24 compartment palette
This palette is incredible in keeping acrylics workable, I’ve had paints for weeks and they can still be used. There is a handy spatula that slides in the front of the palette and a thumb grip on the back. There are a number of different brands that all create very similar palettes.
Something they want, something they need, something to eat and something to read is always a good starting point when you don’t know what to buy someone.
Below are a few last-minute stocking fillers for the budding artist in your life (or just a way to treat yourself!)
For £100 (there is a £20 cashback offer at the moment), you will get fantastic copies of your images at a super high resolution. Just plug it into your computer and scan. You even get a stand so you can store it vertically if needed. Great for making prints of your sketches, scanning your acrylics and recording your watercolours.
Sometimes, with traditional graphite pencils, the surface can reflect light, so your darkest darks aren’t quite as dark as you may like. Faber Castell’s new range of pencils offers a matt sheen to your drawings, allowing you to go super black!
One book I’ve enjoyed this year is The Creative Act by Record Producer Rick Rubin. He’s got some fascinating insights on how creativity works and how to get into the act of creating. We get to move forward in our art, a bit like a coach telling you the obvious thing, but you still need to hear it.
“We Tend to think of the artist’s work as an output. The real work of an artist is a way of being in the world.” Rick Rubin
For just under £30, I thought this might be too good to be true. But it’s great! Thermal printing, so you never need to buy ink again (just new labels). You download the app on your phone, type in the label and print. You can also import icons and images to the app. Great for labelling paint mixes and shelves. I got a set of cable labels aswell, so handy when digging behind the computer for plugging in the printer.
So nice. I use it in practically all of my urban sketches; it adds shapes and fine lines all within one tip that seems to stay wet and workable even if you haven’t used it for weeks. They now have a grey and a sanguine colour.
These pencils are designed to be used for woodworking and construction sites because the narrow metal shaft allows you to mark holes through woodwork. I find them super comfortable to use and really handy around the studio. They have a sharpener in the rear of the pen and come with refillable leads.
You definitely don’t need this, but there is something therapeutic about having a plane as a pencil sharpener.
For the art appreciator
9. National Art Pass | £56.25 individual year artfund.com
This pass gives you discounts and free entry to hundreds of events and exhibitions across the UK, which is marvellous!
For the digital painter
10. Paperlike screen protector | £34 for 2 Paperlike.com
If you find the surface of your iPad too glossy and slippy to sketch on, this might be the answer. Paperlike is a screen protector that also adds some resistance to the stylus. You lose some of the intensity and contrast of the screen image, but you gain more grab.
Have a creative Christmas, and if you’re running right up to the wire, all the art courses on the blog can be gifted as instant digital Gift Vouchers!