How to Paint

How to paint? Wow, that's a tall order for a single blog post! But while I was teaching this past week in St Andrews, NB, I spent one evening (no TV, no wi-fi) thinking how I might condense my procedure into just a few bullet points. Here's what I came up with, and it really does describe what I do:

1. Loosely sketch in large, simple shapes
2. Loosely block in average color and value of each shape
3. Compare and adjust relationships between shapes: value, hue, chroma, shape outline
4. Note major dark accents and major light highlights
5. Add color variations (not value, but hue and chroma only) within each shape
6. Refine shape edges as needed (e.g. sky holes, value shifts at edge to soften, negative space adjustments).
7. Finish with working in the third dimension and adding surface texture with thicker paint or pastel

When I paint this way, detail just "seems to happen" because the hand is not a machine, and not all strokes are as precise and unerring as we would like. The stroke slides left, slides right, sometimes crossing the centerline - sort of how I drive!

Here are two painting demonstrations, both 9x12 oils, that I did on Minister's Island. For each of these, I consciously thought of the process I outlined during the evening.

"Covenhoven Servant Quarters" 9x12, oil/panel

"Minister's Cottage" 9x12, oil/panel