Complete 5 Value Sketches in your sketchbook of Master Paintings using Vine Charcoal, Charcoal or Markers of Different Values. Squint and identify 2-5 values then draw the shapes in the appropriate value. Think about the artist’s use of contrasts, shapes and how they relate to the idea or focal point of the painting. Take notes.
Complete 5 Value Sketches in oil using 3-5 values of grey. Look for big shapes and simplify them. Begin with darkest and then proceed to lightest. Keep shapes simple add no details which break up the shapes. Check to insure value relationships are met.
Oil Painting Tips (Reprint from Oil Painters of America Fall Newsletter, 2011)
“Guatemala Flower Market” Ned Mueller, Oil on Linen, 12″ x 16″
Here are some great oil painting tips from Ned Mueller:
- “Plein air painting is the best thing you can do to improve your paintings.” He went on to say that if you can get the big shapes in, get the colors right and the shapes right, you’ll get a likeness.
- “All good drawing is good judgement. If you make good judgement decisions, and do enough of it, you will get really, really good.”
- “Loosen up. Hold the pencil or brush way out in front of you and use your shoulder.”
- “A good painting is an interesting arrangement of shapes and colors. Most paintings are doomed from the start because the artist hasn’t figured out what to say and how to say it.”
- “Once you start seeing the world more abstract, you start seeing like an artist. There can be a good painting in a pile of rags.”
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“There are three stages of being an artist: 1. You start by painting what you know. 2. Then you paint what you see. 3. When you paint what you feel, you start improving.”
More Oil Painting tips
“Sunnyside” Neil Patterson 24″ x 36″ oil on canvas
The following are some great oil painting tips by Neil Patterson.
- “Paint with the paint, not the brush. Paint like a millionaire, use lots of paint.”
- “Don’t think about values.” He only thinks about colors.
- “Have no preconceived idea…have more feeling. If you have a preconceived idea, it will never turn out that way.”
- “The connection that people have to painting is what sells. The type of painting you do depends upon your temperament.”
- “If painting is misery, you might as well go clean house.”
- “Don’t let galleries pigeon hole you – you paint what you want.”
- “Painting is the road that never ends. I know less now than when I started.”
- “I don’t care if my painting turns out or not, because I enjoy myself.”
- “We think paintings are more important than they really are. The act of painting is the important thing.”
- “Yellow is the tip of the nose, red is the modifier, and blue is cold. People are attracted to the fire, not the cold.” Keep this in mind when you are painting. Yellow advances more than any other color, not red.
- “Windsor & Newton developed the paint brush with the black handle, so an artist can use it to check the values of the painting.”
- “Take A Chance!”
- “If you really want to be a better painter, do this: Prepare 365 small canvases for painting. Every morning when you get up, before you do anything else, paint one painting for fifteen minutes. No more than fifteen minutes. Number them. You will learn to paint in bigger areas and paint faster.” He mentioned that he had one person from one of his workshops do this, and the results were incredible.
- “There are no rules. If there are rules, you have to stay within them. When you paint a long time, you have your own set of guidelines. If we all paint by the same rules, we all paint the same way.”
