1. Gather inspiration 🌟 daily, consciously, unconsciously, subliminally, deliberately… take photos, browse Pinterest, look at magazines, go to art galleries. Everything that attracts your attention counts.
2.) Make thumbnail sketches 🌟 the best way to get to the essentials is to not have room to draw them (unless you’re that guy who draws on a grain of rice, in which case, carry on)
3.) Use NoTan 🌟 This isn’t a sun-safe message, but a way of getting your tonal values right. Light, shadows and mid-values will do the heavy lifting in terms of a strong composition.
4.) Paint a colour study 🌟 One of my favourite parts of the process is do a 1-2 hour mini painting to see about light, shadows, colours and best of all, watching paint soak into paper. You don’t have to watch paint dry too, but it’s worth it if you do.
5.) Scale up 🌟 Not that kind of scale, fish! Size matters. What size does this artwork need to be to bring it to life? Small paintings are intimate, larger paintings have the wow. If you work from your cupboard, you may want to keep things smaller for now.
If only this list ended here, but alas, work that happens at home stays at home unless you…
6.) Tell people about it! 🌟 Take photos, add it to your website, post it to socials. It can be hard talking about a visual medium, but you’re happy with what you made and it’s nice to share. (Even if the eyeballs are elsewhere looking at outrageous divisive things instead)
7.) Sell it 🌟 Sometimes the stars align and the right person finds their soul painting. It can happen across a crowded gallery, your eyes find each other… you walk away, can’t stop thinking about it, then bang! Next thing you know it’s in your car on its way to your house.
8.) Buy! 🌟 The bit we’ve all been waiting for… the chance to buy more art materials. No you don’t need another paint pen… or do you?
And the circle is now complete.
Comments