"SNOHOMISH MORNING" 12X16 OIL ON LINEN

From my experience of being an instructor, attending countless workshops, open studios , painting sessions, I came to understanding , that  most  artists struggling  with 3 major aspects : Seeing correct values, seeing and choosing good composition and seeing   big shapes. There is a small magic you can use to improve all of those three aspects in your painting.  Just knowing and using this little magic for at  least a month, will safe you so much grief( embracement on the workshops)  and money  ( buying those workshops )
So, if you are committed to being a better artist , and serious about to achieve certain level of painting  technic, you need to start seeing in values !
Make yourself a rule TO START your creative day with a small monocrome study.
Just use  4 values (white and black included) to portray your subject. It's really better to paint from life. So set up a tiny vignette . It will force you to make decisions about where values must be pushed darker or lighter to stay within the limited range. This exercises will help you to see values, patterns, and organization of a simple shapes  Result: strong design all of sudden knocking in the back door while you're busy thinking about reducing values. That's your  magic!
If you are a proud  owner of a Ipad - you can download an incredibly helpful aplications for artists:
http://appadvice.com/applists/show/apps-for-artists

You can go enven further with monochromes - But this will be subject of another post !


 I was painting plein air all last weekend , with two different group. It was so much fun!
Here is the painting from that session . It
s for sale @ 500.00