Friday, December 12, 2008

Winter Cat - Quick Painting

I bought a book called 60 Minutes to Better Painting at Half Priced Books a couple of weeks ago I'm turning to the idea of "quick painting" or "studies" advocated in the book to help overcome my painter's block. The author, a very good artist named Craig Nelson, writes "the evil word, procrastination, is the constant enemy of all painters. The blank canvas and the concept of a finished painting can be a burden. The study, as opposed to a finished painting, can eleminate any burden. It is stated as a study; to learn, to improve, to try something, not a precious final piece of art! When procrastinating on what to do, how big, etc., do a study!"

So today I gave it a go and it I really enjoyed it. I gave myself 45 minutes and a very limited pallet and jumped right in, slapping on paint without any preliminary work. The finished product is not something that I feel incredibly eager to post on the blog, but I will anyway. I can tell you that Mr. Nelson's 45 minute sketches from the book make mine look like the work of 5 year old. But I logged in some brush mileage, and learned why exactly you work from back to front.




The blob the cat is standing on is supposed to be the snow covered top of a fence post, lol. The colors are off in this photo, but I figured that's ok cause it's just a sketch.

1 comment:

Steph Stanger said...

Sweet! Its great and it is good to just do it and not let yourself be scared and put it off!