How to start a painting

Notes from Catlin Gabel Community class 2: 9/29/2021

Its good to make a plan and do some problem solving before starting a painting. A good way to start is to do some thumbnail sketches in your sketchbook with pencil. Looking at your landscape reference photo or outside, decide if you want to do a horizontal or vertical painting. Make some value studies determining where is the darkest value and the lighter value. Sketch little compositions. This is a time to think and make some initial decisions.

Think about the colors you will use and make some color swatches of a few pure colors, mix some colors together and see what they look like on paper. Make some neutral colors mixing complementary colors together on your palette, then paint some swatches. Some of my favorite neutral colors are a combination of blue and orange, red and green, yellow and purple. You can come up with some specular neutral and gray colors that are quite vibrant!

When you have made some decisions, then its time to start your painting…

to be continued…its midnight and Im sleepy!!