The Technique Good Painters Use to Become Better Faster!

uncle albert do you know what today's video is about hell no you never tell me anything well i'm telling you now today's video for our viewers is all about how to get better at painting in the shortest amount of time oh that's easy easy huh sure you just steal a painting that's better than yours should be easy for you he's their name sign your name boom done yeah i suppose that is a shortcut uh i think i've got a better way to do it and uh don't worry buddy i'll come visit you in prison jah wait what [Music] alrighty i have some fresh videos in the works for you including today's video which is the start of a series that features small paintings done quickly just as if i were painting on location but for now i'm going to do these in my studio because i can control things much better like lighting and surface glare and you can actually see what i'm doing every step of the way now eventually i'll be doing some plein air paintings and i'm going to show you my outdoor setup what i found works best for me now this is the painting that i'm going to be doing for you today it's a 6x8 and it took me 30 minutes to do now is this the best painting i've ever done well no you ain't kidding be nice you weren't nice it's in the dictionary between never and not gonna happen now it's a backlit scene with changing light on a scene like this that's about the most time that you're gonna have on location before the light's gone it changes quickly i'm doing the painting in real time so it hasn't been sped up future paintings in this series are range from six by eights to eight by tens to nine by twelves the larger the painting the more time that i'll allot to do it now you can get the photo that i'm using today in my photos folder link that i've put down in the description there are no copyrights to worry about ever and most of the photos that i've worked from to do my videos here on the channel you'll find there and you can paint to your heart's content now real quick before i get into this painting i'm doing this series to drive home my point that in order to get better in the least amount of time you should be doing a lot of small paintings quickly instead of large painting that has unlimited time small paintings have a number of benefits first of all it makes you distill the scene into a few elements you have to make quick decisions such as what's your focal point it helps with your editing skills to have only the essential elements to support your focal point what's the focal point well usually it's the thing that drew you to the scene in the first place and yes simplifying is an important element to painting it helps you paint accurate values solid color choices when and where to push the colors or hold back really the benefits go on and on so no more stalling too late let's go on these little paintings i usually attach them using a blue tack to a solid board and i'm going to set my timer for some reason to an hour and a half but it really i'm only going to paint for a half an hour since we're going to do this quickly really this is kind of like you know in mash where they called it meatball surgery well this is meatball painting so this is the the image i'm going to be working from and i'm looking to kind of pick out a few things in order to get across uh this scene without filling it up uh too much you know what let me just show you what my game plan is and how i plan on approaching this in the field well getting into this okay we're out in the field we come across this scene we want to paint back lighting but holy moly there is a lot of chaos here well we need a focal point and my focal point is going to be this tree trunk here maybe add a branch or two and but all of this area surrounding it with the foliage that's going to be our focal point it's going to have the most contrast the brightest colors and the most detail and that's how you know it's the focal point this area over here this is a rock doesn't look like it now and hopefully when we're done with it it'll look more like a rock and less like something that came out of the south end of a cow the next thing that i think is important for this composition is this branch here and we're going to bring it out it's in the shadows and but this whole section here this is going to help to lead your eye around to where you want it to go now the ground plane is you know somewhere around there uh in the background we're going to have a little bit of this scrub back here just to differentiate the different layers and then we're going to make sure that we put in some of the background elements like some of these trees but not too much detail on that remember we have a half an hour to get all this done and so you don't want to be trying to get in there noodle stuff that's not going to give you the effect you're looking for okay [Music] getting started on this you can see that i've got my timer ready to go i've got my reference there down in the lower right and uh i'm going to go ahead and just lay this in pretty quickly i have not started the timer yet why because i don't want to uh you know i'm just throwing this in as quickly as i can and i'll i'll start the timer when i start painting but this shouldn't take you any more than a couple of minutes hey my painting my rules [Music] think of this whole starting bit as putting together your puzzle pieces you know an unequal distribution of size and shape remember that's what i told you a good composition is and that's what i try and do i try and make sure that i don't have too much of the same shape going on and uh make them some areas larger some areas smaller and just keep that in the back your mind when you're drawing this all in uh i'm getting a pretty good idea as i'm drawing this in what i'm gonna leave out and what i'm going to put in and emphasize [Music] so there we go that entire drawing took me just under two minutes and now i'm going to start in by massing things in with the thinned down yellow ochre the the background color as always is a an acrylic yellow ochre that's been thinned down but going over the top of this i think the better color to start with on the main focal point is this yellow ochre is basically all i'm doing here is trying to get as much of this canvas covered as quickly as possible normally i i won't put in the darkest part in other words you know that blue gray that i'm putting in back there the blue purple that's not as dark as it could get to i leave myself a little bit of room in order to be able to kind of work from the middle a little darker and then or a little bit brighter and i will go in and cut in a little bit farther than what i think i'm going to want to do see there i can go ahead and add a little bit darker areas there but um you don't have to hit it exactly out of the park right away uh as you're working on this it's thin down just a little bit with some terpenoid or some gamsol is really what i use but it's thinned down a little bit so that as you're working around your canvas that terpenoid or gamsol will dry off pretty quickly and so even though it's a little bit slippery when you first put it down as you're working around your uh your canvas by the time you get back to it it's going to be easy enough to work on as long as you're not working too thickly is that a word sounds like a word that scott adams would use in dilbert uh win bigly as long as you work not working too thick you know just kind of get it in there and and get it covered and so that's why i'm working all over the uh the place on this and remember as you're putting things down if you put something down you know kind of test it a little bit and see how you like it but if you put it down and you realize oh that's really wrong rather than trying to go slippery over the top of it wipe it off wipe it off and then you can start over the top of that again a lot easier than trying to put a different color over it and sliding it into where you want it to be so don't be afraid to wipe things off if you find that they're going sideways on you it's it's a pretty good technique to have and it can be your friend when when things are going wrong which they will you can expect it just like death and taxes [Music] and i know it's going to be something that's a little bit hard for you to do when you get out into the field or you know if you're working at home try not to judge your paint too quickly what you're doing is you're just putting down values that are in the ballpark and keep those things separate and don't analyze every little mark that you put down i actually have to remind myself of this i have a saying taped to my easel as i'm painting that i look at every day that says don't judge your paint too quickly and live with it for a little bit before you're sure that it's not quite right because our eyes they can trick us and you have to give it a little bit of time to adjust [Music] uh you're just really trying to get your canvas covered at this point don't i don't even really pay attention to any of that just knowing that i'm going to go in and manipulate that paint once it's all down but putting it down one of the worst things that you can do is just start looking and say oh well you know that brush stroke isn't exactly right that's not what this is about uh really you're trying to get a light effect and the faster you can get it down especially something that's as fleeting as this backlit scene uh the better off you're gonna be so just work on getting it down know that you can wipe things off if you don't feel like they're going well and just keep moving just keep moving now having said that i do pay attention let's say if i'm putting in that the middle ground there or the the ground plane i try and keep my brush strokes in the direction that something is growing and so that ground plane i want it kind of vertical or a little bit diagonal i try and keep from being all over the place with the direction of my of my strokes i want to have a little bit of control as far as knowing which way something is growing and if you're going in all different directions that way lies madness so try and keep it from being too much a lot of this you'll notice that that i'll put in kind of vertically or i'll put in diagonally and then go in and and kind of soften things up from there but as long as you're putting things in so that you know you're getting your general values in uh you're going to be able to go in and manipulate that as you go along but it's just important to to know that you want to try and keep your brush strokes going in the direction that things are [Music] growing [Music] do [Music] so [Music] okay wakey wakey nap time's over well as you can tell i started putting in some of the lighter areas on the focal point here keep it very simple there's no details in there yet we're just kind of getting that from lighter colors down to the kind of the medium areas as that backlit area from the center goes towards the outside it's catching more of the light and so it gets brighter in color oh oh oh oh it just occurred to me a lot of you probably haven't seen my videos before i get asked this question all the time what are the colors that are on your your palette and so i've done a one minute video that i'll link on top and in the description you can go and watch that and then you know all the colors that i'm using and i don't don't make everybody sit through that again now that everything is covered this is the time for me to go in and define things adding details and just basically fleshing out what's already there if something's a little bit too bright or too dark in the background i address it now and this is the time that i start being concerned with how the paint is going to look and making sure that my eye is going to be drawn to that focal point of that vertical tree in the center and all of those wonderful backlit leaves this is also the time that i go in and i adjust values so remember how i said don't worry too much you just need to be in the ballpark well now is the time that i'm going to go in and darken up some of those leaves that are on the right hand side that that were too light and then i'm going to add some color there in the background like i am just basically i want to try and manipulate where your eyes going to go and it's easy now to see that once all of the canvas has been covered and i i should say that this is also the time where i i'm not using any thinner at all i'm not using any gamsol this is just straight paint out of the tube that's been mixed to the color that i want now i'm able to go over the top of that thin down paint it's had a little bit of time to set up and i'm not putting the paint on real thick right now but i'm putting it on definitely thicker than it was before and then for the areas that i want to um really pop off you know the the lighter areas those are going to be thicker paint yet so try and pay attention to your uh the consistency of your paint once you understand how it works for you you're going to be able to go in and and paint over the top i know a lot of people have a problem with being able to once they have something down it gets real slick a lot of this has to do with just lightly using your brush don't try and slam it in there because you're going to pick up what's beneath it just have a light touch and let your brush do the work you don't have to uh you know this this is not a big bear you don't have to wrestle it to the ground you want to use the brush and let it do what it does best and that's to make marks i mean it's basically a stick with hair on it and there's a reason that people have used it all these years is because it actually does a pretty good job if you use it the way it's intended to be used so a very light touch is all you're going to need in order to manipulate your paint to get it to do what you want it to do if it doesn't wipe it off and try again it's just that simple so pretty much it took me 10 minutes to get to this covered completely and so in my four stages of painting which i have labeled crap the first one is the cover and cover your canvas that's been done refine and adjust which is what i'm doing now and the last stage will be the finish uh and so that would be the ph uh in crap so um right now we're just refining things we're adjusting them so that we have the values that we want and where we want them and then as i get that done you'll see that i start adding in some details and that's the finishing part of it [Music] to the river to the river we go leave our worries on the shore and drift away on the river on the river we know sometimes the perfect words are never said i spilled my coffee i don't feel like talking my worries just keep growing by the day i need a moment where the green and blue appear to spin a rock and watch the ricochet to the river to the river we go leave our worries on the shore and drift away on the river on the river we know sometimes the perfect words are left unsaid you could change your mind when you're intertwined with the water in the waves as i grow older well that boat i'll never sell it works better than the pills the doctor gave and with that old fishing pole i'm still catching by the bucket for the kids are helping on the grill and sneak a taste to the river to the river we go leave our worries on the shore and drift away the river on the river we know sometimes the perfect words are never said [Music] you could change your mind when you're intertwined with the water [Applause] [Music] i hope you find this place before you end your days and if you see me out their way fellow [Music] now when i opened up this video i was telling you that if you want to get better at painting faster the way to do it is not to do big paintings uh that take you months or weeks or years to do the best way is to do a lot of little paintings so that you uh you're not locked into one thing and you don't have unlimited amount of time to work on it these smaller paintings are going to solidify in your brain exactly how to work with the paint and what works and what doesn't work and if it doesn't work then you haven't invested a whole lot of time you can move on to the next one and what you've done incorrectly is is foremost in your mind you don't have to try and remember you know you've just come off that painting so really i can't emphasize it enough do a lot of small paintings i've got several of them that are already in the can that i'm going to be playing for you this will be a series on uh doing quick paintings and we'll we're we're going to go from these little six by eights to an eight by ten to a nine by twelve and you just work your way up uh as far as size goes and when you do that uh once you've got the six by eights under your belt the eight by tens the nine by twelves are going to be a lot easier for you so if you find that you like um the concept of this stick around uh and here's my pitch for you if you like what you see uh share it with your friends and maybe they'll get a kick out of it uh if you don't have any friends uh hit the like button subscribe and all of us here will be your friends and uh hit the notification bell all that good stuff that every single youtuber tells you uh because it really does help the channel and after all what's more important than helping the channel so as we're coming down to home stretch here this is the time for you to slow down a little bit step back more often it's kind of important that you do that the entire time that you're working because you know you're right on top of it but step back see what edges need to be softened uh see what extraneous details are in there that you don't need and see where you could use you know use some things like extra branches things like that just take your time and put down your sledgehammer now and pick up your scalpel this really is your time to fine-tune uh what you've orchestrated here and put things where you want them to be not so much the tiny little details we'll get to that at the very end but the things that you had in your mind that maybe aren't working quite as well as as you want them to be believe me now that the timer has hit you know the zero hour your mind is racing and you're really trying to get everything in there before that light changes and this is the time where it's just straight paint there's no thinner uh and you're putting it on a bit thicker now especially since you're doing the highlights those should always be put on the thickest coming down into the finish line here go ahead and uh and stop it now i'm going to do some detailing takes me five minutes and i can do this at the end because i don't need the the image anymore i don't even if i'm standing there and the light is gone i can do this because all i'm doing is adjusting things a little bit that i feel like need to have a little more detail whether it's the branches or some extra leaves there this is stuff that that you can do at the very end it'll really make your painting look like it's it's finished up until now it's been just the bare essentials so we'll put a few uh lights in along the tree trunks to make it look like the light is catching in a couple of places maybe a couple little darks here and there and really that's that's about it now when you get back to the studio if you're painting this on location uh generally i don't look at what i did that day i'll wait until the next morning because you have a fresh eye sometimes you're pleasantly surprised sometimes you remember it exactly the way it is and sometimes uh it's just horrid and and you're disappointed but you know that's that's the way it goes when you're painting out on location you uh your eye gets a little bit stale as you're standing there and looking at it this is your time before it completely dries to go in uh the next morning and go ahead and do any adjusting that you want to do and so you know the purists will say no you can't touch it once it gets into the studio but you know my painting my rules so i like to uh to touch something up before it bothers me and i release it uh if it if it does go out now usually i use these just for learning and here is the final painting once i've done all the touch up on it like i said not the best painting i've ever done but you learned so much from doing these so i really encourage you to get out there or start small give yourself a time limit and see what you can do and look back in a month after you've painted i really think you'll be pleasantly surprised by your progress thanks for watching you can follow me on facebook or instagram or visit my website and as always i'll see you down the road [Music] miles

Channel: Steve Atkinson Fine Art

Views: 22,164

Keywords: plein air painting, oil painting tutorial, plein air demo

Id: 0BnKUv1m-Nk

Length: 30min 46sec (1846 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 30 2021