21 EASY WAYS

TO IMPROVE YOUR
PAINTINGS
 1. Invest More
Time In Planning
Your Paintings
 Here are my tips:

So many people - The more complex the painting, the more time
you should put into planning your painting.
- Spend time finding interesting scenes to paint.
overlook the You want to find a scene which you are actually
excited to paint. Make no mistake, it will take
time and effort to find these scenes.

planning phase…
but then get upset when the
painting does not turn out as
they want.
- Turn your reference photo (if you are painting
from a photo rather than life) into gray scale so
you can clearly see the values (the light and
dark areas in your scene).
- Use editing software to check the general color
harmony of your reference photo so you can
clearly identify the colors you will need to use.

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Paint something you will actually be happy with at the end.

If you paint a poorly designed composition, it does not matter how skilled you are. It will
still be a poorly designed composition no matter how well you paint the scene.

There are so many areas you can make mistakes in painting. Don’t fall over at the first
hurdle. Give yourself a fighting chance.

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2. Stop Blending
Your Beautiful
Brushwork
Over blending is one of the most common issues in
beginner paintings.
You need to try and ignore that urge to make everything look refined and pretty from up close.

Your viewers do not look at your paintings up close, but rather from a distance. So why would you paint as if your
viewers only see your paintings up close?

Paint what you see and do not worry so much about refining your brushwork, especially in the early stages of
your painting. If you need to blend your brushwork, then save it for the later stages.

When you step back, all your lovely brushwork will optically blend together, despite your painting looking like a
beautiful mess of color up close.

TIP: Try to complete every painting with as few strokes as possible. This way you will learn to treat every stroke
with the importance it deserves. But please don’t go and count the exact number of strokes you make. Just try to
limit the number of strokes you make in general.

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Let’s take a look at this beautiful
painting by Joaquín Sorolla, a
masterful Spanish painter.

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 7
Joaquín Sorolla, Beach at Valencia, 1908
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Notice how you can clearly see all of Sorolla’s
brushstrokes up close.

In fact, when you look up close his painting

does not really resemble anything but an
abstract arrangement of colors. But when you
step back and view the painting as a whole, it
all works together in harmony and has this
beautiful quality of realism which is very
difficult to achieve.

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The overall composition is what is important, not the
individual details…

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3. Determine What
Is Important In
Your Paintings And
Simplify The Rest
Robert Julian Onderdonk, Fall Landscape, Date Unknown

The impressionists were masters at extracting all the important details in what they were
painting and simplifying the rest.

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Camille Pissarro, Snow Landscape in Louveciennes, 1872
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Notice the simplified detail of the trees in the background.
Claude Monet, The Seine At Bougival
In The Evening, 1869

In this beautiful painting by Claude

Monet, observe segments of the
painting and notice how little detail
there actually is - just enough to
clearly understand what the painting
is about.

Monet extracted all necessary

elements of the scene, but ignored the
rest. He did not detail every window in
the buildings, every strand of grass,
every ripple in the water or the people
sitting in the boat. These details would
most likely detract from the overall
design of the painting if Monet
included them as they would do
nothing more than add noise to the
painting.

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Effective use of simplification will reduce the influence of less important areas in your painting and in doing so,
enhance your focal point.

Simplification is all about focusing your viewer on what is important in your painting and reducing the ‘noise’.

However, be careful not to simplify areas of importance! Your judgement of what to simplify will improve with
experience.

When you start painting, you will most likely try to accurately render every detail in the scene. As you advance, you
will be amazed at how much you can purposefully leave out of the scene yet end up with a more successful painting.

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 4. Embrace
Muddy Color,
Don’t Avoid It
Many art teachers seem to be promoting this idea that
you must avoid muddy colors. They will give you all
these tips for keeping your colors clean and pure.
But, in my opinion (and backed by many famous
paintings) there is absolutely nothing wrong with muddy
colors. In fact, muddy colors are beautiful when used
correctly and should make up a majority of the colors
used in your paintings.
The term muddy color is generally used to refer to colors
which have been desaturated to some extent due to
mixing with other colors. That is, the colors have lost
their intensity and have been toned-down.
Muddying of your colors will happen naturally if you do
not thoroughly clean your brush between strokes.
So why do many art teachers promote this idea that
muddy colors should be avoided? Because it sounds
good in theory. Why on Earth would you want to use
muddy colors…? Clean colors would look much more
appealing right?
The truth is, clean colors are powerful. Often far too
powerful to use in any natural scene. Rarely will you see
a color in full strength in the natural environment. Much
of the time you are seeing a toned-down version of that
color.
Sometimes it may look like a color is in full strength, but
that is merely because it is positioned next to much
weaker colors. For example, if you look at a vibrant red
flower in your green garden, it will look like a very
powerful red. But are you looking at a fully saturated
red? Most likely not. It just looks fully saturated
compared to its surroundings.
This is the power of relativity, which you will encounter
in many aspects of art.
If you avoid using muddy colors, not only will you end
up frustrated by having to constantly clean your brush
between strokes, but your paintings are going to look
oversaturated and jarring.
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Check out this painting by Edgar Payne named
Sierra Divide. All these colors are ‘muddy
colors’. There is not a single clean color in this
whole painting.

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Look how beautiful the muddy colors are in this painting
by Joaquín Sorolla, Seascape, 1904

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 This is not to say clean colors are in any way bad. But they should be
used sporadically to compliment your paintings, not dominate
them.

Think of how much nicer a bright red would look when placed next
to some ‘muddy’ greens rather than some intense greens (which
would fight the red for attention).

You do not want all your colors to fight for the viewers’ attention.
You want some of them to play more of a back-seat role in your
paintings.

So don’t fall for the misconception that you must keep all your
colors clean. You will very rarely need to keep your colors
completely saturated.

However, you should be careful of unintended muddying of colors

due to overworking.

When you overwork an area (make too many strokes in the same
area) your colors will start mixing on the canvas. Mixing on the
canvas is not necessarily bad however it can lead to unintended
muddying of your colors and result in areas which do not fit in with
the rest of your painting.

It is much better practice to mix intentional colors before placing

brush to canvas.

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Joaquin Sorolla, Sea And Rocks - Jávea, 1900
5. Create Depth In
Your Paintings
Using
Contrasting
Elements
A great challenge of painting is creating the illusion of a three dimensional scene on a two dimensional surface.
The great paintings seem to achieve this with ease, to the extent you can look into those paintings and almost feel
lost in them.

So how do you create this ‘depth’ in your paintings? Well, it is all about creating some kind of contrast between
your background, middleground and foreground. If you have no contrast between these areas, then your
painting will look just like what it is - a two dimensional surface.

Now you do not always need to have a background, middleground and foreground. In some cases you may just
have a background and foreground. But in any case, you need some kind of contrast between the areas.

Let’s go through some popular techniques to create this contrast.

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Fade into the distance
One of the simplest techniques to create depth in
your paintings is to gradually mute the colors,
edges, temperature and general detail as your scene
recedes into the distance.

This is called atmospheric perspective and it

reflects how we actually see.

When you look off into a landscape, the distant

elements will appear like nothing more but simple
abstract shapes of dull color (usually with a blue
tint).

TIP: A simple way to create this atmospheric

perspective in your paintings is to use large brushes
and general strokes for your background and
middleground areas. Do not use your delicate liner
brushes for these areas as you will find yourself Joaquín Sorolla, Three Boats By A Shore, 1899. Notice how much detail is used in the middle and
getting caught up in the detail. background compared to the foreground.

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Isaac Levitan, Corniche, Southern France, 1895 25
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Build up texture
A technique I frequently use in landscapes
where there is a definite foreground is to build
up a thick texture to contrast against a
smoother middle and background.

This texture creates a physical three

dimensional element in the foreground. Even
more depth is created when light hits this
texture and creates actual shadows on your
painting.

TIP: The palette knife comes in handy here as

you can use it to build up thick quantities of
paint on the canvas. The strokes created by a
palette knife are also very unique and contrast
nicely against the strokes created by a brush.

Vincent van Gogh, Orchard In Bloom With Poplars, 1889

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Flatten it out
A technique which is particularly useful for seascapes and landscapes
is to use more vertical brushwork in the foreground and gradually
flatten your brushwork as you recede into the distance.

In the background, you will be using mostly horizontal brushwork.

This is a technique which Vincent van Gogh used in many of his

paintings. In the foreground he used very vertical brushwork which
contrasts against the horizontal brushwork in the sky.

This creates a very striking contrast in his paintings which is

enhanced by the boldness of his brushwork. In my opinion, this is
one of the reasons for his great success postmortem.

Vincent van Gogh, The Flowering Orchard, 1888 26

 6. Focus On
Painting What
You See, Not
What It Is
When you start painting, you will have a conflict between what you see with your eyes and what your mind sees.

For example, say you are looking at a tree. Your eyes will see an arrangement of varied shapes, lines and colors.
But in your mind you will already have an idea of what a tree should look like. This will create a conflict between
what you actually see and what is in your mind.

Another example could be the edge of a building which is not actually visible due to it being in shade. Your mind
knows that edge is there (as you can extrapolate it from the rest of the building). If you do not paint what you
actually see, then you may be inclined to paint the edge of the building even though it is not visible.

These kind of mind games happen all the time in art. In a sense you can be your own worst enemy.

When you start painting, your mind will overpower your eyes and what you end up painting will be strongly
influenced by your idealized views of what you are seeing.

The best way to break out of this conflict is to always try to break the scene down into the most basic artistic
elements such as shape, color and line. This will help you ‘see like an artist’.

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Let’s take a look at this painting by
Claude Monet, Three Trees In Grey
Weather, 1891.

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In white are some of the lines and in
red are some of the shapes. Amongst
all these shapes and lines are different
colors.

When you look at a scene as if it were

just an abstract arrangement of shapes,
lines and colors then it becomes much
simpler to paint.

By doing this you will find you are less

susceptible to your mind challenging
you about what things should look like.

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7. Become More
Proficient With
Your Brush
The importance of brushwork is an overlooked skill of painting, despite it being one of the most
involved aspects of painting (every stroke you make is influenced by how well you use your brush
and palette knife).

A paintbrush to an artist should be how a knife is to a chef.

You need to become extremely proficient with your paintbrush (all different types) in order to
paint with fluency and control.

However, you will not create amazing paintings just by being skilled with a paintbrush. It is much
more complex than that. What it will do is allow you to paint more instinctively and with more
freedom to focus on the important decisions relating to your overall composition.

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How to hold your brush
Honestly, how you hold your brush at the end of the day does
not really matter. What matters is that you apply paint to
canvas in a way which suits your composition. You could even
use your fingers if it allows you to apply the paint in the way
you need - it does not matter.

But what I have found is that some artists do not realize there
are numerous ways you can hold your brush.

When you start painting, you will probably start holding your
brush like a pencil (like how I am holding the brush on our
right). But this really limits your range of motion and is
generally suited to more detail work.

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How to hold your brush (cont.)
With an overhand grip (pictured on our right) you are able
to paint with a much greater range of motion. I find this to
be a much more versatile way to hold your brush and can
be used for most of the brushwork in your painting.

TIP: Paint using the full range motion provided by your

arm, not just with your wrist.

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Use all edges of your
brush
Most artists seem to think each type of brush is only able
to create one kind of stroke, or only exists to paint a
specific object.
There is no single way to use a paintbrush. Every
type of brush has multiple uses. Let’s run through some
different uses of the popular brush types:
Filbert Brush: You can use the filbert brush as normal
to create bold strokes with soft edges. You can also use
the long, thin edge for rough linework, or the small tip to
dap rough areas of paint. The filbert brush is also perfect
for soft blending.
I demonstrate some of the different ways you can use the
filbert brush on the following page.
Fan Brush (not just for painting grass): The fan brush
can actually be a versatile brush which you can use for
example to create a rough landscape sketch, to break up
the texture of paint created by palette knife strokes (to
reduce glare from the paint) or to create areas of scattered
color.
Round Brush: The round brush could be used as
normal for linework, or you can turn the brush on its side
to create thick, uneven strokes of color. You can also vary
the thickness of your stroke by applying different pressure
(the more pressure you apply, the thicker your strokes
will be).
You can even use the blunt end of your brush to scrape
away paint from the canvas and expose the
underpainting. I use this technique to sign many of my
paintings.
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How far from the bristles should
you hold the brush?
In general, you should start your paintings with loose
By holding the brush close to the bristles, you will have
brushwork and your hand positioned far from the bristles.
more accurate strokes but reduced vision of the overall
As you progress into more delicate brushwork, then you
painting and reduced range of motion with your stroke.
can start to creep your hand closer toward the bristles.
By holding the brush far from the bristles, you will have
This is not a rule which you must follow and in practice,
looser brushwork but the benefit of being able to view
you will need to change how you position your hand
your painting as a whole from a distance while you
frequently in order to suit the stroke.
paint.

Just remember there is no one way to hold or use a

When most people start painting, they will hold the
paintbrush.
brush close to the bristles to try and paint with more
accuracy. But this leads to overly tight paintings and a
lack of oversight of the composition as a whole.

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 8. Use
Post-Painting
Analysis To
Identify Areas For
Improvement
You will never improve if you don’t critique your own work (or have someone else doing it for you).
As the saying goes, you should be your own worst critic.

After completing a painting, I analyze it to determine any areas I could improve.

I do not usually go back and make changes to the paintings. I just use the information to improve
my technique for future paintings.

I will walk you through some of the techniques I use to analyze my paintings.

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Here is a painting I did earlier in 2017
named Mt Barney.

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Here is the reference photo
from which I painted.

So let’s go through some

post-painting analysis.

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The first thing I notice is that the scale of my painting (the canvas) is different to the reference photo. My
painting is essentially a squished-up version of the reference. In general, you should try and match the scale of
your canvas to the reference photo.

The next obvious difference is the sky appears slightly too dark in my painting, however I will need to conduct
some more testing to confirm.

TIP: By squinting you can simplify the noise in your painting and more easily observe differences in value (how
light or dark something is), color and general structure of the painting. I discuss this more in a later section. 42
One trick I use is to split the
photos of the painting and
reference in half and compare
them to each other. By doing
this I can clearly see any
differences.

This is also a great way to see

how well I captured the
general color harmony of the
scene (I am just looking to
see if it ‘fits in’).

As I painted on a different
scale to the reference photo,
there are obvious issues with
the placement of elements in
the painting compared to the
reference. However, ignoring
this, the color harmony seems
to work nicely with the
reference.

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Ignoring the obvious
difference in scale, I am
generally pleased with how
the painting fits in here.

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When comparing the bottom
halves of the painting and
reference photos you can see
my painting needs a touch
more saturation in the
greens.

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When comparing the top
halves, I can confirm the sky
in my painting is slightly too
dark compared to the
reference.

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Another technique I use is to take the
color out of the photos and compare
the balance of lights and darks.

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In this case the main issue I
can see is with the darkness
of the sky. There are some
other smaller discrepancies
but nothing of real
significance.

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This process is not about beating yourself up over mistakes. It is much more about recognizing areas
you can improve and taking steps to fix those areas in future paintings.

Without this process, you would just continue making the same mistakes over and
over again.

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 9. Draw Attention
Using Contrasting
Color Temperatures
The color wheel can be segmented
into warm and cool colors (I will let
you figure out which side is warm and
which side is cool).

There is a powerful contrast between

warm and cool colors. There is also a
beautiful harmony between colors of
a similar temperature (such as greens
with blues).

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Claude Monet, Water Lilies, 1905

In this painting Claude Monet used a wide range of cool colors

to create a very calming harmony. To ensure the painting does
not appear bland, Monet utilized many different tones and
strokes to create variance and activity.

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Claude Monet, Landscape On The Ile
Saint-Martin, 1881

On the other hand, in this painting

Claude Monet used the muted reds in the
foreground to really compliment the
blues and greens.

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Vincent van Gogh, Cafe Terrace at Night,
1888

This painting is a stunning showcase of a

vibrant contrast between warm and cool
colors.

Vincent van Gogh used the warm colors

contrast against the cool surroundings to
really draw you into the cafe area which is
the obvious focus.

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You should also be aware of the psychological influences of warm and cool
colors and how you can use this to your advantage.

Warm colors generally represent action, passion and anger. Cool colors
generally represent peace, calm and distance.

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John Singer Sargent, A Dinner Table At Night, 1884

In this painting, John Singer Sargent used a warm color palette

to create a very inviting dinner scene. Have a think about what
the painting would look like if Sargent used just cool colors.

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Claude Monet, On The Coast At
Trouville, 1881

On the other hand, notice how calm

this painting is by Claude Monet who
used a very cool color palette.

Have a think about how this painting

makes you feel and if that is any
different to how you feel about
Sargent’s painting on the previous
page.

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10. Just Crop It!
There will be many times when you take a photo of a scene to paint and it just does not look right, so
you discard it. But your next painting may be sitting in that photo with some handy use of cropping.

Cropping involves changing the frame of your painting so that areas are ‘cropped’ out. By cropping
your reference, you completely change the whole design of your composition.

You can crop out unnecessary areas which would, in turn focus your more important areas. Or you
could use cropping to simply create a more interesting composition.

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Here is a photo I took of the Gold Coast,
Australia.

It is a beautiful environment but on first

glimpse it seems this composition is
lacking. There is no real focus or direction
in the scene and it just seems cluttered.

But watch what happens when I crop out

some of the clutter.

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You can crop as much or as little as you
like. I decided to crop much of the clutter
at the bottom and from our right of the
photo.

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This is what we are left with. A much
more aesthetically pleasing composition.

There is reduced clutter and the trees

create a beautiful frame of the crashing
waves.

I would be much more inclined to paint

this than the un-cropped version.

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I could do this with hundreds of old photos which are just sitting on my camera
reel. You should try it for yourself with some of your own photos.

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11. Don’t cloud
your darks
White is a powerful color and it has a permanent position on every
artist’s palette. But you need to be careful with how you use white as
it can cause havoc with the darks in your paintings.

Your dark areas are extremely important and you need to preserve
them in a true form. The problem with white is that as soon as a color
with too much white hits your dark areas, those dark areas will take
on a cloudy appearance. Once too much white seeps into your darks,
it is almost impossible to control.

So how should you manage your whites?

Well, a useful practice in oil and acrylic painting is to avoid using

white until absolutely necessary. Lay down all your darks and
midtones first. Then, once the foundation of your painting has been
laid, you can start placing down your highlights.

You need to earn your highlights. By doing this you can play around
with the painting as much as you want without having to worry about John Singer Sargent, Self-Portrait, 1907
whites clouding up your darks.
Notice how rich and full all the dark areas appear. This
complements nicely against the high key flesh tones. Sargent
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used these rich darks in many of his portrait paintings.
Ilya Repin, Portrait Of Pavel Tretyakov, Founder of The Tretyakov Gallery, 1901 66
 12. Dirty
Darks, Bright
Lights
A fantastic and versatile color combination is dirty darks and bright lights. What does this mean?

Well, by dirty darks I mean to use desaturated and muddy colors for your dark areas. By bright lights I mean to use
the complete opposite for your light areas, that is, full and saturated colors by comparison to the darks.

This creates a powerful contrast in both value (how dark and light something is) and saturation (how bright and
intense your color is). As a result your light areas will really ‘pop’ out of the painting.

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Alberto Plá Rubio, Girl In A Field, 1920

In this painting notice how much the light areas glow as they contrast
against the dirty dark areas.

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John Singer Sargent, Sweet Nothing, 1907 70
Claude Monet, Etretat, Cliff Of d'Aval,
Sunset, 1885

Observe how beautiful the lights are in

Monet’s painting. The dirty darks really
fall back in the painting and play a
back-seat role, as the vibrant oranges and
yellows take centre stage.

Had Monet used more saturated darks,

then those darks would compete for
attention and result in a very jarring
painting.

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 13. Create Color
Harmony By Using
A Limited Palette
I recommend all beginner painters start with a very limited palette of
colors. By limited palette, I mean using a limited number of colors in
your painting and relying primarily on mixing your own color
variations.

With a limited palette, it is easier to connect colors and create harmony

throughout your painting. For example, a green which you mix using
the yellow and blue on your palette will work in harmony with that
yellow and blue. If instead you use a green straight from the tube, that
harmony would not exist.

Some other benefits of painting with a limited palette are:

● You will learn how to mix your own colors.

● It is more economical to use a limited color palette, as you can

purchase just a few colors in bulk. You can also use a palette of
inexpensive hues (the more exotic hues tend to be much more
expensive).

● You will become familiar with a limited palette of colors and

understand how the colors interact with each other.

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Anders Zorn, Summer Entertainment, 1886
At a minimum, you could paint with just a yellow, red,
blue (being the primary colors) plus white on your
palette. Using these colors you can create pretty much
any color in the spectrum. This is a palette which I
frequently use:

● French Ultramarine Blue

● Yellow Ochre
● Cadmium Yellow
● Viridian Green
● Alizarin Crimson Red
● Cadmium Red
● Cadmium Orange
● Raw Umber
● Titanium White

Anders Zorn is famous for his minimalist “Zorn palette”

which comprises of ivory black, titanium white, yellow
ochre and cadmium red. The ivory black is a cool black
and acts like a blue in this palette.

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Anders Zorn, Our Daily Bread, 1886 75
 ● To lighten the value of your color,
The best way to learn how to use a limited palette you can either add white or yellow.
(other than practice) is to understand the color wheel To darken the value of your color
and how the primary colors interact. you can add either black, blue or
some kind of brown. In some cases
Here are some rules which will help you: you may even be able to add red.
● Mixing two primary colors will create the color
between them on the color wheel (red plus blue
will create purple, red plus yellow will create
orange and blue plus yellow will create
green).
● You can mix a very natural black by mixing
blue with a dark brown (such as french
ultramarine blue and raw umber).
Alternatively, you can mix all three primary
colors together in equal portions. To mix a
natural gray, just add white to your black.
● To desaturate a color (kill it) you can either add
gray or mix it with the color on the opposite
side of the color wheel (for example, to kill blue
you would add orange). Colors on the opposite
side of the color wheel (complementary colors)
compete for attention and mute each other out.

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14. Use Directional
Brushwork To
Create Movement
In Your Painting
When you are constructing your painting, you should always be thinking about
where you want to direct the viewer. Most of the time you will be trying to
direct the viewer towards your focal point (if you have one).

One of the ways you can do this is by using directional brushwork to

suggestively push your viewer to where you want.

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Vincent van Gogh, Wheatfield with
Cypresses, 1889

Vincent van Gogh was a master of

directional brushwork.

He managed to create a sense of

movement and activity in otherwise
calm scenes.

Notice in this painting how your eyes

are directed around the painting as you
follow van Gogh’s suggestive
brushwork.

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Here I have indicated how my eyes are
drawn around the painting as a result of
Vincent van Gogh’s suggestive
brushwork.

Notice how my eyes are not directed

straight out of the painting but rather
through and around it.

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Claude Monet, The Grotto Of
Port-Domois, 1866

Claude Monet also commonly used

directional brushwork in his paintings,
particularly his landscapes.

Notice how your eyes are drawn

through the painting into the cave.

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When using directional brushwork to pull your viewer around the painting, you need to have an end goal in mind.

You do not want to just mindlessly create activity in your painting without thought to the overall composition. There
should be some sort of purpose to how you are directing the viewer.

It may look as though in many of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings he is just directing you all over the place. But most of
the time it is a complex arrangement of strokes which purposefully direct you all throughout the painting towards
points of interest, but rarely out of the painting.

There are times when directional brushwork may not be appropriate. For example, if you are painting an area in the
sky which you do not really want to draw attention to. The same may go for the background of a portrait painting.

There will be times to use directional brushwork and times not to use it. It is just another weapon in your artillery.

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 15. Create Interest
Using Sharp
Contrasts In Value
Winslow Homer, The West Wind, 1891

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In this painting Winslow Homer
used a sharp contrast between
values to create interest in that
middle region with the female
subject.

The painting is almost just a three

value scale, with the dark values
down the bottom, the mid-values
at the top and the high values
sandwiched in the middle.

Also notice the uneven shapes

created by the change in values.
This adds to the overall design of
the composition. Even shapes
would probably look bland and
unnatural.

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Isaac Levitan, Evening At Volga, 1888

Isaac Levitan used the dark values at the

bottom of his painting to sharply contrast
against the high key values in the rest of
the painting.

This really emphasizes these lighter areas

in the painting and creates an almost
glimmering effect.

Without the backing of the dark

foreground, these lighter areas would not
appear nearly as crisp and important in the
painting.

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I find using sharp contrasts in value is a particularly useful technique when
painting scenes at sunrise or sunset. During these times the angle of the sun
creates sharp changes in value, with areas of vibrant light contrast against long
and dark shadows.

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 16. Lead Your
Viewer To Your
Focal Point Using
Leading Lines
Leading lines are one of the most effective and under-utilized There is beauty in subtlety and some things are better left to the

composition tools available to artists. They are essentially lines in viewer's imagination. So do not go and direct every line in your

your artwork which lead the viewer through the painting and toward painting towards your focal point. That would be way too obvious.

your points of interest.

Instead, use a few lines to gently draw the viewer around the

These lines can either be created using actual lines in your painting painting and ultimately in the direction of your focal point. The

or organically through the arrangement of elements in your painting viewer does not want to feel like they are being pushed in a certain

(for example, the line created by the peak of a mountain range). direction. You need them to think they arrived at the focal point on
their own accord.

There is a strong psychological element to leading lines and the way

we perceive them. Our eyes like to follow lines. It is as simple as
that. This is powerful in that you can essentially use leading lines to
direct the viewer to wherever you want in the painting and you can
be fairly confident they will follow.

As this is such a powerful technique, you need to be careful with

how you use it.

Camille Pissarro, Banks Of A River With Barge, 1864 89

Robert Julian Onderdonk,
Cactus In Bloom, 1915

Can you see the leading lines in

this painting?

90
Onderdonk created leading
lines in his painting organically
using the subjects in the scene.
The lines take you through and
around the painting towards
the distant mountains.

91
Winslow Homer, West Point,
Prout's Neck , 1900

In this painting, Winslow

Homer draws you into the
foreground using bold, crashing
waves on the rocks. He then
drags you around the canvas
into the horizon.

Notice how the leading lines

flatten out in the distance. This
helps create depth in the
painting.

93
92
Isaac Levitan, Platform, The Approaching Train, 1879

Here is a simple sketch by Isaac Levitan. Have a think

about where he intended the focal point to be (hint - he
is blatantly telling with the leading lines).

93
17. Frame Your
Subject
Framing is a powerful composition technique which is But the concept of framing goes far beyond the physical
completely overlooked by many beginners. framing of your artwork.

Framing involves positioning elements in your You can use all kinds of elements in your painting to
composition around a subject in order to bring focus to frame and bring focus to your subject. You could create
that subject. The purpose of framing in a composition is frames using elements such as:
similar to the purpose of physically framing your
finished artworks. ● The environment
● Architecture
Have you ever compared one of your paintings before it ● Light
is framed to after it is framed? You may have noticed ● Shapes
how much more impact the painting has when framed ● Color shifts
(provided you selected an appropriate frame).

Without the frame, your eyes are left to wonder. With

the frame, your eyes are channeled into the artwork.
95
John Singer Sargent, Carnation, Lily, Lily,
Rose, 1885-1886

In this painting by Sargent you can see how

he framed the subjects (the two girls) using
the environment.

96
Isaac Levitan, Road In A Wood,
1881

Here Isaac Levitan used the

dark trees to frame the vibrant
sunset.

97
John Singer Sargent, A Bedouin Arab, 1891

In this painting the obvious focal point is the

subject's face. Sargent cleverly used the dark
background and the loose drapery to frame the face.

Sargent simplified the background and drapery in

order to channel you through to the face, which has
much tighter detailing.

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Childe Hassam, A Fruit Store, 1888-1889

In this painting by Childe Hassam observe how

the subject has been framed by the open door
way. Also notice how the subject is placed with a
dark backdrop which contrasts nicely against
the rest of the painting.

The inclusion of the stairs is also clever as it

leads up towards the subject.

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Claude Monet, Saint-Lazare
Station, Exterior View, 1877

Observe the frame created in

this painting by the ceiling
and pillars of the train
station.

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 18. Use Notan
To Improve Your
Compositions
Notan is a Japanese concept used to describe the balance between light and dark elements in a composition. Notan in
Japanese means “light-dark balance”.

Notan has become a popular concept in art which is used to help identify the most basic design of a composition. In the
strictest form, a notan involves just white and black, however many artists have expanded notan to three values -
white, a mid-value and black.

A simple way of creating a notan is to block in everything with black which is not directly hit by light. Everything else
(which is hit by some kind of direct light) will be left white.

This reveals the underlying design of a scene which is created by the balance between light and dark.

102
Notan - a shape
defining tool
One of the key benefits of notan is the ability to
clearly see the abstract shapes created by the
lights and darks in your scene.

These abstract shapes can set a strong

foundation for your painting before you even
consider color and other elements.

On the right is a painting by Claude Monet,

Self-Portrait With A Beret, 1886. Next to the
painting is a simple two value notan which I
created.

Notice the likeness between the painting and

the notan, despite the lack of any other detail.

103
A strong notan design can strengthen a composition
A great painting does not need to have a strong notan design. In fact, many of the famous paintings have weak notan
designs. However, if your painting has a strong notan design then it will have a much greater chance at being a great
painting.

The notan is basically like the architectural structure of your painting. The stronger the notan, the stronger the
foundation will be in your painting. But structure is only half the battle. You will still need to add all the other
elements such as color, line, edge, texture and gradation.

Without a strong notan, you can still utilize the other elements to design a strong composition. However this is much
more complex. Many of the Russian impressionists like Peter Bezrukov and Bato Dugarzhapov are able to design
beautiful compositions without needing to rely on strong notan designs. This is because they are masters of color and
have an amazing understanding of how to render light. But these artists are masters. So unless you want to make
things difficult on yourself, you should aim to paint with a strong notan when you are starting out.

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19. Paint With A
Loaded Brush
One of the most common problems for beginners is not using enough paint on the brush. This results in having to push
and scrub the brush into the canvas to transfer color.

The reason for this is generally a lack in confidence. Beginners are usually timid and do not want to commit to their
strokes. But this is poor technique and will often result in a painting which appears weak and lacking.

Another reason is that beginners generally place too little paint on the palette in an effort to be economical. You should
squeeze generous amounts of paint on your palette so you have enough to work with. If you find yourself needing to
frequently top-up the paint on your palette, then you should add more at the start. These interruptions can interfere
with the outcome of your paintings.

With a loaded brush, your paint will run freely onto the canvas and you will be able to paint without hesitation. Your
colors will also appear more rich and full.

If you do not use enough paint on your brush, the paint will scumble onto the canvas and leave areas exposed.

106
John Singer Sargent, An Artist
In His Studio, 1904

107
108
109
“The thicker you paint, the more it flows.”
John Singer Sargent

110
20. Use Negative
Space To Design
More Interesting
Compositions
There are two types of space in your paintings - negative and positive space.

Negative space is the space between subjects.

Positive space is the space where your subjects are placed.

The balance between negative and positive space is an important factor in the
overall success of a composition.

112
 The importance of negative space is often overlooked.

Negative space is You can use negative space to strategically give your
viewer’s eye a rest between spaces of activity (positive

like a period of
space).

Negative space can also be used as a powerful design

silence in music
tool to create interesting shapes between positive
spaces. For example, the shapes created in the sky
(being the negative space) between the clouds (the
positive space).

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Robert Julian Onderdonk, In The Hills
Of The Spanish Oaks, Date Unknown

As you can see I have outlined the

negative space between the clouds in
this beautiful painting by Onderdonk.

These shapes are an important part of

the overall design of the painting and
you need to ensure they appear natural.

114
Positive space gets all the attention…

But positive space has no meaning without negative space.

Just have a think about the design of this page. These words (the positive space) appear to have a lot of
power. But it is the abundance of negative space (the white page) which gives these words power. The
same technique can be used in your paintings.

115
 21. Use Intervals
Between Space To
Create Rhythm In
Your Paintings
Your painting has a rhythm just like in music. The intervals between space can determine the beat of
your painting.

Think of the long intervals in positive space as being your heavy drums, the shorter intervals as being
your flutes and trumpets and the long intervals in negative space as being the peaceful silences.

117
 Isaac Levitan, Oak Grove, Autumn, 1880

Let’s use this painting by Isaac Levitan to demonstrate

118 how intervals in space can create rhythm.
 I have mapped out the rhythm created by the
positive space (the top line of arrows) and negative
space (the bottom line of arrows) in relation to the
trees. These trees create the rhythm of the painting.

Notice how all the intervals are varied. If the

intervals were equal, the painting would be like a
119 flat song or a monotone speech.
Variance, pattern and harmony are key to creating a successful rhythm in your painting. You do not
want to create a bland rhythm by using equal spacing between all your elements. But on the other
hand, you do not want to confuse the viewer by creating variance without regard for pattern and
harmony.

You need to be constantly aware of how the space in your paintings creates rhythm and use this to
your advantage.

Part of the reason many of the great paintings just appear to ‘work’ is that they have this rhythm
which is not blindly apparent, yet subtly pleasing.

120
As an artist, you are no different to the composer of an orchestra. Your
paintbrush, colors and theory are your instruments.

121
 [Bonus] 22. Stop
Comparing Yourself
To The Masters
This is not so much a tip which will improve your art, but rather a tip which will prevent you from
being crippled by self-doubt.

There are so many brilliant artists who we have the privilege of studying at the moment. In this book I
use many of these artists to demonstrate my tips.

However do not think for a moment that any of these artists were born masters of painting. They
obviously achieved a great mastery, but only after much practice.

Every master artist was an amateur at some stage.

Let’s run through some earlier works of the great masters we study.

123
Vincent van Gogh, Still
Life With Cabbage And
Cogs, 1881

One of van Gogh’s

earliest documented
paintings.

124
Claude Monet, Boatyard
Near Honfleur, 1864

This is not one of

Monet’s earliest works
but he was young when
this was painted.

It clearly does not have

the same vibrancy and
technical brilliance of
his later paintings.

125
Salvador Dalí, The Artist’s Father At
Llane Beach, 1920

126
Vincent van Gogh, Etten - Scheveningen
Woman Sewing, 1881-82

This was painted some time before

Vincent van Gogh discovered the
wonderful world of color in the late
1880s.

127
When these paintings were created, the respective artists would have had no idea of their eventual
fame. The paintings represent a time when these masters were just amateurs with a very bright future.

The reason you do not see many of the earlier artworks of famous artists is because they were most
likely destroyed, lost, hidden or deteriorated over time.

So be careful when comparing yourself to the masters of history. Use them for inspiration and study,
but do not compare yourself to them (yet).

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[Bonus] 23. Squint!
One of the most common things I hear beginners struggling with is not being able to paint realism. This is usually
because they are going about it the wrong way.

They start a painting with complete focus and spend hours meticulously capturing every detail in the scene. But once
finished (if it is not discarded along the way with frustration) the painting lacks harmony, looks extremely tight and is
anything but true realism.

Instead of trying to capture the meticulous details straight away, you should be aiming to capture the fundamental
structure of the painting first.

A great technique to help you ignore all the ‘noise’ in your painting is to squint at your scene and paint what you see.
This will generalize all the values, shapes and colors, but everything you see will still be accurate.

If you capture those values, shapes and colors in your painting then 90% of the battle is won in achieving realism.
Realism does not mean you must slave away for hours on end trying to capture every detail in the scene with a small
brush. It just means you accurately capture what is necessary in the painting.

130
On the right is a painting by
Mikhail Demyanov, Boats,
1951 and a blurred version
which is essentially what
you would see when
squinting.

Notice how all the noise is

gone and you are just left
with abstract shapes, lines
and colors.

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 Paintings by Dan Scott

Thanks for joining me!

132
 If you enjoyed these tips or have any
questions, please let me know (my
personal email is at the bottom).

These tips are designed to be simple

and actionable so you can start using
them in your very next painting.

Let me know how you go!

Happy painting.

Dan Scott
Draw Paint Academy
E: dan@drawpaintacademy.com

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Before The Sun Goes Down, Dan Scott, 2017