Confidence with painting

One thing I think we all have struggled with from time to time is having brush confidence. In Craig Nelson’s book 60 minutes to better painting he talks about developing the feel of the brush in your hand as well as developing the touch to canvas or paper. What we have to do is get ourselves on first name basis with our brushes and the support we are working from. For those that use pastel, it would be how the sticks are held in the hand and the different papers that can be used.

Quoting from Nelson: “Confidence in anything comes from repetition, and repetition leads to comfort and the mastery necessary to excel. Painting more quickly will lead to truly using the brush as a painting tool, not just an instrument for filling in between the lines.”

Here is what I find happens to me. I have confidence more in the studio than I do when I am working outside. I’m not sure why this is but a couple of things come to mind that I continue to work out.

1. Getting overwhelmed by the shear volume of things to paint outside. An example would be me in the middle of the Overlook Garden when all the azaleas are in bloom. Solution: Use my camera viewfinder to narrow my focus.
2. Moving shadows. Solution: Do a quick thumbnail of the shadow patterns and take a photograph to back up the thumbnail. Tape the thumbnail sketch to my easel and use it like a road map while I continue to paint the scene.
3. Getting too much paint on my canvas too quickly. Solution: Use some acrylic paint in the beginning to get the canvas covered and make the composition solid. Then if I want to finish up the painting with my oil paints I can do that and can rest assured that I’m painting over dry paint.
4. Rushing to get finished. When I paint outside I realize that I only have 2 to 2.5 hours to get the painting finished with the same lighting unless I want to come back to the same spot under the same conditions and paint some more. I think I need to reconsider why I am painting outside and remember that I don’t have to paint a finished work of art ready to sell. I can work outside to accomplish studies that I can then take back to the studio where I am more comfortable and have time to make other decisions, create larger works and certainly have a more polished work. There is nothing wrong with doing studies and using them this way. In the end, the people I sell my work to really don’t care if they can be called plein air works or not. They just want the scene captured so they can enjoy it over and over just like I do.

What are some of your confidence blockers? What confidence builders have you found? One confidence builder for sure is just painting and painting and painting like Nelson said. I still haven’t done the exercise we talked about using the minute timer. Maybe it’s because it reminded me of how rushed I always feel when painting outside. Maybe that's one of the reasons painting outside is such a great teacher when it comes to learning to paint.

Today’s photograph is an old one from 2004 taken at the Discovery Center after painting all day. See anyone you recognize?

Left to right: Chris Hagebak, Barbara Robinson, Phyllis Franklin, Jo Adang, Bea Dallas, Cyn Kuffle, Durinda Cheek, Sandra Babb and kneeling, Bambi Setzer.