Workshop tips

Sometimes workshop tips are lost from memory really fast so a good habit to get into is to create a workshop binder. That way you can save all the great information given to you in one place and you can add to it as you attend other workshops just by placing dividers or breaking down information into categories like color, composition, exercises, materials, etc. Then you might want to start a general category just to save quick tips and perhaps transfer them to a slip of paper that you can keep at your easel.

You can add to your workshop binder all the great tips you learn from your fellow artists as well as clippings from magazines. I enjoy clipping and saving images of art I like, fellow artists business cards, exhibit invitations that show paintings by the artist, anything art really. If you are like me, soon you will need to split all this great information into other binders. It's a great way to quickly find what you want and also to pull out and take a walk down memory lane.

Here are a few workshop tips from one of my binders:

* Finish what might change first. For example, wiggly children, shadows, cut flowers.

* Paint easiest thing first. If you start with the hardest thing, you might get discouraged, but if you start with what is easiest for you, you might find what you think is the hardest actually falls into place.

* KISS. We all know the kiss rule "keep things simple silly" Simplifying the elements of a painting usually results in a clearer and more focused image. Cut down on the number of colors you use and the values in the beginning.

* Paint the shapes of shadows and light. Look for the shapes of shadows and light around the objects you are painting. Painting the negative shapes can sometimes speed the painting of the actual objects you are painting.

* White isn't always white. Keep your whites lower in value than you think or see they actually are. This allows you room to bring the value up for highlights or other areas you really want whiter whites.

* Shadows seldom are dark dark passages of blackness. Think what the shadow is covering and paint the darker value. If it's green grass, then the shadow can be a darker green with reflections and influences from the sky and other surrounding objects.

*Check your contrast. How's your light vs. dark? Do you have a variety of shapes, sizes, strong passages, muted passages, lost edges, found edges, hard edges, soft edges. Contrast in color is also a good tool to use. Try surrounding a color with its complement and it will pop.