I happened upon a book the other day, called
Daily Painting. I am considering purchasing it. I even gave it a test drive over at good ol' Barnes and Noble. I liked some of the things that were inside of it, in fact, it was probably one of the best books on oil painting I have looked at. However, even that being said, art books are generally just frustrating. Sure sometimes they will have images of the steps along the way, and some times they will even have more than three images illustrating the steps (that is rare, usually it is only three), but as helpful as showing the steps are... I have never happened upon a book which clearly explains the mechanics of what the artist is doing. I am not sure if this is because in the end, and this is most likely too harsh of a blanket judgement, it seems that a lot of artists actually lack a clear working knowledge of different terminology and techniques used throughout history, not to mention a lack of general art historical knowledge, or if it is something else. Perhaps this is why an oil painting textbook does not exist? Nope, never mind I know why one does not exist.
People publish these books hoping that a general hobbyist will pick them up, not a hardcore, I make a lot of money painter. Hardcore, I make a lot of money painters keep their secrets to themselves, and if you want those secrets you have to pay a handsome price. Workshops, videos, etc, but not just one workshop or video, you have to purchase several and even then you will not get it all.
I know that I am not an amazing painter who should be lecturing on painting techniques, but I do know some things. Things that I have spent hours searching out and if I could have just found one website to read about it all, that would have been awesome. I think that I really will do this: Art Tips and Techniques. Yep.
Maybe one day I will write my ideal art textbook (shaking head no). But back to the book
Daily Painting. One thing that the book does talk about quite a bit, as you can guess from the title, is daily painting. Not daily painting in the sense of making sure that you are painting everyday, albeit important, but finishing a painting a day.
The idea is too keep the paintings small, the subject manageable, and the paintings to be finished in a one to two hours time period. Keeping them small means that you should be able to finish the works in a day, and the idea is that they will help you take more risks. It is much easier to give up on an idea when you have only spent a small amount of time on it, on a very small work, verses when you have dedicated a huger painting to trying out an idea and it fails.
The daily painting idea, as she uses it, would have been perfect for me if I was still painting in a looser fashion. Such as here:
But even in this painting I was starting to move away from a more quickly painted style. At first I thought this daily painting thing would be a super good idea. I jumped right in, and Day 1 went great. Day 2 not so great, Day 3 I picked too complex of a subject, and by Day 4 I thought, "I don't think this is what I want to do this these daily paintings." Right now, I want to be able to go super detailed when I want to and then to back away and be loose when I feel it is needed.
So I am going to take the author's idea of a daily painting, and change it a little bit for my own purposes: going small (6x6 is the largest), making sure I am experimenting in each, and painting them for two hours a day and then putting them away. This means some will take longer than others, but I think that I am okay with this. I think that I like where I will be going with them.
Hopefully good things will come of it.
