What else is in a painting? - A recipe

and all the hidden ingredients.

Annoying story you have to scroll past to find the useful stuff:

When I was a child I used to draw with crayons and you could never quite get the sheen right.
So I moved onto pencil crayons and gee, they were so much better.
I'd get cramp in my hands from pressing so hard to make sure they looked almost printed.
I started painting with watercolours - owned so many of the Winsor and Newton mini packs after getting one for each birthday.
I loved taking the little jackets off each one.
I have a graveyard of them stacked up with stickers on each.
My best friend brought me one set a few years back - Faber-Castell, veryyyy nice.
Has some golds and neons.
It's what I use for commissions.
Bit hard to put into a bag for on the go - so I whack out the trusty mini WN's for on the go.
Watercolour is my first love.
Acrylic was my second.
It captures emotion like nothing else.
Messy, not always cooperative, bright, buildable.
Wonderful.
Did you read this?
Do you also read the stories on the internet recipes?
Does anyone?
​

Ingredients

Cooking time - variable.
Mental agility
Understanding of colour
Looking at it in shapes
Choosing the emotion behind it
Getting into the right mode to paint
Being prepared to work through or take a break if tiredness is gonna impede progress or emotion is going to convince you to give up
The actual timeline of when it needs to be finished by
100,000 attempts at similar things in the past
​Constant zooming in and out to look at the minute and then the whole picture
Lots of tea and coffee
Other paintings at the same time
Knowing the progress and the process

Annoying unrelated advert that gets in the way

its me im advertising my own stuff cos this print is gone september 1st

Method

1. Begin with a base of your understanding of colour and ability to see shapes work out how to translate from reference image to canvas or paper. Sometimes this step will go wrong and you may have to resort to 'grid jail' to get it right. The eye sometimes just sees what it wants to see and you gotta whip it back into reality. Unless you're doing abstract. 

2. Whisk up the right emotion to paint. Can't paint a beautiful landscape if you're angry. Unless that's the dichotomy you wanted? Stormy sea? I guarantee it'll show up in the brushstrokes so don't skip this step. Why are deadlines stressful? Mood all wrong. I recommend finding out what you need to get into the right headspace to start with. I like an admin morning and a painting afternoon currently. This covers the right 'mode' to paint.

3. Once the batter is made you have to make sure you are prepared to call the shots on when to take a break. Are you actually about to rip it in half or do you just need a break. Are you tired... or are you sneakily bored? Call yourself out on your bullshit and act accordingly.

4. Technically step 0, I'm just throwing it in now to shake shit up. 100,000 attempts at similar things is very helpful for knowing when you're about to hit a wall. It's the difference between knowing you can't draw hands and having the evidence to prove it.

5. Take a tea or coffee break - let things simmer.

6. Take a lap of your house while you're at it.

7. The actual timeline and perceived timeline are different. Get used to telling the difference. No it is not going to take you '2 hours'. It's going to take 7 with all the other bits in between. So alter your entire schedule entirely. This recipe covers the entire process not just paintbrush on canvas time - because it's all part of it. Hence 'cooking time- variable'.

8. Make sure to check all the other projects are also cooking along nicely alongside the one. Sometimes they are lovely accompaniments. Sometimes they could do with being in another kitchen entirely but this is reality.

9. Chop up your vision by constantly zooming in and out of said painting. You gotta try and see up close and the whole picture at once. I recommend looking at easel from the other side of the room out of the corner of your eye like you're pretending not to see it.

10. Finish up the dish by trusting the progress and the process. This requires a generous helping of mental agility and the ability to trust yourself too. Take a deep breath. Serve.

i like metaphors - see you over at instagram.