Stepping Back, Why Is It Important?

One key aspect to learning to paint that is often overlooked is to step back and really looks at your work.

There are two aspect to "stepping back". One of them is to physically back up and the other is to take some time away from your painting and think it through.

Why is this important? 

When you're a few inches from your painting you don't get a good overview of what’s going on. It's important to back up from your painting at least 10 feet a few times because your painting changes every time you add a brush stroke.

By taking some time away from your painting, you see it with a fresh pair of eyes when you return to it. This allows you to decide if what you are doing makes sense. The break could be as short as a half hour or as long as a couple of weeks.   You could do this repeatedly over a few days and every time you'll encounter your painting with fresh eyes, you will be more sure of yourself with what to do to get your painting to the next stage. This type of "stepping back' allows you to have a fresh perspective on your painting which is so important.

I would advocate that taking some time away from your painting is the most beneficial type of "stepping back".

Here is me latest demo painting. I do not paint animal very often, however, when you focus on painting shapes they are not much different then other subjects.

Title ??? - 16" X 12"

Next week we start painting a cat.

This weekend, I'm taking another workshop with Angus Mc Ewan.  I'm currently taking a break from the painting because after using more than two full tubes of paint,  two of the colours used for the surface have separated creating an undesirable effect and I only know how to swear in two languages.

Have a creative week,

Danielle