My Students Make This Mistake Almost Always - Oil Painting Advice for Realism

So in this video, I want to get right to it and explain to you what I think is the number one obstacle to learning how to paint realism. And that is where, if you look at this vase here on the left, and then I'm simulating this over here on the right as if I've started to paint it in. And the one on the right, what I've painted in looks way too dark, even though it's actually perfect. And that's because it's sitting on this white background instead of in context with all the background around it, like it is on the left. Now, if I work on a stained canvas, that helps a little bit, but it still looks too dark. And so the way to get around this optical illusion is, and this is, you know, going back to my method, you've got your penciling workflow, you've got your color mixing workflow, and you can watch my other videos, which are linked in the description of this video to see how to pencil, how to do your color mixing. But now, when it comes to painting, I divide that into two different workflows completely. And when I have my students here in Austin take classes, this is the number one thing that I have to help them break through. And that is, as they start to paint, they wanna fix things. They're looking at their source and they're saying, man, this is looking way too dark. This can't be right. And they start lighting it up and they start trying to use their eye instead of just doing their color checking. So what I'm saying is, is that when you, you know, you've got your penciling done, you've done all your color mixing, and now as you start to paint, you're not gonna be trying to make any judgments about your work until the canvas is covered for that object that you're working on, and some background. So in other words, you're doing a lot of color checking, you're putting your spots on your laminated photo, and you're investigating where the color goes. You know, if you're working from life, you're using a color checker and you're moving it around, and you're saying, where does this go? Where does this go? You put it up, you're putting your spots on your laminated photo, and you're investigating, where does this color go? It's too light for here, it's too dark for here, but right in this area, that's where it goes. And then you go to your canvas and you fill in that little area, and then you're done. Then you go to the next spot. You know, I even have a rule for my students. Once a canvas is covered, you move on. We'll do all the fixing later. If you made a mistake, we'll fix it later. Don't worry about it. Yes, you should be doing a lot of color checking. You should be very deliberate. You should be very careful. If you need to adjust your color on your palette, you make the adjustment, but that's where all your work is, but you're not judging your work, because as you can see, if you started to paint this vase, you think, oh, this is too dark, when it's actually perfect. Now, the reason this is hard for my students and for people who are doing this for the first time is because you're so tempted. I mean, who wants, you know, you're painting something and it just looks way too dark, and it's just driving you crazy and you wanna fix it. But this is my point in this video is hold off, do your color checking, continue to fill in your spots, you know, until the canvas is completely covered, all the way up to the highlight, and you've also painted some background around the object. And then and only then should you be judging your work. And even somebody that's never painted before can see that the vase on the right shadow is ever so slightly lighter than the vase on the left. And that's because everything's filled in, and when everything's filled in, you're much better able to judge your work. Oh, and in case you haven't heard, Geneva Fine Art is now restocking all of our paint, and really excited. In fact, we're gonna be introducing a new purple soon, so keep an eye out for that. And thank you guys for watching, and we'll see you in the next one.