Art Tips #4: Think Abstract Before You Paint Realism!

Most people think strong composition comes from careful planning and details. But what if it actually begins with something far simpler? Let me show you a different approach. Form is beautiful when it's made with intention. When every mark feels deliberate and alive. But sometimes when we step back and let things move on their own, something remarkable happens. Like this ink spreading freely across a piece of paper, finding its own path, it already begins to form something engaging, something balanced, and of course without our intervention. As artists we often over plan our compositions I find, trying to control every shape and value before we even touch the surface. Yet design, true design, often reveals itself through the process itself and not before it. Welcome back friends, it's good to see you again. We are continuing the art tips, a series where we explore some of the most pressing questions we face as artists. Today's topic deals with something fundamental, arguably the most fundamental and important, but often misunderstood. And that is how to think abstractly before you paint representationally. You'll notice the screen is split vertically. I've chosen this format because the painting itself of course is vertical and I'll be working through a few overlapping ideas at once. As usual the bottom left has my finished painting for your reference. Now when most artists begin thinking about composition they often imagine something like an armature as I'm drawing up in the top left screen. It's essentially a framework of diagonals or triangles radiating across the canvas and essentially what it's supposed to do is to lay out where these lines intersect. You can place certain key points of interest. Other artists structure their canvas by dividing into thirds or fifths and I have to admit I'm guilty of this sometimes and particularly when the work is very linear like a cityscape for example. The point is that you're positioning key elements along these lines or where they intersect again. So essentially it's a system with a proven strength but one that can easily slip into repetition and constraint. But if we rely too heavily on these structures of design they can become very restrictive or your work can become very restrictive. It essentially risks turning what I call a living painting into a kind of a diagram. Every line accounted for and every angle predetermined. This is also quite pertinent for drawings as well. Something that we haven't as yet gone into on this channel but hopefully God willing in the new year I will go down that path and maybe create a whole list on drawing. But back to composition. At its best it's not just geometry. It should be energy balance and simplicity. So rather than forcing a design to fit an armature of a triangle for example or what I've drawn there with these division of fifths I guess I call them. We should look at how to discover design organically by grouping darks and lights and thinking abstractly first before anything real emerges. Now that doesn't necessarily just mean go at it like I'm doing on the right there. It may seem like there's no structure or order or plan in place for my painting which I'll get to in a moment. Truth is that every painting starts with an idea first and then a general concept idea as to where the lights and darks are going to go. I'm going to give you a quick insight as to the kind of marks that I make with these putty knives. Can you guess what medium I am using? That should be an easy one for all you returning viewers. When we start designing a painting and particularly where our lights and darks are going to go it's tempting to scatter the darks all over the surface a little bit here a patch there but that can start to feel busy or maybe unsettling like the painting is trying to speak too many languages at once like I was trying to illustrate there on that right graphic. Now when you simplify like I did on the left there when you let one main dark mass lead and give it just a smaller one possibly to support it or another one maybe three everything kind of quiets down the eye finds rest and suddenly the whole piece seems to breathe and when you start thinking this way it doesn't really matter whether these shapes fall exactly on the armature or the rule of thirds the structure is still there it just grows more naturally and in a way more intuitively. You see it everywhere in nature as well like these rocks by the sea one large mass on the left anchored by that smaller beside it on the in the center right and they're both surrounded by certain light and space there is nothing forced just a perfect balance through simplicity and I think it was Leonardo da Vinci that said simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Wasn't he ever right? If you're still struggling to figure out what medium I'm using it is of course cold wax with oils a combination I keep coming back to it seems it's just a perfect medium when you're approaching painting from a more playful I guess exploratory place. The wax gives the paint body and a kind of resistance that invites you to push scrape and layer and all within one painting session. As the surface builds these organic marks begin to kind of appear much like in that intro the ink pour we saw in the opening it's I'm always surprised by what comes through. The colors for this piece weren't random either but somewhat calculated I wanted it to feel natural and grounded and a lot of that came from my recent trip to Croatia especially around the Dubrovnik region. Here in the top left you see some of the old churches old stones the sea the sun faded walls everything there has this quiet muted tone to it so I leaned into that the soft grays warm ochres and those faded blues that sit I guess somewhere between water and sky there's nothing loud or artificial just colors that feel honest and a bit I guess worn out. As a takeaway for your own work one of the best ways to start building a color structure is to look at what's around you what you are influenced by on a regular basis. For this painting I actually brought back some you know interesting rocks that I collected just simple forms shapes that have these subtle color variations developed over time. When you study them you start to notice how these darks I'm talking about color here darks lights and mid-tones relate and this can guide your painting as well in a very intuitive way when you're referencing this and implementing it subconsciously or having it as a reference so using what's nearby certain textures objects or even a quiet corner of nature that you're used to and that's familiar to you it gives your work a sense of reality without being too literal. I guess it's a way to stay grounded while still letting your painting evolve freely. At this point in the painting some areas have already built up several layers of cold wax while others have not maybe just one or two. It's starting to feel like a landscape to me the forms in a way are suggesting themselves. It's interesting how the areas with more texture interact with the simpler sections creating this rhythm and balance across the whole surface. Now I know a lot of creators on YouTube they use cold wax tend to blend softly creating these subtle transitions and dreamy layers. While that's a valid approach and potentially visually pleasing it's not really how I work. My method is more direct and intentional. Every mark has a reason behind it even if it still feels spontaneous. I guess it's more linear in a way. I focus much more on shapes as opposed to these soft blended surfaces and to get that I like to use my tools in a distinct way of course. So choosing which tools I use for what effect is quite important. So palette knives like I'm using there, scrapers, prayers the ones I'm familiar with. But even when I'm playing or experimenting there's a calculation behind how I use these tools like that squeegee there the brass squeegee. Here you see me apply color with that squeegee. In the beginning if you recall I was removing paint as well. I know how these tools behave and I would recommend the same to you. Play around with them and see the limitations of each. So the movement, the pressure, the angle. It all contributes to the composition, the rhythm of lights and darks. As I bring this intuitive no reference painting to a close the big takeaway is about keeping it simple. So less is more when it comes to design. Fewer shapes, fewer colors and I think that restraint is what helps your painting communicate clearly. But above all enjoy the process. It's supposed to be playful yes but intentional play. So each mark helping to tell the story you want your painting to tell. I want to thank you for watching all the way to the end. As I pan and we see some of the marks that we made on this. What I was quite happy with painting it reminds me of one of the early ones that I did on this channel. In fact I'll link it here if you want to see it. It's very minimalistic as well. Next week we'll address another very huge question and that is when is a painting finished? So do come back for that. Thanks again and happy painting!