6 Simple Steps to Better Paintings

Kathleen Lanzoni shares her best advice for overcoming the challenges every student and beginning artist faces.

1. Artists are scared to make mistakes. It is natural. We all want to make beautiful paintings. Be kind to yourself and give yourself the freedom to play and make mistakes.

2. On the practical side, I suggest standing up when you paint. This will free up your entire arm, which will make you paint looser. When we sit down, we get very tight, using only our wrists and not our whole arm. Use the largest brush possible for an area.

3. When the watercolor gods help us paint beautiful unplanned passages, leave them alone! Accept happy accidents and try not to cover them up.

4. Know when to take a break from the painting and stand back. Once your water and paint are laid on the paper, leave it be and let the magic happen. Watercolor brushstrokes look better and are fresher if left to settle in the paper. In watercolor, there is no benefit to going over the same area again and again. It is so hard to leave our paint alone and not niggle. (Niggling is my technical term for overworking!)

5. Practice sections of the painting before starting on the whole — this is especially helpful with still life. If you are working in the studio, you will have more time to create studies. When plein air painting, the light and weather change fast so you have less time to practice. Instead, use your observational skills; spend time just looking at your subject. Make mental notes.

6. Do a value sketch to get more familiar with the subject. Start with painting one tomato instead of 15 tomatoes to see what colors may work; analyze the shapes and values. Then, after you have practiced, put them all together for a final painting. If you do practice studies, you have solved most of your problems before getting to your final painting. The masters always did studies!