"Painting With Confidence"
There is a bridge that at some point every artist must cross. On one side of that bridge is tentative brushstrokes, muddy paint, overmodeling, and lack of confidence. On the other side waits brushstrokes that count, mastery of materials, clear concepts and a solid belief that you are on the right track. How do you get from one side to the other? That's the big question.
One factor that you can't control is that it will take time. You have to give yourself some time to learn your craft and evolve. There are, however, things that one can do to help the process along and make sure that you don't end up spinning your wheels in one place, not moving forward. Preparation is a key element to painting with confidence. Do your homework. Read everything that you can get your hands on. Know your business.Usually when I'm floundering around, pitty-patting my brushstrokes, completely in panic mode, it's because I haven't done all the preliminary work that I needed to do in order to successfully paint. Some artists have the idea that artists should be like musicians, constantly improvising and "thinking on their feet". What they may not be considering are the thousands of hours those musicians put in practicing scales and technique so that they are able to improvise. When I was first learning to paint, my instructor told me that I should do a lot of small, single session paintings. They are a good way to develop confidence in paint manipulation and all the problem solving is done on the spot. You don't let the painting go until it's truly "done". I did a lot of these. I put the paint on thick and I tried to use just enough brushstrokes necessary to create form.
But even on these small paintings I would always start with a carefully made drawing. You have to learn to listen to your inner artists voice and ignore the advice of the many "so called experts". ( I don't include myself in this because I am clearly not an expert!) If you are painting in a broad manner, using an all over technique and it isn't working for you, you may need to re-evaluate your approach. It might be time to divide and conquer, in other words, pick one thing that you would like to improve, color, drawing, paint handling, and concentrate on just that for a while. Everyone can be a better artist, it just takes looking at your work objectively, identifying your weaknesses (and your strengths) and systematically eliminating them. Again, this is a slow process. Jettison the panic mode from your method. It's only painting, after all, you're not inventing a cure for cancer. When you start to feel those doubts, understand that they are normal, but if you prepared well and you're clear about what you're doing than just keep going as if you are the greatest artist who ever lived. Afterwards, you can have those doubts, but don't give in to them while painting, remember how your mind can play tricks on you. Trust the instincts that you've worked hard to acquire.
If you are making art than you must have something you want to impart to the viewer. Technique is just a means to an end. You don't want your "message" to be short-circuited by being overly pre-occupied with your craft. Get your craft to the point where you're not thinking about it while you're painting. You're doing what you do. If technique is important to you that will come through in the manner in which you put forth your ideas. I prepare for most of my paintings by doing small thumbnail sketches, color studies, a full scale finished drawing, underpainting and a pre-mixed palette. That's what gives me confidence while painting. I don't advise that way of working for everyone, find what works for you and develop a plan that succeeds. I paint using a method called window-shading. I finish small sections as I go, inching my way along the canvas. For some artists this can be very disconcerting, how can you predict what the finished painting will look like or if it will even work. Well, you can't, but for some reason I am always confident that it will work and it usually does.
You really can't underestimate the role of confidence in making a successful painting. I'll give an anology to fishing that I think applies. When I am out fishing with one of my friends and he is catching and I'm not I will sometimes give into desperation and ask him what he's using. Then I will use the same thing myself and not surprisingly I still don't catch anything. Then I switch to something that has worked for me in the past and I calmly keep going and before you know it my luck has changed. Using something that I know works as opposed to something I hoped would work made all the difference. So prepare for success in your work, and you can be and will be. I'm confident of that.
