Planning Your Painting: Simple Steps to Success. Have you ever wondered how to plan and compose your own watercolour painting?
Following tutorials word for word can be important as a beginner when learning the basics. But it can also be limited to your own style and vision as an artist.
One of the most important skills to build is to know how to plan your painting.
Planning your painting begins before you put your brush to paper. I like to imagine what kind of mood or story I’d like to tell before I begin painting. I think of the colours, the shadows, the elements. I think about whether I want to change or add anything in relation to the reference photo to draw attention or emphasize areas of my composition.
In terms of references, I use a different reference photo every time I create a painting. Sometimes I use a composite of a few photos. That’s harder to do, and I’ll go through how to do that in this workshop.
I start with a quick pencil sketch to experiment and place elements in various sections of the painting so that I can decide what works best. It’s important to do this before as you don’t want to start painting and realise that you’d prefer to place a figure or building somewhere else! So sketching allows you to plan in a pressure-free situation.
In this workshop, I will show you my entire process from start to finish in creating an original painting from scratch. You’ll get to understand what I’m thinking and how I make decisions that lead up to my final painting.
Check it out here to fully grasp how to paint on your own – just you and your subject!
