As part of a 21 days in my  art world - challenge today’s prompt is to share something that I have learned in my art career that might help others. One of my faults is that I get excited and start a painting without thinking it out fully, and then I keep changing my mind, and having to redo the painting more than once. A big waste of time. As one of my teachers told me one time, “Don’t start until you have a full visualization of your painting in your mind.”  Which requires drawing it out, some sketching, some erasing until you get the full vision of what you want to paint.

This painting started from a photograph I took of a young ballerina. I had an idea of what I thought the painting would look like , where I would actually put her in the painting - since the photograph was taken in the dance studio. But after a few sketches, I realized my original thought just didn’t work.   I kept studying  the photograph, trying to get in my mind what I really wanted to say, all the sudden it became crystal clear what this painting should look like!!! It made it so much easier to paint, it went so much faster with a beautiful result from my efforts. 

So the next time you think you are ready to start a new painting take the time to lay it out completely until you know exactly what you want!  Hope this makes your next painting easier!!