Tips on how to avoid mistakes commonly made in paintings.
This list of commonly made mistakes in paintings comes from Canadian artist Brian Simons, who works in acrylics. Brian says: “I first began to paint approximately 20 years ago, when we moved from Alberta to Vancouver Island. Prior to that I focused mostly on drawing and sketching. Being a self-taught artist, I have derived much of my inspiration from the ‘Group of Seven’ ,the French Impressionists, and the writing of Baha’i Faith.
From the regular workshops I teach I’ve seen how beginners (and not-such-beginners) repeat the same mistakes, time and again. My hope is that this list will help stop you making these mistakes in your paintings.”
1. Using repetitive brush strokes: these put the viewer to sleep. Use a variety of brush strokes.
2. Applying scratchy, dry, scumbled strokes: these look cheap, afraid, stingy, not masterful.
3. Tippy-tapping paint and poking it on the canvas: this is not bingo and your brush is not a bingo dobber.
4. Concentrating on one area of the canvas while neglecting the rest: the whole of the canvas is important.
5. Mixing paint on the canvas: finalise your colours on your palette.
6. Not taking the time to study your subject: if you don’t know your subject, how can you paint it?
7. Using too many colors: use three or four with white and see how many variations you can arrive at.
8. Adding detail: this cheapens the work and you end up talking down to your audience.
9. Painting what you know and not what you see: remember mistake number six.
10. Stealing small pockets of time: allow yourself ample time to work, otherwise you may lose your initial inspiration.
11. Listening to admirers: paint alone as much as possible and avoid seeking others opinions until you find your own.
12. Being stingy with paint: use lots and, yes, you will waste some.
13. Changing to small brushes: stay with the larger brushes as long as possible.
14. Using too much white: this makes paintings chalky and cold.
15. Adding bits and pieces in your composition: keep things in larger groups.
16. Putting paint on simply because you don’t want to waste it: you’ll waste your painting this way.
17. Scrubbing the paint on: instead, lay it on and leave it.
18. Fixing every ‘mistake’: good paintings are full of wonderful accidents that the artist refused to ‘fix’.
19. Thinking too much: painting is a doing, feeling thing and not a thinking, intellectual thing.
20. Losing the ‘big shapes’ and values: remember mistake number six.
21. Trying to paint like somebody else or another painting you saw: be yourself and be honest. You can’t hide anything in a painting.
22. Worrying about the results: trust your instinct and trust yourself.
