When I used to start a painting, there was always a little period of time where I would stare at the blank panel, unsure of what to do. As the years have gone by however, I’ve developed a trick to get past this artistic road block.
Watch the video, and let me know what you think – how do you figure out where to go next with your work?
In gratitude, Nicholas
PS I’m starting my free online workshop soon and I would love to have you come along. To register, just go to www.artlifejoy.com
60 Comments
Hi! I’m
Nicholas Wilton
the founder of Art2Life.
With over 20 years experience as a working artist and educator, I’ve developed a systematic approach that brings authenticity, spontaneity and joy back into the creative process.
Join me and artists from all over the world in our Free Art2Life Artists Facebook Group or learn more here about Art2Life.
I understand what you mean about getting started, but I have learned to not think about what it is I’m going to do, I start putting paint on the canvas. Sometimes I look thru art books and see some exciting color schemes, like Van Gogh, Edward Betts, the Russian Painters, then take that color scheme which now I’m excited about and work from there, that’s what gets me started.
It’s nice to know I am not the only one with these “#$3!” moments! My inertia starts with any blank canvas, so now I am taking off my glasses and just slapping paint and returning to it later with rejuvenated eyes. Thank you!
I love the idea of discovering what’s beneath..like excavating!!!! But I’m wondering what you’re painting on..it seems canvas would not withstand this. I also paint houses..and this tool I use to scrape clapboard..
yes, I spend far toooo much time thinking about possibilities …could do this….could do that..could do the other thing. Best to just go with the first thought and make the change (that will change everything)!
Very helpful, thank you. If I don’t know what to do after a minute or two, I walk away and paint something else. One day when I walk by it will come to me and I begin. After a few weeks if I still don’t know , I’ll say, the heck with it and I just start playing. When I hate it, I do my best work because I have nothing to lose.
very nice! What is this tool you are using during this video? how do you call it?
I had an aha! about this very thing a week ago when I realized my lengthy staring at the canvas stemmed from fear. From not wanting to make a “mistake”. That mind set is paralyzing and so I’m practicing doing just what you suggested…doing anything! Thanks for your videos!
Nick uses what’s referred to as a paint scraper. You can get it at any
hardware store and they come in all different sizes.
When I’m stuck I have several ideas. The worse thing I do is get frustrated and cover everything with white gesso, and start over. Rarely does this bring me happiness:). One thing I like is to make marks with graphite pencil, it can be easily removed, and gets me going. Another is to test colors with watercolour paint or pencils, which can also be removed when wet. Or paint on a sheet of clear acetate and hold it over the painting to see if I like it. More times than not, I like what I’ve done if I go in with free abandon, knowing that it is not permanent. Very seldom do I erase it. Walking awayy and starting another piece gives fresh insight. Hope these ideas help., as I have been so encouraged with your videos, Nicholas.
I do this too, funny I think it is a self preservation thing, because I did’nt Even realized that I do until I read yours, I don’t do all of what you are saying but I draw on it or use pastels because like you said it can be cleaned off, love the acetate idea, I had someone do that for me one time and I forgot. Thanks so much for your input.
Yes, pastels are a great idea!
It seems I have a hard time settling in. I have to stretch a canvas or clean up first. A bit like nesting. I find if a latch onto an idea I run with it. But finishing can be a killer. I will start another and take the momentum from that piece to return to the older one. I am trying to get past the all or nothing. I find some days are for starting, and some days are for finishing. Thanks for the insight…do one thing..and go!
When I’m stuck I fall back to two tricks. One is to start playing with marks – I like to use felt tip acrylic pens of varying thickness. The other is to look for an area of the canvas where I do have an idea of where to go next. Even if it’s a teensy tiny area. I agree with Nicolas – having more info on the canvas is helpful when stuck.
Hi Nicholas. I work on 4 paintings at a time so when one flow stops on one work I shift to the next one. It may be in a stage of psinting or it may be in a stage of varnishing or underpainting. It doesnt matter. The change keeps a flow going. This is what works for me this year.
Thanks for the
just doing something is definitely the key here…..i’ve started having 3-4 paintings on the easel, they are small, 8″ square right now…..at the moment my first move to put down some black acrylic paint with a brayer, then slap on some gesso…all just very gestural and with no specific intention…..then i at least have something to relate to. you are always just so spot on Nick…just makes me smile listening to you! I also have to say how inspiring and helpful it is to see other’s comments….great forum for helping all of us!
I have a cigar box filled with little strips of paper that have different techniques written on them. When I get stuck, I pull one out and do what it says. That way, I don’t even need to think AT ALL!
Brain Eno had a box of those papers called Oblique Strategies, I have been thinking about making my own. I would love to know what some of your papers say.
yes please – i would love to know
Hey Alison, I replied to Karuna but wanted to make sure you got this… Thanks for asking! When I made them, I was doing a lot of collage
pieces, so they say stuff about adding things like… buttons, scrapbook
paper, a passage from a book page. But it also had stuff like make a
mark with… charcoal, graphite, oil pastel, etc. And then there’s stuff
like… make a shape, a pattern of some sort, scratch into the surface,
add a number. You can be as creative as you want. I’m not sure if
you’ve taken Nick’s workshop, but he gives dozens of techniques, which
I’m going to add to my list like… image transfers, adding glazes,
drawing into wet paint, beeswax crayon resists, etc. Hope that gets your
wheels turning!
Thanks Michelle! I’m inspired to make my own set of oblique strategies for painting – like add something different in 3 different sizes, change the value of one of your colors, make a line that travels across the panel, paint something really tiny in the middle of the panel, close your eyes and draw for 5 minutes with a graphite pencil…. this is going to be fun!
That’s awesome, Karuna! I want to make my own set of oblique strategies now too!!
Thanks for asking! When I made them, I was doing a lot of collage pieces, so they say stuff about adding things like… buttons, scrapbook paper, a passage from a book page. But it also had stuff like make a mark with… charcoal, graphite, oil pastel, etc. And then there’s stuff like… make a shape, a pattern of some sort, scratch into the surface, add a number. You can be as creative as you want. I’m not sure if you’ve taken Nick’s workshop, but he gives dozens of techniques, which I’m going to add to my list like… image transfers, adding glazes, drawing into wet paint, beeswax crayon resists, etc. Hope that gets your wheels turning!
I have a few boxes filled with words as prompts but have never thought of having one with techniques. Great idea!
Yeah, I love it Jan! I even thought about altering a deck of cards to use as prompts. Those would be fun to make. You could actually PUT the technique on the card too!
What a great idea! I’m going to try it. Thanks.
That’s Awesome Marian!
Love this!
Cool Michelle. I should do that. I’m constantly trying to recreate an effect I’ve achieved but can never remember how I got it.
Yes, George! You could put the technique on one side and the explanation of how you accomplished it on the other. Now my wheels are turning!
Hi, i love these chats and i can really relate to them. I must admit i am not always very productive. I do stand and stare and get very frustrated at times. Quite often i go and make a coffee, do a bit of cleaning. Anything to avoid. Other times i squeeze some paint on to the canvas and use an old credit card to scrape the paint and see what evolves.
Cool idea! I have been doing mainly houses, trees, etc. and want to get more free form..that card trick sounds fun!
What is the tool you used for scraping?
Hi Teresa! Nick uses what’s referred to as a paint scraper. You can get it at any hardware store and they come in all kinds of sizes. I like to use a dental tool for smaller marks or “drawing” on the surface. Nick uses one too.
Thanks, and I’ll try at Ace Hardware.
Teresa
I started a few years ago to cut or tear out shapes on paper to see if placing it on the painting gave me any ideas. From there I am now at the point when I get stuck I look through my stash of old paintings and painted exotic papers and just glue something down. Especially if I get to attached to a pretty passage! It has led me to a whole new dimension of my art. So when I get stuck…I get into my bin and pull out the texture and color that draws me first and I tear it a bit and glue it down and I am off and running…well I don’t run but you get my drift!
You can also flip the canvas around or simply change your viewpoint (lay down, look up, get up on a ladder, from the side…). I find this is one trick that keeps me engaged and dialoging with the work.
I do the same. I just work. Never know where I’m going. Been a lot of years and the process to date remains the same. Details being everything, even when subtle. I am curious TOO of others ways. 🤜🏻🤛🏻
I’ve learnt that the solution to just about every creative challenge is action. Working on multiple paintings at once helps me a lot too. Music and dancing while you start painting also helps.
I have my main painting I am working on but I also have a couple of smaller canvases or wood panels primed and ready to go. So when I don’t know where to go next on the big one I turn to the smaller ones and just start doing something. It could be a miniature version of my big one or just anything. Also because I like to start with fresh paint the next day or whenever and it is time to stop for the day I will quickly knock out one or two small pieces just to use up all the paint. These may or may not be a finished piece, sometimes just putting down a ground to use up the paint…..waste not want not. But just keep on paintin’, mon
What a great idea! I love to start fresh too and hate to waste paint!
Sometimes I like my “leftover palette paint quickies” better than the one I am working on…LOL
Eno’s Oblique Stategies… love it! I love that word… oblique, such a great concept. Minimizing the figuring out sounds good . I will say… looking, really looking takes time………
I have a deck of cards called “The Creative Whack Pack” which I use from time to time. It’s full of interesting thoughts about being creative and often, when I pull a card, says something related to what I’m doing.
I have found that most of my ideas come to me while I am working. So I very much like this idea of do anything. It keeps you moving. I work in collage a lot so I like to just pull pieces out of my gallon size bag of goodness (paper scraps) and go.
I’ve been mucking about in the studio today after labouring over writing “Artist Statement”. Painting anything after that is easy! I think when I’m all uptight and feeling inadequate, that is when making the first mark is hard. Worrying about wrecking it before you start is intimidating. I find painting an overall wash is a good way for me to start. Also, drawing on the canvas with soft pastel is something I just tried for the first time, and it feels very nice. Looks beautiful.
Sitting in front of a canvas and thinking about what to do is a silent meditation. It is a good thing, I think. Like listening instead of talking.
I take a photo of it and see it small and other times I hold a mirror in my hands and look at it over my shoulder. I know it sounds weird but it gives me a fresh look. Looking through your legs at it upside down is kinda fun and interesting too : = }
I do a lot with photos too. It helps to take photos and see things small… or from different lens angles. because I work in large abstract I like to just turn my pieces over and over and sometimes a lightbulb comes on seeing something from a new direction
Your video speaks into the hardest part of the painting process to me: creating, editing, and the “gray area” between.
If the painting process basically breaks down to creating (saying “yes”, playing, the childlike stuff), and editing (saying “no”, resolving or choosing not to resolve major issues, the parental/adult stuff), I find it almost impossible to either “get to” or “stay in” the creating/childlike part. Perhaps this is the major problem or journey of every artist, but I really seem to struggle with it.
So Nicholas you’re saying that when you’re stuck, don’t “ask” the adult, just “be” the child: do SOMETHING. Throw critical thinking (left brain) out the window and just keep making (right brain)?
So, is there ever an “editing” phase, in your process? Or, do you just go intuitively and let the painting ‘sort itself out’, then when you choose to stop, the painting is finished?
I want more intuitive risk-taking messiness in my work but maybe I just don’t know how to let go…I get caught standing, thinking, hesitating a lot.
Thank for this video and your voice in our lives to keep doing stuff! What a gift!
I”m so glad you remembered your thought. 🙂 I’m impatient and busy also and the idea of just doing something is really smart. Just do it.
Great info as always, Nick! I love the “do anything” philosophy. I have more recently begun trying hard to “not think” since I LOVE childrens’ work and for the most part, they also “don’t think” too hard – they just DO. I’m on vacation this week with my husband and brought my Art2Life paints with me and I had a thought while painting. Instead of painting/playing like a child (in the early stages, at least), I thought actually, I want to play BETTER than a child – an ADULT child. Hmm, surely after all these years I can amp up the ability to throw caution to the wind? Sure enough, if a child is reckless, then I will try to be MORE reckless! While painting, it also occurred to me why children learn so quickly – they JUST DO, and don’t think – language, art, whatever they do – they are having so much fun that they do things more often and thus learn faster, better, leaving us adults in their wake. To play is to have fun, so I will continue to play, but I will play like an adult, because I now have more toys! Thanks Nick!
I like to work in various kinds of media. I made several lists. !. The types of media I like to use. 2. Tutorials using different types of media 3. Subjects I like to draw or paint (i.e. flowers, birds, landscapes) 4. Items I like to make (cards, paintings, boxes, art journal pages, etc.) 5. Art supplies
I have a little 3-drawer organizer. I printed out my lists and cut out each item. In one drawer, I put my lists of media types and tutorials. In drawer #2 I put my lists of subjects. Drawer #3 has my list of items. In a separate container, I put my little slips of art supplies that I own.
When i am ready to do some art, I pull a slip from the media-tutorial drawer, one from Subject and one from the Item drawer. The art supply container is optional. If I am doing a mixed media piece, I can pull out as many slips as I like.
By the time I have pulled out all of my little slips, my imagination is already clicking into gear and no time has been wasted. It only took a couple of hours to put everything together and I consider that time an investment.
For an example, I might pull out “Watercolour” from my media drawer, “bird” as my subject and “card” as my item. So then I will make a watercolour painting of a bird on a card.
Great idea, Teresa, thanks for sharing. I have limited desk space and was trying to figure out how to have certain things easily reached, will have to consider getting some sort of storage to do this. Again, great idea!1! =)
Thank you Nicholas, as always great insights. I also found myself just looking for great periods of time so now I just choose a medium of way to start such as: Black blobs of india ink onto wet paper. The problem for me can come when I then want to do the next thing and that’s why I like to have more than one painting on the go at once. Normally this gives me something I can see that need doing and then I work from there. If not like you I normally just do something. Anything even if I hate it as this then makes me want to fix it and the painting then just seems to tell me what to do. Thanks again for sharing.
I find the same thing exactly. I’ll stand and look at a canvas and just get either more anxious or bored. I find the answers from the work and doing anything helps. It seems like “thinking” would move things along, but for me it doesn’t. If I can’t make myself put something on the canvas, I work on something else.
I do what you do Nicholas – something! Anything. Like you say, there is information on the artwork that is potentially engaging. What does it say to me? I listen to the marks. If they say nothing at that time. I just leave it and work on something else. I might even go and do some weaving (which is another one of my art forms, or ceramics. While I am engaged and relaxed in that flow state on a different project it usually comes to me, what I need to do on my canvas. Sooner or later, the answer is there
I love your videos and the comments. Very new to all of this. Just curious, how deep are the panels you use?
love this! thank you for sharing. this standing there thing is very common in my studio…
i will put it to use asap.
What a fab post. I love the do anything approach and a lot of the comments below. My tip is to look through some of my artwork/sketches/doodles etc that collects up and I forget about, just to go through and see what I have been creating often reminds me of themes and techniques I have explored that excite me and can motivate me to want to carry on exploring further.
I take a photo, change it to gray scale to be able to easily see values. I also doodle on the original photo to see if I want this color here…that line there…etc.