How Fast Can You Paint?

I have never been a fast painter. I see friends who bang out piece after piece during a day. Why can't I get the hang of trusting what I feel and slapping it down? Instead, I tend to linger, plot out the strokes, the colors. In the end, I often end up ruining a perfectly good painting by overworking it. Being a good artist is also knowing when to quit, so I guess I'm not such a good artist sometimes.

But the trouble is that it's the sections of the paintings... One will be completely done while another is barely started. So I guess my brain says that since I'm still working on the painting, I can go back to the done section, and that's where the trouble comes in.

I need more practice at doing quick works. When I was in college, we did a lot of gesture drawings. The teacher would put us on the clock, giving us 5 minutes, then 2, then 1 to do full page (18 x 24 inch) drawings. You didn't have time to think about stuff too much. You were forced to quickly reconcile what you were looking at and get your hand moving to capture it. And it got me a lot more comfortable with laying down rich, thick lines instead of the barely visible itty bitty sketches I was doing before.

I need to do that with my watercolors. Some of the pieces I've shown here were done fairly quickly, so I know I have it in me to trust what I'm doing, I just need to convince the rest of my head to trust as well.

So, I am going to start a series of small paintings, called ACEOs (art cards, the size of baseball cards) where I am going to do more gestural type works.

I'll start posting them as I get them done - first one in three weeks! Just kidding!!!! first one tomorrow at the latest is what I'm hoping for.

What tips do *you* have for speeding up artwork? For trusting your own instincts? Help me out!

Peace,
Joy

More from “The Art of Joy Alyssa Day”