Don't Paint From Photographs

Don't Paint From Photographs

Painting from photographs is a very bad habit that many amateur painters and students consistently utilize to make paintings. Photographs can be used effectively as reference material for paintings, however what I see and hear from most of my painting students is that they replicate the photograph completely without first organizing a separate painting composition or value study.

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Abstract Painting Academy is Now Live

Abstract Painting Academy is Now Live

Abstract Painting Academy is an online version of David's wildly popular Bigger, Faster, Fresher, Looser Abstract Painting Workshops. This online workshop is specifically designed for those who, for whatever reason, cannot attend one of David's live workshop events. The in-depth content is the same that he teaches to hundreds of students in live workshop events all across the country each year.

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Artists: Use the Color Wheel to Develop Color Harmony in Your Work

Artists: Use the Color Wheel to Develop Color Harmony in Your Work

I teach painting workshops all across the country. I find that when I begin a discussion about utilizing the color wheel to develop color harmonies in paintings I receive lots of blank looks on student's faces. I have come to realize that nearly all amateur painters paint from photographs, trying to exactly match local colors without any thought given to creating harmonious color combinations. I guess they think that everything in a photograph provides color harmony. It doesn't.

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Painting on Raw Canvas is Like Painting With Watercolor

Painting on Raw Canvas is Like Painting With Watercolor

I began my painting career as a watercolor painter more than two decades ago. I loved it because of the way the water acts as a medium to let the paint flow onto, and be absorbed by, the paper. I eventually tired of the limited size of available paper and the need for framing and made the jump to painting in acrylics on canvas - thus retaining a water based medium, but on a larger substrate.

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