The Number One Thing You Must Have to Complete a Successful Painting

What is the one thing you must have to complete a successful
painting?

Without this, you will muddle along with your work and probably
never paint anything that will make you proud. You will struggle
with passages time after time, and make the same mistakes over
and over. You may even get frustrated and give up before you
paint a good piece.

What is this characteristic?

Confidence.

If you paint with confidence, you will quickly overcome your
mistakes and learn to work past them. You will no longer allow
the voices and opinions of others to affect you. You will
actually begin to look forward to challenges in your paintings,
because you will know that you can use those challenges to
improve your work.

One of my favorite sayings is "I would rather put down a quick,
confident brushstroke that was wrong than a hesitant brushstroke
that is right". How can I say this? It's because I know that a
hesitant stroke that is "right" is made because I was so worried
about messing up that I really took my time to get that one
stroke right. This will probably lead to strokes later, if done
the same way, that will not go with the look of the rest of
painting. The piece will be made up of a bunch of single strokes
that, while done competently, don't go together in the painting
as a whole.

On the other hand, if I try to make quick confident strokes, I
will capture the "essence" of the painting faster. This will lead
to a more cohesive work, with every stroke complimenting the
last.

So how do you develop this confidence in your work?

Think about it first. I spend a lot of time reviewing my drawing
and working on it between painting stages. This helps me
concentrate on where I want to go next in the painting. I can
then choose the best stroke for that passage.

Give up having to make each stroke perfect. This is a biggie - you have to let yourself make mistakes. Don't worry about making
a bad brushstroke or putting down paint in the wrong place. As
you loosen up, you will find your confidence increasing. If you
make a mistake, leave it alone and go on with the painting - most
attempts to correct the mistake just make it worse.

Concentrate on the values and shapes. You will make a much more
confident stroke if you give up having to get the color exactly
correct. Instead concentrate on the values and shapes. This will
help you paint more abstractly, even in a realistic painting, by
forcing you to think of "shapes" and "lights and darks" instead
of things. Then you can take a bolder approach to your work,
which will increase your confidence.

Make up your own mind about your work. Don't put too much
stock in what other people say about your work, good or bad.
Concentrate on painting for yourself, and your confidence will
increase. Opinions are very subjective in the art world. Listen
to your own inner voice both while you're creating a painting,
and when you are viewing your work.

Work on increasing your confidence, and watch your work grow!