4 Ways To Make Your Best Art
If you have a degree in art or design, then I’m sure you’ll find this information elementary, BUT if you are a self taught artist like me, you just might find some very useful information.
Four things to be intentional about when creating art:
Color Cohesiveness
Contrast
Composition
Distinguished Color Value
Paying attention to these can elevate your art from NICE to FABULOUS, I MUST HAVE IT.
Color Cohesiveness:
An easy way to achieve color harmony is by using a limited palette. This doesn’t mean that your painting will only have a few colors, but that you will choose a few, along with black and white, and mix other colors from the palette. When you do this, your colors are related and will play nice together. On a similar note, you can add a very small amount (I mean tiny) of a color you have already used in the painting to a new color. Same theory works here.
Another tip is to create a mother color. This means mixing several or all of your colors to create a muddy neutral that can be used to provide a place of rest. Think of it like a palette cleanser.
Contrast:
If you don’t have areas of contrast, it’s like having plain toast. You might not be hungry anymore after eating it, but you won’t be satisfied. I love Jodie King’s way of describing this as the dance of the opposites. Have areas of contrasting lights and darks; hard lines and curves; delicate marks and bold, audacious marks; etc. Using a variety of tools is a great way to help achieve this.
Composition:
Two key points to remember here are don’t place a focal point dead center and don’t split your canvas in half. I have actually been guilty of both of these, mostly when doing abstract painting, which btw is WAY harder than you might think.
Distinguished Color Value:
Value (also known as tone) is basically the lightness or darkness of a color. With a few exceptions, when you purchase a tube of paint it will fall into the medium tones category. If you create a painting mostly using paint straight from the tube, you will end up with artwork that lacks tonal variety. I have found this to be a fairly common mistake, especially with new artists. The easiest way to see if your painting has a good distribution of color value is to take a black and white photo of it. It will be immediately obvious.
Just remember, use this information as guidelines and for editing. Don’t become so focused on the “rules” that you inhibit your creativity. Most of all, remember that not only is it okay to break the rules every now and then, sometimes it can be a good thing.