Sneaking By

 

Click Here to Bid (8x6in. - OIL - starts at $100)

I got an email from a guy yesterday asking about edges. He said he was trying to break the habit of over-blending, and wanted advice. I suggested he try some 10-minute apples. Here are some advantages:

What you're painting is just a tiny painting, in a portion of a panel, so you become less precious (less fussy, and hopefully less blendy). You are doing the same object over and over, so you end up feeling free to REALLY experiment (with edges?), and in different ways each time. You become familiar with the object, and each time become more confident with colors, values, etc., which allows you to eventually put down strokes that you are sure of rather than correcting (which leads to blending).

Habits are hard to break. In playing pickleball lately, and I find myself doing some things wrong. What it takes to fix them is to do some drills on my own (the same thing over and over and over) the RIGHT way, in order to break the habit so I can do it right in a game. I think it's the same with painting. The mistake is ONLY playing games. We don't learn anything new unless we practice. : )