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of the 20 for 20 is

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No pressure, no perfection, just showing

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podcast.com/ 20 for 20 art

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challenge to join us. That's

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learn to paint podcast.com/20 for

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20 art challenge. Let's build

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your art habit together. Hello

0:40

and welcome to the Learn

0:42

to Paint podcast. This show

0:44

that gives you artistic tools

0:46

you can put to work.

0:48

I'm your host, Kelly Ann

0:50

Powers, today with an episode,

0:52

Mini. If you just listen

0:55

to episode 104 with Mitchell-Albala,

0:57

both his feature and bonus,

0:59

you heard an artist whose

1:01

artistic life really revolves around

1:03

some amazing tools. Compositional sketches,

1:05

no tans, value studies, color

1:07

studies. He loves what this...

1:09

kind of thinking and exploration can

1:11

do for his work. And in fact,

1:13

if you listen to the show at

1:16

all, you've heard a lot of other

1:18

artists talk about how they use studies

1:20

in their own work. Many of them

1:22

encourage their students to use studies as

1:25

well. And yet, you still might fall

1:27

into the category of people who feel

1:29

real resistance to using studies. Either you

1:31

don't really understand how to use them

1:34

or why people are always trying to

1:36

force you to do them. Then when

1:38

you do try to use them, they

1:40

often make everything feel more confusing,

1:43

not less. So you basically feel

1:45

like, what's the big deal with

1:47

these guys? And so that's what

1:49

we're going to explore in today's

1:52

mini. Let's talk about the types

1:54

of resistance you might be feeling

1:56

around studies and then what to

1:58

do about it. if you want

2:00

to. Now, I don't want to

2:03

make assumptions about your journey, so

2:05

I'm going to use my own

2:07

journey as a frame, but you

2:10

might see some similarities with your

2:12

experience too. Because I'll admit, I

2:14

resisted studies for a long, long

2:16

time. And when I think about

2:19

my artistic life before studies, it

2:21

was pretty confusing. And then when

2:23

I think about my artistic life

2:26

after studies, okay, it is still

2:28

confusing sometimes. But goodness, do I

2:30

now have some powerful tools I

2:33

can turn to to help me

2:35

sort through that confusion? And those

2:37

tools are studies. So first let's

2:40

get a quick overview of what

2:42

studies are. Studies are small visual

2:44

tools you use to figure things

2:47

out. They might include compositional sketches,

2:49

which are just you, and a

2:51

pencil sketching your subject, trying to

2:53

figure out where everything goes. Next

2:56

are notans, which are black and

2:58

white studies, although albala includes gray

3:00

in his definition. You use notans

3:03

to help you figure out shapes

3:05

and rhythms in your work. Values

3:07

studies, it's in the name. They

3:10

help you plan your values. And

3:12

finally, color studies help you figure

3:14

out your colors. Theoretically, they don't

3:17

take a ton of time and

3:19

they can help you have a

3:21

plan for your painting. So let's

3:24

talk about some of the resistance

3:26

you might feel to doing studies

3:28

and get curious about why it's

3:31

happening. So resistance number one, you

3:33

don't understand how they help you.

3:35

This was me for a long

3:37

time. People say they help you

3:40

plan a painting and that made

3:42

absolutely no sense to me. I

3:44

didn't need help planning my painting.

3:47

I needed help figuring out how

3:49

to fix my painting at the

3:51

end of my process where everything

3:54

was going wrong. Because here's the

3:56

situation I found myself in. And

3:58

you might find this familiar. You

4:01

have a reference and then you

4:03

pull out your paints and you

4:05

jump in. And at first, everything

4:08

is going great. It is so

4:10

fun. You're slinging paint. Everything seems

4:12

possible. Then, around the middle, things

4:14

start to slide sideways. And by

4:17

the end, everything seems like it's

4:19

in the wrong spot, and your

4:21

background no longer works with your

4:24

foreground, and everything you loved about

4:26

this piece has disappeared under layers

4:28

of wrong turns. That was me.

4:31

The start of paintings were really

4:33

fun, and then all the way

4:35

through to the end, I'd feel

4:38

so, so frustrated. And because I

4:40

felt that frustration at the end

4:42

of my process, I thought that's

4:45

also where the solution had to

4:47

be. For example, if you feel

4:49

pain in your knee, you should

4:52

probably point your doctor to look

4:54

at your knee. But that's not

4:56

necessarily how it works in art.

4:58

If you work with representation, like

5:01

your painting objects, apples, trees, landscapes,

5:03

planar, if you get to the

5:05

end of your painting, and don't

5:08

like your composition. or where you've

5:10

placed things, or the star of

5:12

your show sort of disappears into

5:15

everything else, or if things just

5:17

feel off and you're not sure

5:19

why, even though you're experiencing those

5:22

things at the end of your

5:24

process, the way you fix them

5:26

isn't at the end. You fix

5:29

them by inserting steps at the

5:31

beginning. And for a long, long

5:33

time I was looking at the

5:35

wrong place for my solutions. If

5:38

you don't like your composition in

5:40

the end, that's a planning problem

5:42

you fix with a study at

5:45

the beginning. If you don't like

5:47

your colors in the end, that's

5:49

a planning problem you fix with

5:52

a study. If your eye keeps

5:54

going to unimportant things or your

5:56

foreground elements, the things you want

5:59

people to look at disappear into

6:01

the painting, that's a planning problem

6:03

you fix with a study. The

6:06

problems you only experience at the

6:08

end of your process are things

6:10

you've solved at the beginning of

6:13

your study. process and you do

6:15

it through a plan and studies.

6:17

So even when I knew this

6:19

to be true, I still had

6:22

a huge amount of resistance. The

6:24

idea of stopping everything and slowing

6:26

everything down and doing this thing

6:29

I did not want to do

6:31

made me really angry sometimes. I

6:33

didn't want to have to do

6:36

it. I didn't want to have

6:38

to. Like a six-year-old being told

6:40

it's bedtime, I don't want to.

6:43

And this is because of a

6:45

separate issue I needed to learn

6:47

to deal with. resistance number two

6:50

you haven't yet expanded your thinking

6:52

to include studies as a good

6:54

use of your painting time notice

6:56

it's in the title it's painting

6:59

time only painting counts i'd try

7:01

to bring studies into my practice

7:03

but then this thing would happen

7:06

i'd get to the end of

7:08

a painting day and i would

7:10

have spent that whole time working

7:13

on studies and i'd look back

7:15

on my day and i think

7:17

what did i even do. I

7:20

didn't do any painting. And I'd

7:22

feel totally demoralize that I'd wasted

7:24

a day. And when you feel

7:27

this way, it's because you're only

7:29

counting painting as a good and

7:31

valid use of your studio time.

7:34

It's the only thing you're counting

7:36

as counting. So even if you

7:38

spent all day doing this amazing

7:40

planning, you'd look back over your

7:43

time and think you wasted a

7:45

day, which feels really bad. This

7:47

isn't the only way that this

7:50

shows up though. It also affects

7:52

how you feel while you're working

7:54

on the studies themselves. If you

7:57

don't count it as counting, then

7:59

you'll probably be like I was.

8:01

You feel like you have to

8:04

rush through them. So instead of

8:06

doing as many value studies as

8:08

you need to figure out your

8:11

value plan, you do one value

8:13

study to check it off your

8:15

list and have it done. But

8:17

hitting a nail once with your

8:20

hammer. may not get the nail

8:22

in. You might need to hit

8:24

it several times or... the board

8:27

won't be secure. It's the same

8:29

with your studies, but if you

8:31

don't count them as counting, you're

8:34

going to feel this clock ticking

8:36

while you're working. You'll feel like

8:38

you have to get through this

8:41

to get to the good stuff.

8:43

Get through this so you can

8:45

finally start your painting the thing

8:48

that counts. Artists who take full

8:50

advantage of studies know they count

8:52

as part of art time. In

8:55

fact, they might be some of

8:57

the best uses of their art

8:59

time because they impact everything else

9:01

that follows. Now, even when you

9:04

start to notice this... you still

9:06

might have another mental hurdle to

9:08

overcome. Resistance number three, you count

9:11

studies as extra work. For me,

9:13

this was definitely an extension of

9:15

the only paintings count problem, but

9:18

it's different enough that it gets

9:20

its own number. Studies feel like

9:22

extra, extra work, extra credit. But

9:25

that word... Extra is a real

9:27

problem, because yes, that feeds into

9:29

the I have to get through

9:32

this to get to the good

9:34

stuff issue, but also extra feels

9:36

like extra. It feels like the

9:38

unnecessary additional thing you do that

9:41

doesn't matter. We have this idea

9:43

that extra is extra credit, the

9:45

icing, the thing you can take

9:48

or leave. But in this case...

9:50

That's like saying that flour is

9:52

extra to baking, or eggplant is

9:55

extra to eggplant Parmesan, that a

9:57

blueprint is extra for a house.

9:59

Studies aren't extra. They are the

10:02

fundamental thinking about how to actually

10:04

approach your work. When you learn

10:06

how to use them, you come

10:09

to understand that they are the

10:11

bones of everything else in a

10:13

painting. 90% of the representational painters

10:16

on the show almost always have

10:18

a plan going in. Again, it's

10:20

not extra. My theory is that

10:22

we think about them as extra

10:25

because we learn about them after

10:27

we learn about painting. We think

10:29

of them as extra because we've

10:32

never used them. We think about

10:34

them as extra because we don't

10:36

know how to use them. That's

10:39

not because they are extra. It's

10:41

because we haven't yet learned their

10:43

absolute necessity for successful paintings. So

10:46

once you work through all of

10:48

this resistance mentally, that's not all

10:50

there is. And this is the

10:53

part I wished I had understood

10:55

sooner. Resistance number four. You don't

10:57

yet understand that studies have a

10:59

learning curve. At some point, I

11:02

finally decided, okay, I'm going to

11:04

do these things. If everyone says

11:06

they're so important, I'm going to

11:09

trust that and try. But then

11:11

I ran into this very big

11:13

hurdle very quickly. I had no

11:16

idea how to use them. I

11:18

understood them in theory, but in

11:20

practice they made no sense. So

11:23

for example, you understand in theory

11:25

that you use a value study

11:27

to plan your values, but you

11:30

don't understand how to plan your

11:32

values. And even if you sort

11:34

of understand it in theory, you

11:36

don't necessarily understand how to translate

11:39

that information into the painting itself.

11:41

And it's so frustrating because you're

11:43

holding the time and you could

11:46

be painting, but no, you're doing

11:48

this thing everyone says is so

11:50

important, but you don't get it.

11:53

You really just don't get it.

11:55

And I was frustrated for so

11:57

long. Also, I'm a rule follower.

12:00

So I felt like, here I

12:02

am. Following the rules, I'm doing

12:04

the thing, why am I not

12:07

getting the benefits? And it felt

12:09

really unfair. But it's because I

12:11

hadn't yet internalized that like everything

12:14

else in art, the studies themselves

12:16

take time. to learn how to

12:18

use. In fact, you actually need

12:20

to learn how to use them

12:23

in two different steps. First, how

12:25

to do them themselves, but then

12:27

how that information translates into your

12:30

painting. Let's go back to value.

12:32

To successfully use a value study,

12:34

first you have to learn how

12:37

to do the actual value study.

12:39

That means you have to learn

12:41

how to translate color into value.

12:44

and see shapes, then you have

12:46

to learn how to mass value

12:48

shapes, and then learn how to

12:51

use those skills to create a

12:53

value pattern and hierarchy by organizing

12:55

your values that you create a

12:57

focal area, which means you might

13:00

have to start changing the value.

13:02

So changing them from what you

13:04

see in front of you, and

13:07

for each of those steps, that

13:09

takes more learning. Each of those

13:11

things listed has a learning curve.

13:14

So you go in thinking, you

13:16

just have to do the value

13:18

study. But no, you really have

13:21

to work on building skills around

13:23

all these other things that you

13:25

also didn't know existed. This stuff

13:28

takes time and patience and a

13:30

lot of skill building. But beyond

13:32

the new skills you're building in

13:35

the studies themselves, there's one more

13:37

reason you might feel resistance to

13:39

these studies. Resistance number five. To

13:41

do studies, you must rely on

13:44

drawing skills. So yeah. All of

13:46

these studies rely on drawing skills

13:48

in some way, and I did

13:51

not walk into my art practice

13:53

with drawing skills. So it took

13:55

me a long time to realize

13:58

that a ton of my frustration

14:00

around these studies didn't have anything

14:02

to do with the studies themselves,

14:05

not really. It had to do

14:07

with the fact that they required

14:09

drawing skills, I hadn't developed yet.

14:12

For example, to do a value

14:14

study, first you have to take

14:16

the shapes you see in your

14:18

reference. and draw them onto a

14:21

piece of paper. So first you

14:23

get the shapes down, then you

14:25

decide which shapes get which values.

14:28

But I'd go to draw my

14:30

shapes and nothing was where I

14:32

intended it to go. My final

14:35

drawing would look so different from

14:37

my reference that I felt demoralized

14:39

even before I began the study.

14:42

Even before I began the hard

14:44

work of learning to use value,

14:46

I'd feel like giving up because

14:49

my drawing skills were such an

14:51

obstacle. But this isn't the only

14:53

obstacle we face here. Let's say

14:56

you're drawing a landscape, and there's

14:58

one tree you want to be

15:00

the focal area star of the

15:02

show, and you place that tree

15:05

right on the lower third of

15:07

your landscape picture plane. And you've

15:09

designed a good set of values

15:12

to make that tree the star

15:14

of the show. Fantastic. You have

15:16

a plan. It works in your

15:19

value study. Congratulations. Congratulations. But then

15:21

in your full painting, because maybe

15:23

you're still new to drawing, you

15:26

accidentally shift just slightly how you

15:28

draw the image, which means you've

15:30

shifted the focal area, that tree,

15:33

so it's no longer on the

15:35

lower third. Maybe you've shifted it

15:37

to the right a little bit,

15:39

so now it's at the fifth

15:42

or the seventh. Maybe it's like

15:44

right at the edge of your

15:46

paper. Now the drawing on your

15:49

surface... doesn't match your value study

15:51

drawing, which means now that beautiful

15:53

value plan you made won't work

15:56

or the final painting, because you've

15:58

accidentally moved things around. This would

16:00

happen to me again and again.

16:03

I do the value study and

16:05

everything seemed like it worked great.

16:07

And then I'd finish the painting

16:10

and the values would seem off

16:12

in the painting, even though I

16:14

had done the value study. And

16:17

it's because I didn't understand that

16:19

I had changed the... drawing between

16:21

the two. Eventually I realized that

16:23

it was a drawing issue and

16:26

I started to build my skills

16:28

around drawing but I also started

16:30

to use tools to help me

16:33

get a good drawing onto my

16:35

value study and onto my painting

16:37

surface. Now let's pause for a

16:40

minute. I feel like I started

16:42

this with like the bad news,

16:44

right? Like the things you're feeling

16:47

and the frustrations that you might

16:49

be experiencing, because they are the

16:51

frustrations that I experienced for a

16:54

long, long time. And I think

16:56

it's important to acknowledge that this

16:58

stuff is complex. You're not doing

17:00

studies not because you don't have

17:03

curiosity or you weren't born with

17:05

the artistic gene for doing studies.

17:07

It's because these studies... have some

17:10

real built-in resistance to them. It's

17:12

because they're complex and they're more

17:14

than meet the eye. Complex doesn't

17:17

mean impossible. Everything you've learned up

17:19

to this point in your life

17:21

was something that started out pretty

17:24

complex and you learned it. The

17:26

beautiful thing about art is that

17:28

it is... all learnable to anybody

17:31

who's willing to try, who's willing

17:33

to feel some discomfort, frustration and

17:35

confusion, and decide to keep learning

17:38

anyway. But I want to at

17:40

first at least acknowledge that there

17:42

is going to be some resistance,

17:44

some discomfort, some confusion, some frustration

17:47

as part of it, and that's

17:49

just part of it. So how

17:51

do you start solving some of

17:54

these issues? How do you get

17:56

through them so that you can

17:58

start using these powerful tools? The

18:01

first step is to begin to

18:03

pay attention to where in your

18:05

painting process you're running into trouble.

18:08

Does it happen the beginning, the

18:10

middle, or the end? If you're

18:12

running into problems, especially problems in

18:15

the middle or the end, begin

18:17

shifting where you're looking for the

18:19

source. So, yes, there are some

18:21

things that artists do at the

18:24

end of a painting to finish

18:26

it, but often it's not like

18:28

the big fix-it stuff. Value, composition,

18:31

shapes, those are all things that

18:33

artists figure out in the beginning

18:35

through studies. Now, I'm not asking

18:38

you to do studies yet, but

18:40

it does help to start understanding

18:42

that problems at the end of

18:45

your painting, especially, are things you

18:47

often solve at the beginning of

18:49

your process through planning tools. Next,

18:52

work to expand your idea of

18:54

what counts. Notice the resistance you're

18:56

feeling while doing studies. Catch yourself

18:59

saying, I just want to get

19:01

to the good stuff and remind

19:03

yourself that professional artists count planning

19:05

and studies as an important part

19:08

of their work sessions. But also,

19:10

it can help to change your

19:12

language. Instead of saying painting practice,

19:15

call it studio practice. Instead of

19:17

saying, I'm going to go paint,

19:19

say, I'm going to go work.

19:22

The language you use can make

19:24

a big, big difference in expanding

19:26

what you count as counting. As

19:29

part of this, when you listen

19:31

to interviews with artists, just notice

19:33

how often they use planning as...

19:36

part of their full process. It's

19:38

not extra. It's a solid and

19:40

consistent step in the way they

19:42

work. It's one of the pieces

19:45

they require to create work they

19:47

love. Then as you venture into

19:49

learning how to use studies, give

19:52

yourself a ton of patience. Remind

19:54

yourself that they have a learning

19:56

curve to them. There's going to

19:59

be frustration and confusion as part

20:01

of that learning, not because you're

20:03

on the wrong path or are

20:06

doing anything wrong, but because there

20:08

is frustration and confusion on any

20:10

path where you are learning something

20:13

new. So as you run... to

20:15

confusion. Ask questions of your teachers.

20:17

Ask questions of me. Take a

20:20

class. Read a book. Just keep

20:22

asking questions and keep doing the

20:24

work and you'll start to have

20:26

breakthroughs and they feel amazing. And

20:29

finally, pay attention to when the

20:31

frustration you're feeling is because you're

20:33

struggling with the concepts of the

20:36

tool itself. or because of the

20:38

drawing skills required to use the

20:40

tool. Continue to work on building

20:43

your drawing skills, but also you

20:45

can use other modern tools to

20:47

help with those drawings. For example,

20:50

let's say you free hand draw

20:52

both your little value study and

20:54

your bigger final drawing on your

20:57

painting surface. And let's say that

20:59

isn't working. Things end up in

21:01

the wrong place. Some objects are

21:03

too large while others are too

21:06

small. If that's happening, you can

21:08

use a tool like a grid

21:10

drawing or a tracing transfer. And

21:13

I'll link in the show notes

21:15

to a blog post going over

21:17

some of the tools you can

21:20

use. In my practice, sometimes I'll

21:22

use a grid to do a

21:24

thumbnail study, and then I take

21:27

that little accurate drawing, and I

21:29

make copies of it to use

21:31

to plan my values and colors,

21:34

because that way I know that

21:36

I am planning my values and

21:38

colors on the same drawing. Then

21:41

I'll take that little drawing and

21:43

enlarge it to fit my surface

21:45

for painting. That way I trust.

21:47

really trust that everything is in

21:50

the right place and it's been

21:52

in the same place the whole

21:54

way through. And I feel fine

21:57

about working this way. Now if

21:59

you don't feel fine about working

22:01

that way, you don't have to

22:04

do it. That's totally fair. But

22:06

there is no right way or

22:08

wrong way to go about it.

22:11

I just learned that Michelangelo traced

22:13

his cysteine chapel off of sketches

22:15

he did on the ground. So

22:18

maybe it's okay if you have

22:20

some tracing as part of your

22:22

work to practice using studies. So

22:24

listen, all of these studies can

22:27

feel sort of overwhelming. They overwhelmed

22:29

me, and because of this, I

22:31

didn't use them for a long,

22:34

long time. But then I started

22:36

to notice... that I kept running

22:38

into the same sort of problems,

22:41

especially at the end of my

22:43

process. Things would look off, or

22:45

I didn't know how to fix

22:48

something like color or composition. And

22:50

then when I went to look

22:52

for solutions, I kept coming back

22:55

to studies, studies, studies. You absolutely

22:57

don't have to use studies. But

22:59

if like me, you keep running

23:02

into these same sorts of problems,

23:04

studies might be one of your

23:06

answers. And so every once in

23:08

a while, just give them a

23:11

try. You don't have to use

23:13

them all at once, just pick

23:15

one and play around with it.

23:18

Start to learn, it's in and

23:20

out. And if you can give

23:22

yourself permission and patience in learning

23:25

them, you might find that you

23:27

really love them. Because that's me

23:29

today. I love, love, love doing

23:32

compositional sketches, value, and color studies.

23:34

I find them peaceful. And not

23:36

only do they help me create

23:39

work I like, I now turn

23:41

to them on days I need

23:43

something calmer and less stressful. Which

23:45

is ironic, right? This thing that

23:48

used to cause such resistance and

23:50

stress in me is now one

23:52

of the things I turn to

23:55

when I want something calm and

23:57

not stressful. I also use them

23:59

as part of my art time

24:02

while I travel. because they're small

24:04

and don't require a lot of

24:06

materials. Plus I use them when

24:09

I want to really explore something.

24:11

And me seven years ago cannot

24:13

believe that I'm saying this, but

24:16

I'm so glad. I'm glad I

24:18

didn't give up on them. Because

24:20

when you have these tools, they

24:23

open up so many possibilities, not

24:25

just to problem-solve, but to really

24:27

enjoy that problem-solving. Thank you for

24:29

listening to today's many episodes. Find

24:32

links to everything, including Albala's interview

24:34

and bonus, by heading to the

24:36

show notes at Learn to Paint

24:39

Podcast.com/Podcast slash episode 107. Thank you

24:41

to everyone in the podcast art

24:43

club for supporting the show and

24:46

making episodes like this possible. Extra

24:48

shiny thank yous, the high gloss

24:50

supporters, Andrew Attabary, Debbie and Brian

24:53

Miller, Riana DeRole, Janet Wheeler, Nancy

24:55

Bryant, Pan Lyle, and Slow River

24:57

Studio. Happy Painting! practice. Join the

25:00

2420 Art Challenge today at Learn

25:02

to Paint podcast.com/20 for 20 art

25:04

challenge.