It's A Start

 Every Painting Has A Start

Begin with a blank canvas...

something that can make the most seasoned artist flinch!

It's best to get something down on the canvas right away, no matter what style of painting you identify with, its always good to get a mark on your canvas so that blank surface  won't be staring back at you.

Here are a few suggestions: 

• write on it,  write what you're feeling or what you want to paint and why (no one will see it, you'll be adding layers over it, for your eyes only)

• make a few scribbles to cover the surface, mark it up 

• do a few color washes: if your going for a warm painting, color wash it with cool colors underneath or visa vera with cool over a warm wash...opposite add depth to a painting

• in my case, I LOVE to just start laying papers down, all kinds of papers, thick and thin, text or painted, and see where it takes me

Much of what you lay down will be covered up with more layers of paints, papers, textures, stencils, marks...whatever you feel like layering on.  Though you will remember where you started in creating the history of your piece of art...it's also a great idea to snap photos along the way to keep record of what you did incase you want to remember or share it somewhere down the line.

It's all about What's Underneath

I created a video clip on this very subject and shared my process in getting a start and just laying down papers and covering my canvas.  You can check it out on my YouTube channel by clicking below.