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if anyone ever asked me if there's one
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exercise to dramatically improve their
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painting I would probably suggest this
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these are a bunch of color studies that
00:00:07
I've done over the year and it's not
00:00:09
just color studies but a lot of these
00:00:11
are specifically Master Copy color
00:00:13
studies there are a few things that
00:00:15
people mean when they say color studies
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sometimes people mean Preparatory
00:00:19
studies where they are assessing the
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color of a piece and sometimes people
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refer to poster studies when they're
00:00:25
also studying the color of their subject
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in preparation for another thing but as
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a learning tool color studies are on one
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hand they're really small paintings and
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on the other hand the focus of these
00:00:36
little small paintings is the large
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color effect rather than getting too
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particularly detailed what might that
00:00:44
look like I have a few of various
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resolutions now and some of these are
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going way back uh years and years ago
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that I've done them I don't do them that
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much now but when I was first starting
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out to paint this is one of the exercise
00:00:58
that I did the most
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so you can see this is a little study by
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Isaac levaton one of my favorite artists
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and you can see the Simplicity within
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the painting to put it broadly a color
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study is a small painting that doesn't
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take a lot of time and we don't get into
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a lot of detail and we're mainly focused
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on the color of the piece so why do I
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think there's such a strong learning
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tool well I have to give an analogy in
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the beginning it's the analogy of the
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college Pottery Professor some of you
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guys might have heard this analogy I
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didn't make this up I've heard it
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somewhere else and when I heard it it
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really resonated with me so the analogy
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goes like this a college professor at
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the beginning of the term has a bunch of
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students and he gives them two options
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of how they want to be graded for that
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term option A is for the students to be
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graded on just the weight of pots that
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they throw in that pottery class in that
00:01:52
term so however many pots they can get
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they will be graded on just the weight
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and the more the better option
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is students will be graded on making the
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best pot that they can so they only have
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one shot they've got one chance and that
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one pot that they spend the entire term
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working on is what they'll be graded on
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by the end of the term and as some of
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you may know some of you might guess
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what happens to these two groups of
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students well group a that goes by
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weight they end up being really
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comfortable in the process they become
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really comfortable with starting they
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try new ideas and they get a lot of
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iteration a lot of reps a lot of mileage
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in when they're coming in every single
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day and they're trying something new and
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they're trying a new pot and by the end
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of the term they're making some really
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exceptional work Group B that spends
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their entire time working on just one
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little pot well what happens they kind
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of get a decent pot but really they
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spend so much time worrying and fussing
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and starting over and starting over
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that really by the time they work on
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this like singular
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project it's nowhere near as good as the
00:03:07
people that have gotten so many reps in
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so how does that relate to color studies
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well initially color studies are just
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small paintings these I think the
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average of how long these would take me
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would be from half an hour to an hour
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maybe if I was getting into a little bit
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more detail or if it was a little bit
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more challenging of a piece and now what
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are the advantages of working smaller
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and working faster obviously you get a
00:03:36
whole lot of reps in but that comes with
00:03:39
allowing yourself to experiment more you
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can try different surfaces you can try
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different brushes you can try different
00:03:45
color palettes so not only are you
00:03:47
becoming more comfortable and more
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confident with mixing your colors with
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each new painting that you attempt but
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you get much more confident with your
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tools and you become a much more
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confident painter as opposed to just
00:03:59
trying to do one big painting where
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you're not really trying new things and
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you're not really learning all that much
00:04:05
if you're just working on one big
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project now because we're working on
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such a small scale we're almost
00:04:11
prevented from getting into any little
00:04:13
details often when we're working on
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large paintings we might really be
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tempted to get into the details and
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start rendering and start painting every
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little leaves but color studies just by
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the nature of their size they actually
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prevent us from doing that just by the
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nature of their size it's it's almost
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almost fail prooof in that regards it
00:04:33
forces us to simplify and it forces us
00:04:36
to really focus on what is essential how
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that relates really well towards my
00:04:42
larger PL airworks a lot of the pl
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airworks a lot of the paintings that I
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have on here the and they're normally
00:04:48
size 9 x 12 that I do outside in single
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sessions maybe sometimes I spend
00:04:52
multiple sessions a lot of those if you
00:04:54
go back and pay attention and think
00:04:57
about the large picture of how I start
00:04:59
those paintings and I've said it before
00:05:01
I basically treat them like glorified
00:05:03
color studies the most simplified aspect
00:05:07
of these paintings is the part that you
00:05:09
need to focus on in the beginning anyway
00:05:12
and often times all the detail it's just
00:05:14
gratuitous it's just the icing on top of
00:05:16
the cake the real problems when our
00:05:19
paintings aren't working is not in the
00:05:21
detail stage but it's usually in the
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foundational stage of working with the
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large drawing the large masses and the
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large color relationship ships first and
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the last bit about how color studies
00:05:32
actually help us when we're plan air
00:05:33
painting outside when we are outside the
00:05:36
light is Ever Changing there's only so
00:05:38
much time that we have to capture a
00:05:39
singular effect obviously with time and
00:05:43
with experience we get a lot quicker and
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a lot faster at capturing a single
00:05:48
effect and capturing the big impression
00:05:50
of color and light however when we're
00:05:52
just starting out plan air painting it's
00:05:54
pretty obvious and it almost goes to say
00:05:56
that we're going to have a harder time
00:05:58
and it's going to take us more time by
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working on a larger scale we just have
00:06:02
more canvas to cover and it just takes a
00:06:04
lot more time to get everything
00:06:05
established so by working on a small
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scale and focusing on the color and
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light of the scene really isolating that
00:06:12
variable for what we're actually
00:06:14
practicing we just get a lot better at
00:06:16
actually painting outside and with time
00:06:18
we're able to become confident and just
00:06:20
use bigger brushes and use more paint
00:06:22
and still be that fast and efficient so
00:06:24
color studies they're great but what's
00:06:26
the other piece of this puzzle I
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mentioned Master copies and this is
00:06:30
especially true now that it's the winter
00:06:32
depending on the hemisphere we can't
00:06:33
really get outside to paint Landscapes
00:06:36
so for stuck indoors and want to get
00:06:37
better painting at Landscapes well what
00:06:39
do we do a lot of people think that we
00:06:41
should just copy photos while we're
00:06:43
indoors I actually really disagree with
00:06:46
that I don't think working from photos
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is a great way to get better at painting
00:06:51
I think painting is a visual language
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and there are all sorts of things and
00:06:57
little Solutions within paintings that
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are
00:07:00
entirely entirely their own thing and
00:07:03
looking at a photo that doesn't really
00:07:04
help us to get there what's a much
00:07:07
better idea to actually learn how to get
00:07:10
better at painting is to do copies of
00:07:13
other paintings when you do a copy of a
00:07:17
master painting you're looking at
00:07:19
someone else's decision making you're
00:07:20
looking at solutions that they have for
00:07:24
problems that you might encounter you
00:07:26
are also ex uh being exposed to Good
00:07:31
Taste which I think sometimes uh when I
00:07:34
look at artists around today that's one
00:07:36
of the things that I see lacking the
00:07:37
most especially from people that are
00:07:39
just working from photos is uh a lot of
00:07:43
the times their paintings just aren't
00:07:44
too tasteful and it's such a analagous
00:07:49
thing that's so hard to put a finger
00:07:51
down and actually really Define what
00:07:53
that is good taste in painting but I
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noticed that the people that are are
00:07:59
actually studying Master paintings old
00:08:02
master painters whether that's the
00:08:04
actual Old Masters or just the Masters
00:08:06
that are long to dead like Sergeant or
00:08:08
levaton they are finding something else
00:08:12
in their paintings that I think is
00:08:13
really attractive so let me get into
00:08:15
some of these color studies and show
00:08:17
some examples of what color studies
00:08:19
might look like here of course this is a
00:08:22
master copy of an Isaac levaton painting
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it's pretty simple there was a whole lot
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of detail that didn't bother painting
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got the sky gradient the relations of
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the greens and the lights and the
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Shadows got a little bit of the
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atmosphere and the foreground got
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that there a few others I'll go through
00:08:40
really quickly this is maybe a little
00:08:43
bit more resolved color study this was a
00:08:46
George inis painting I think I probably
00:08:48
spent around an hour on this which is
00:08:50
probably twice as much than you really
00:08:52
need to so I did get into some of the
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details some of the drawing within the
00:08:57
foliage it's starting to be a little bit
00:08:59
too much detail but it just because of
00:09:02
the size that I'm working on it still
00:09:03
prevented me from getting bogged down in
00:09:06
too much detail so this might be the
00:09:08
range of uh how detailed you might want
00:09:11
to get
00:09:13
eventually another Leviton painting the
00:09:17
Vladimir
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Cod of course I think this painting
00:09:21
might be a little bit different from the
00:09:25
real painting of course when I'm doing
00:09:27
most of these I'm working from book
00:09:28
copies or digital reproductions
00:09:31
photographs on a computer and I'll talk
00:09:33
about some really important things to do
00:09:35
if you're working from a screen I don't
00:09:37
think it's a bad idea to work from a
00:09:39
screen like some people do you just need
00:09:40
to be aware of where your white and your
00:09:43
black point is on that screen but so
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again not a whole lot of detail yeah a
00:09:49
passage like this might not take that
00:09:52
much time to do like it's really just a
00:09:55
5x7 painting there looks like there's a
00:09:58
lot of detail but again this is a
00:10:00
painting that could have been done
00:10:01
within a little bit more than half an
00:10:03
hour judging by how much Simplicity and
00:10:06
just depending on how long it takes you
00:10:08
to mix those colors
00:10:11
going maybe here's an image painting
00:10:14
that doesn't look all that great so
00:10:16
sometimes people find it entertaining to
00:10:18
see early work this is a old painting an
00:10:21
old little color sketch of Ivan
00:10:23
shishkin's rye and so uh really really
00:10:28
little detail in here paying attention
00:10:31
to the color gradient of the sky the
00:10:34
large masses the mass of the sky the
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mass of the wheat Fields the mass of the
00:10:39
grass those are the large masses that we
00:10:41
really want to focus on initially if we
00:10:43
could find the big average between
00:10:46
everything that we're painting and focus
00:10:47
on that first that is uh really
00:10:52
powerful
00:10:53
do so let me look for a few other copies
00:10:58
that might be
00:11:01
interesting this was a Levon that I
00:11:04
think is pretty interesting there's a
00:11:05
little bit of drawing practice that goes
00:11:07
into these Master Copy color studies
00:11:10
which is always a good thing but it's
00:11:11
not the primary focus but you can see
00:11:14
the largest masses relating the large
00:11:17
average masses which are just a big way
00:11:19
to say blob section of color of these
00:11:23
cypress trees of the sky the gradient
00:11:26
within the sky the water and B bing bada
00:11:29
boom you got a you got a nice little
00:11:31
painting that you can hang on the wall I
00:11:34
think some of these better
00:11:37
copies I actually do have hanging around
00:11:39
the house so here more
00:11:44
levaton some uh that I think is a
00:11:48
sergeant some Edward
00:11:51
seos I think that's a
00:11:54
levaton that's another Edward SEO
00:12:00
and what might some color studies in PL
00:12:03
a look like because working in PL a is
00:12:05
still a really great thing there are a
00:12:08
few of these that I've actually done in
00:12:11
the the front seat or the passenger seat
00:12:13
of my car depending on where there's
00:12:15
enough room to have my little Pasad set
00:12:17
up on my lap and that way if the
00:12:21
weather's not that great you could still
00:12:22
focus on that well so these are this is
00:12:25
now to this is not a beginning painting
00:12:29
of mine but this was a color study and
00:12:31
this might show what I'm looking for
00:12:33
when I'm painting in PL a obviously it's
00:12:36
a study of a cloud and one other thing
00:12:39
about color studies a lot of artists use
00:12:41
them as Preparatory work for larger
00:12:43
sketches back in the day you had guys
00:12:45
like constable and Frederick Church they
00:12:48
would go out and make these tiny little
00:12:49
sketches and then use those as
00:12:51
information when they are arranging and
00:12:54
working up a larger Studio painting this
00:12:57
was maybe kind of for that but you know
00:12:59
it's something 20 minutes it's pretty
00:13:01
simple the more comfortable you get with
00:13:04
painting the more comfortable you are to
00:13:06
make actual drawing decisions with the
00:13:08
paint that you're putting down so here I
00:13:10
don't think I even used any pencil or
00:13:14
drawing tool initially it looks like I
00:13:16
was just going in with paint I was
00:13:18
mixing in a sky color working that to
00:13:22
draw out this big cloud that was very
00:13:24
very fleeting and then between that and
00:13:26
the white of the canvas which I actually
00:13:28
left I had a color relationship which I
00:13:30
was really focused on I keyed the sort
00:13:34
of overcast ground beneath it and then I
00:13:37
have the shadows and so it really is not
00:13:39
a whole lot of detail it might look like
00:13:41
that but it's just a 20 30 minute
00:13:44
painting where you're able to really
00:13:46
capture the effect quickly and you'll be
00:13:49
surprised at just how fast you're
00:13:52
actually able to do some of
00:13:54
these now same thing for these I think
00:13:58
these two paintings this
00:14:01
one and this one were painted side by
00:14:04
side you could see the pond right next
00:14:06
to each other so here the sun was a
00:14:08
little bit higher in the sky and here
00:14:10
the sun was setting behind some clouds
00:14:12
that had Rose and sometimes clouds form
00:14:14
as the sun sets and moves in the
00:14:16
atmosphere and I think I did actually
00:14:18
two more paintings and I had four
00:14:21
paintings set up on my easel and these
00:14:25
both were just 20 about 20 minutes a pop
00:14:27
really quickly at the end of October a
00:14:29
few years back really focusing on the
00:14:32
light the difference in the quality of
00:14:34
light this is almost akin to some of
00:14:36
Monae's paintings when Monae would sit
00:14:38
he'd have a wheelbarrow of canvases and
00:14:40
he'd put one on his easel work for 50
00:14:42
minutes and then move to the next one we
00:14:44
are studying the big effect of light
00:14:47
we're studying the impression high level
00:14:48
painting is a juggling of a lot of
00:14:50
different variables there's composition
00:14:52
there's drawing there's color there's
00:14:54
detail there's texture there's edges if
00:14:56
we're able to take all of our our
00:14:59
efforts and focus them in one area at a
00:15:01
time we're really able to improve and
00:15:04
learn in that one area and this is also
00:15:07
the case for a larger project if we're
00:15:09
able to do the drawing stage do a
00:15:11
compositional stage do sometimes even a
00:15:13
value stage that's the pro of doing
00:15:17
underpaintings and then do the color
00:15:19
stage and then get into the detail stage
00:15:21
little by little we build up a really
00:15:23
confident painting but this is just
00:15:26
about uh color studies for now
00:15:29
um and maybe a last little color study
00:15:31
an example of something for a workshop a
00:15:34
few years ago you could see some very
00:15:37
simple masses identifying the masses of
00:15:39
ground ples versus upright planes
00:15:42
sky and then the different masses
00:15:44
between water sand very simple painting
00:15:48
doesn't take a lot of time but the more
00:15:51
of these types of paintings that we're
00:15:52
able to do we really improve really
00:15:56
really fast so I'm not going to get
00:15:57
through all these uh maybe if I'm able
00:16:00
to find some of my earliest Master
00:16:02
copies um some of my earliest Master
00:16:04
copies were done digitally and so I was
00:16:08
in Photoshop making some pretty abysmal
00:16:10
copies of Sergeant paintings or hson
00:16:12
River School paintings and if I can find
00:16:15
them I'll put them up here right now but
00:16:17
if I can't I won't color studies aren't
00:16:18
the only types of Master copies you can
00:16:20
do you can do uh thumbnail sketches
00:16:22
compositional Master copies fully
00:16:24
realized Master copies that are to scale
00:16:27
trying to reproduce their exact
00:16:28
procedure but color studies specifically
00:16:31
because they're almost a practice run of
00:16:35
a larger painting I think color studies
00:16:37
are a really great way to get better at
00:16:40
painting quickly they're a lot better
00:16:43
than trying to work on really large
00:16:45
projects or not painting at all when we
00:16:48
are just starting out all these
00:16:49
iterations are really really important
00:16:51
for us to gain more confidence with our
00:16:53
tools and with our color mixing ability
00:16:56
if you guys are watching the YouTube of
00:16:57
this the rest of the demo is actually
00:17:00
just going to be on my patreon but I
00:17:02
hope this video has inspired you and
00:17:04
given you some ideas to go out and try
00:17:06
to do some copies yourself it's really
00:17:08
not that hard you just need some
00:17:10
reference in a small painting you can
00:17:13
buy 5x sevs that's my favorite size and
00:17:16
you just got to go for it it really is a
00:17:18
fail prooof exercise
