How to get started...

...painting again in the new year.

Some of us took a painting break over the holidays. Then there were days of putting our houses back in order. The second week of January is the perfect time to get back to the studio but the less we do (as in no art for weeks), the less we feel like doing. Nicholas Wilton always has good advice for artists. Click on his name for a link to his recent post about getting back to making art.

One trick I use to get started is to prepare a painting project for the next day. This way, I'll be ready to paint as soon as I come into the studio. Once I pick up a pastel stick, the rest is fun; getting started is the problem. I taped a 7x5 inch piece of sanded paper to my easel board along with a 7x5 inch reformatted* reference photo. I brought the same image up on my iPad.

*I'm revisiting my 2007 painting, "Wild Meadow." My original painting was nearly square at 13x14 inches but with Photoshop I made two new images of it in horizontal and vertical formats.

Image> Resize> Constrain Proportions (I UNCHECKED this box). Then, I printed two photos in 5x7 and 7x5 formats. Note: objects will be skewed but that's OK with me because I don't paint to copy my reference photos. I draw an "X" through each photo to help me visually transfer the composition to my blank sanded pastel paper - in this case it is Pastelmat, color Buttercup.