Control the Chaos
In this NEW YouTube video I discuss how can you can create paintings with lots of different marks while keeping things simple.
It may sound like a contradiction – simple but varied – but it’s a common question. When making lots of energetic, chaotic marks, you want your artwork to still make sense and not be too busy. I do this is by using a simple set of tools and a limited colour palette, then mixing how I use them. There’s a quite lot going on in the sketch below, but it feels controlled. That’s because I kept the materials simple.
If you look at what's going on in this painting, there's a bit of white and blue in the sky areas - I’m just varying the mix as I go, not using a palette but combining the colours directly on the painting. In the darker area at the bottom, I’m adding some black acrylic with a bit of Prussian blue mixed in. I'm only using three basic colours. White, Black & Blue. (You often hear that you shouldn’t use black but I think for this kind of painting, you want a bit of body, you want something really strong that gives it a kind of a visual anchor). Mixing black with a bit of colour like Prussian blue works really well for this kind of area.
Gusty Winds & Cloud Shadows - Mixed media on paper
That’s about it for the paint colours, the rest of the painting is made up with drawing materials.
I have a couple of watercolour pencils & some oil pastels. I’m adding some green accents as well as a little bit of this nice fiery orangey red just to balance out some of the cooler colours. It’s predominantly quite a cool painting with a lot of pale blues and whites. The rest of it is just made up with a couple of watercolour pencils. Very simple drawing materials added to very limited palette of colours.
So how does that help me? How does that help to contain the chaos and harmonise the busyness of the painting? By having so few materials, I'm not confusing the painting, I know these colours will work well together. I’ve chosen a good mixture of tones and colours and cool and warm, so as I'm adding them, I'm not throwing so much in there that it gets messy.
By not using the same brush, pencil or painting knife for more than a few seconds at a time, I can switch between those materials to keep the energy up in the painting adding variety in the mark making.
If ever you’re thinking that your painting is getting a little stodgy, it's probably because you're not varying your materials often enough. Sticking with the same brush for too long will make the marks repetitive. With a handful of these simple materials which I know will work in harmony with each other, I can keep picking them up and switching between them as I go through the painting. The variety happens spontaneously and I don't have to think about it.
So think about cutting down on the materials that you're using. Keep it really simple. Pick a few paints, brushes, pastels & pencils that you know will work together, then use them for only 10 or 15 seconds at a time. By not using the same thing for too long, the marks won’t become repetitive and your paintings will feel more lively.
