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If your painting is stuck in a rut here are some suggestions for you to get out of it and start seeing your paintings improve.
How To Improve Your Painting Skills
If your painting is stuck in a rut, it is probably because of a lack of one or more key foundational skills. If you want to know how to improve your painting skills, here is how to go about it.
Step 1: Make A Plan
Decide what you want to achieve? Is it just to be a hobby painter? or do you want to really see some major improvements? If the latter then you need to build a set of foundational skills. Make a list of what you think you need to do better. This might include drawing, making things look three-dimensional, better color harmony, more realistic and true to nature, more expressive brushwork, and so on.
Step 2: Identify Skill Building Exercises
Focus on building the skills you are lacking. It is much more efficient in terms of time to do short exercises that are focused on one problem than try to do a complete painting. The actual learning of the skill is typically only taking place during a part of doing a full painting. So for most of your painting time you are not building your skills. Set aside time to do these assignments on a regular basis. If you want to improve your painting skills, it is better to do a little more often than a lot less frequently.
Step 3: Evaluate Your Problems
Step back every now and again, look at the work you are doing, and try to evaluate where the problems are. A good way of doing this is to compare your work with master artists who are particularly good at the skill you are practicing. In the Virtual Art Academy, we study various master artists’ work in detail to understand how they achieved mastery in certain areas. Learn from these masters and you will improve your own painting.
Additional Resources
- books on how to paint written by the author of the Virtual Art Academy
- a guide to critiquing art: The Visual Music & Poetry® Methodology
Key Skill Building Blocks: How To Improve Your Painting Skills
Here are the key skill building blocks you need to continually work on to improve your paintings:
For example the Virtual Art Academy® online painting classes is designed to build up your skills in nine key areas in order to paint well.
I call these nine areas the Virtual Art Academy Building Blocks™.
Many students are frustrated with their progress, and it is nearly always because they are lacking skills in one of these nine building blocks.
The four-year Apprentice Program will cover every one of these nine Building Blocks in a very thorough way. This will ensure you have a solid foundation for how to improve your paintings.
The nine Building Blocks are:
- Brushwork Building Block
- Color Building Block
- Composition Building Block
- Concept Building Block
- Drawing Building Block
- Form Building Block
- Notan Building Block
- Observation Building Block
- Process Building Block
Other tips for how to improve your painting skills
Here are some more tips for how to improve your painting skills:
- Stay focused on your learning assignments and always keep in mind what you are practicing.
- When you are painting, just have fun and relax. Don’t think about assignments and theory. That should be a different time from your learning time.
- If you want to figure out how to improve your painting skills, go for quantity rather than quality.
- Study the experts. Read books about master artists, and go to museums to see the works up close in person.
- Look for interesting compositions and play around with more different options.
- Try switching media. If you are an oil painter, switch to watercolors and vice versa.
- Evaluate your work more objectively by looking at your painting in a mirror or turn your painting upside down. Look at just a small part of your painting. Look at it from a distance. You will better see what is lacking if you want to learn how to improve your painting skills.
- Create a series of related paintings on a particular theme or subject. Each time you create another painting you will be improving your painting skills.
Thank You
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope you find it useful. If you would like to get free painting tips by email, please sign up for my free tips newsletter.
If you are interested in a structured approach for learning how to paint, take a look at my online painting classes.
Happy painting!
Barry John Raybould
Virtual Art Academy
What The Students Are Saying
‘Ladder of Learning’ adds to overall positive experience of this awesome course
The VAA course is built on four main building blocks including PROCESS, REALISM, MUSIC AND POETRY. These are further divided into topics that are continuously developed throughout the curriculum. Drawing, Form, Observation, Colour, Brushwork, Notan, Composition and Poetry are all thoroughly taught. Working on-line we meet students from all around the world, interacting with them… Read more “‘Ladder of Learning’ adds to overall positive experience of this awesome course”
The most comprehensive, in depth and well-organized painting course available online
After a thorough research, my personal conclusion is that the Virtual Art Academy (VAA) is, by wide margin, the most comprehensive, in depth and well-organized painting course available in the internet. Unlike most tutorials and color mixing recipes commonly found online, VAA’s philosophy is rather to provide the students with detailed information about all aspects… Read more “The most comprehensive, in depth and well-organized painting course available online”
Building blocks of learning is the best I have seen
I joined 5 years ago when I didn’t know anything about oils, painting, composition, or drawing. Barry’s way of teaching is extremely well versed in many aspects of painting. His building blocks of learning is the best I have seen. The academy is designed well and the community of fellow students is engaging and friendly.… Read more “Building blocks of learning is the best I have seen”
Only online learning program I have ever discovered using a training industry best practice
Before repurposing my vocation into avocation, I spent 20 years in the corporate world as an instructional designer and performance consultant creating training curricula for diverse clientele from NASA to General Motors. I know curriculum development and how to guide a learner from beginning to certification. VAA is the only online learning program I have… Read more “Only online learning program I have ever discovered using a training industry best practice”
The improvement in my own work reaffirms that I’ve found the right program to develop as an artist
I have been a student of VAA since 2011. I had been searching for an online art program that could assist in helping me develop as an artist. VAA is a complete program for beginners as well as advanced students of art. The course is well structured and takes you step by step so you… Read more “The improvement in my own work reaffirms that I’ve found the right program to develop as an artist”
The small steps are easy to do
I am extremely impressed with the process that Barry has developed for VAA. Learning to paint can be intimidating, but when broken into many small projects it is very do-able. I just did my first live model painting session- a 5 hour, one day session. Thanks to VAA, I was able to break the painting… Read more “The small steps are easy to do”
The course has a steady learning curve that keeps revealing itself as you advance
The course is working great, the lessons are set out so well that every week I can see growth. In following the program it’s given me direction, and the information in the lesson plans are of a professional level. There is no way I would have tracked down the information by myself, and being in… Read more “The course has a steady learning curve that keeps revealing itself as you advance”
The equivalent of a 4 year art education at a fraction of the cost
This is a great course for anyone who is serious about improving their painting. I have been a student here for several years. When I am finished, I will have the equivalent of a 4 year art education at a fraction of the cost. I can do the lessons anywhere and at my own pace.… Read more “The equivalent of a 4 year art education at a fraction of the cost”
I started learning oil painting with VAA from scratch. Just one year later my paintings started to sell
The Virtual Art Academy program is really comprehensive and gave me all the information and directives to learn painting in one package. The material is very well organized, just beautiful to look at and motivating to carry through. The online campus is a wonderful place to meet other artists and receive critical feedback on my… Read more “I started learning oil painting with VAA from scratch. Just one year later my paintings started to sell”