Think less about subject matter and more about design 

Thank you very much. So glad you liked it Susan.

Many thanks Leslie. All the best

Glad you enjoyed it and thank you so much Jimmy

Glad you enjoyed the demo. I'll look up Christian. Thanks for the recommendation. Best wishes.

That is well put. How often do we pass (attention elsewhere) something gripping if only seen more deeply. Best wishes.

Glad you enjoyed it Cameron. All the best

Exactly. So glad you found it helpful. All the best

My pleasure Lillian. Thank you for watching

Wonderful. So glad you liked it

Thank you. I am so glad you liked it

Hi Richard I didn't actually think of that until you pointed it out. Best wishes.

That's it Dennis. All the best.

Thanks so much. And I agree - that search for connection and resonance I think does make a difference. All the best

So glad you found it helpful Franco. It's great when the timing works out like that.

My pleasure Dianne. All the best

Thank you so much. I am glad you enjoyed watching it. All the very best.

You are very welcome Julie. Glad you liked watching

It's a great exercise, but doesn't imply a story.

I'm not sure I'd want someone to end up in one place as if it were a final destination. The point I think is to lead them somewhere but give them pathways out to travel around the painting some more and again be led back to that spot.

I'm not sure if by implying a story you mean it needs figures or something. I think there are two kinds of narrative. One of the language of paint itself, design, structure, value masses etc and the second is perhaps the idea of story as an implied tale. Not sure you always need both.

Thanks for the interesting discussion! I've been thinking about what makes me continue to enjoy a painting, and it seems to be an implied story, not requiring figures. The sense that something has happened, or is ready to happen. I know it's vague, sorry. The language of paint itself is very striking to me when I view a work in person, but that easily gets lost when you have to buy prints. I consider design and structure as technique or tools.@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition

Thank you so much for watching. All the best.

Thank you so much for watching. Glad you liked it!

Thanks.

Hi Craig, thank you and yes we are high but not quite dry. But all is well in our household. Thanks for asking. Best wishes.

Thanks so much

Thanks so much Mary. Delighted you enjoyed it.

Julliette, that is a good point. You can imagine of course someone travelling in Europe and buying a painting that contains cafés, flower boxes full of geraniums, and maybe a red tile roof or two. But to my mind I can't think about that market.

Thank you so much Joanne. Glad you enjoyed it

Thank you so much Douglass

Thank you so much!

Glad it was helpful Kamlesh. Thank you for watching

Thanks so much Dianne. Delighted you enjoyed it

Good luck with that Margaret. All the best.

Hi Meg, I used to make large abstract paintings back in the 80s. I don't now but I would say the ideas of compositional structure, Ior myself at least, I would need to apply them to an abstract painting as well. For me abstraction is more of a removing from a representational image than just starting to put paint on a canvas and see where it leads. I know a lot of abstraction is done that way. But I'm not sure it is my way. But I hope you are having fun with your classes. Sounds like fun.

Glad you liked it Paresh. Thank you

Glad you like them. Thank you for watching

You are so welcome Mary! Thank you

Thanks Linda.

You're so welcome Robert. Glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks so much Thomas. All the very best.

Glad you enjoyed it Peter. All the best

Glad you enjoyed it Teresa. Thank you

That makes me very happy to hear. Thank you

so glad to hear that. All the best

Glad you enjoyed it and thanks so much.

Glad it was helpful Sharon. All the best.

Thank you so much. I am glad you enjoyed watching the process.

You are welcome!

Glad you enjoyed the video. I didn't think of putting that line 90 degrees to where it is. The road going back did that enough I thought and the horizontal line helps slow us down from being pulled to the back of the road to quickly. At least in my view.

Thanks Robbie. Glad you liked it

Good advice. All the best.

Glad you liked it. You are very welcome

Thank you so much Danny

Hi Yolanda, I am delighted you liked it. My very best wishes for your 2024 as well.

Thank you very much Leon

Glad to hear that. Thanks Mary

You are welcome Joyce. All the best.

Glad it was helpful!

Glad you liked it

I disagree too. And I am delighted you like the pencils. They are the best. All the best

Glad you think so

Thanks so much

It can be sort of like a puzzle. I hope this video helped you. All the best

You are so welcome Joanne

thank you so much

Glad it was helpful Denise

Thank you John. Kind of you to say

Thanks for watching.

Delighted you enjoyed it. All the best.

Glad you liked it. Thank you for watching Viktor

The problem is I live in LA and we don't get fog like that very often. Not never but not often and it burns off quickly. So I don't. But if I find myself with a scene or photo that would lend itself to that I'll do it. All the best.

thanks so much

Glad it was helpful!

Glad it was helpful!

I usually only start a thumbnail in anticipation of painting. It is quick, like jotting down an intention. I’m fired up and ready to paint and this is like a roadmap to make sure I’m heading in the right direction. I might have to make adjustments to the thumbnail before starting. But with thumbnails the drawing itself is not for the drawing, but just as an aid before starting to paint. So nothing gets dissipated in that process. Thumbnails would be close to 100%. Now exploring a drawing for it’s own sake, something more finished, that is a completely different story. I might not start a drawing with any intention of turning that into a painting. I just wanted to draw. Sometimes it leads me to realize I’d like to paint it too. Sometimes I, as you express, feel I’ve got as much out of it as I can and don’t want to paint it. When you get to the drawings because they can play their own role independent of making paintings of them, it gets harder to think in terms of percentages. Hope that helps. All the best.

@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition Thank you so much for answering me, Ian, I really appreciate it. You explained it very well. In fact that inspires me not to give up that easily, but to aim to move from thumbnails to finished paintings in most cases, too. Wishing you all the best from Valencia, Spain.

Wonderful Helene. That makes me really happy to hear - don't give up. I hope you have fun with it. All the best. @@helene9947

Thank you

You're very welcome Kevin. Thanks for watching

Thank you George. Best wishes.

Thanks so much

Thank you.

Glad you enjoyed it

I tend to use a simple structure: a horizontal (often the horizon line) and I look for a strong vertical (the palm tree and edge of sidewalk in this panting) that meet at the focal point. Obviously there will be exceptions. But that is what is happening here. Even though the beautiful warm light might seem like the focal point, structurally I think it is the smaller palm tree in shadow just below the lit one. It does in this case fall on the third. But usually if I can I try and push the focal point out past the third so there is more tension. I hope that all makes sense. All the best. Translated to Spanish using google translate (I am sorry about any mistakes): Tiendo a usar una estructura simple: una horizontal (a menudo la línea del horizonte) y busco una vertical fuerte (la palmera y el borde de la acera en este jadeo) que se encuentran en el punto focal. Evidentemente habrá excepciones. Pero eso es lo que está pasando aquí. Aunque la hermosa luz cálida pueda parecer el punto focal, estructuralmente creo que es la palmera más pequeña en la sombra justo debajo de la iluminada. En este caso recae en el tercero. Pero normalmente, si puedo, intento empujar el punto focal más allá del tercero para que haya más tensión. Espero que todo tenga sentido. Mis mejores deseos.

Glad you liked it.

Thank you. I didn't oil out. I just head straight in on the second layer. My first layer is pretty thin (thinned with mineral spirits) the second layer thick and I am covering the whole surface again. So really I am not "interacting" the first with the second layer. I am just covering it. All the best.

Hi Finn, I just didn't want to deal them - too much trouble for no return is sort of the way I think of it.

Посмотрите "8 1/2" Феллини и вы поймёте , что вы не одинок. Успехов!

HI Carla, Two things. The fear of starting is always there. For me too. You just have to push through that. Once you do start things start to flow and you wonder why you put up so many internal barriers. I call that the Dance of Avoidance in my book Creative Authenticity. We all go through it. We just learn over time to navigate it better. And two, perhaps start smaller. drawings, of household things. Look at the work of Dike Blaire. Just simple paintings and drawings of household things. Keep it simple, and good luck. That fear is the #1 killer of creativity. So I would say just dive in and see what happens. What can go wrong? I'm half joking on that one. All the best.

@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition Thank you for your advice. I will start with some drawings first of simple items as you suggest... I ordered your book and I'm sure that will help as well! Thank you again and happy painting!!

I will watch this movie when I can, thank you!@@ВикторВоробьёв-р7л

You're very welcome. I hope you have fun with it. And I hope my book helps too. All the best. @@carlamariestudios

I like that expression "romance the ordinary."

Love that . . . 'romance the ordinary'!

Thank you!

you're welcome!

That's a touch one. Probably an hour to an hour and a half. But then I sit and look at and make small adjustments. And so the "time" part gets harder to judge. I spend time letting the painting talk back to me, letting it tell me what needs adjusting. That sort of takes it's own time over a few days. Each thing I notice and the adjustment itself may only take a couple of minutes. So the actual time the brush is on the canvas is not the best measure of how long. Hope that makes sense. All the best.

@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition Thanks for your fast answer!

you're very welcome @@henriquejanuario881

Thank you for watching

Glad you liked it. Thank you Paul

So delighted to hear that. Thanks so much for watching