This week's Tips of the Trade: Shapes

Published on July 4 2014

When painting a subject, it is important that you train your mind into seeing shapes. A face, a landscape, a still life, whatever you are looking at is a collection of SHAPES. When you understand this fundamental, you are no longer a beginner. You become a PAINTER.

John Singer Sargent, Self Portrait 1907

Are you in a bad shape?

You are painting bad shapes when you do the following:

Holding your brush like a pencil, too close to the ferrule.
Hatching instead of making brush strokes.
Getting caught in details instead of seeing the big picture.
Your mind is drawing instead of painting

How to paint good shapes:

Hold your brush further down the handle. There is a reason why they make the handle so long.
Make brush strokes with the whole forearm.
See shapes, simplify, go to the essential.
Use a bigger brush.
Paint instead of draw.

Painting and drawing are two different language.

Since childhood, you drew. You shaped your mind in defining objects by their outline. A beginner's mind is afraid of loosing the “essential information” characteristic of his subject : the outline. To be a good classical painter, you need to master your draft skill. It trains your eyes for proportions and measurements. However, when painting, you lose your “boundaries”, your lines and your drawing. This is when the panic often comes to a beginner. Learning how to paint is to change your mind: you see the world in shapes.

David Leffel demo of a portrait. He sees the head as a big shape instead of its outlines.