Tag: Monday Morning Art School

Posted on

Monday Morning Art School: common art scams

Cottonwoods along the Rio Verde, 9X12, oil on archivally-prepared Baltic birch, $696 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Unfortunately, fine artists—especially those who’ve recently started selling their art—are inviting targets for scammers. Here are some of the current art scams:

An oldie-but-baddie, the overpayment scam

How it works: A buyer reaches out, eager to purchase artwork. They offer to send a check, usually more than the agreed amount, and ask the artist to refund the balance, supposedly to a shipping agent. The check bounces after the refund is sent. This scam, for the record, is mail fraud, but it’s so common I doubt the USPS has time to follow up every example.

Watch for these red flags: the contact will make vague references to your work, without requesting details of size, frame, or additional photos. They will offer to send an overpayment, with a request to refund the difference. These emails and messages always seem one step away from illiterate. They’re not exclusive to artists; a friend fell for one on a rental property deposit.

Brooding Skies, 8X10, oil on archival canvasboard, $522

Related: the third-party shipping company scam

How it works: A buyer says they will arrange for a third-party shipping company, but you’re asked to pay the shipping fees up front. Of course, the shipping company is fake.

Watch for this red flag: any time a buyer asks you to pay any third party, don’t. Get yourself a shipping account and do the shipping from your end.

The fake art dealer or pay-to-play gallery

How it works: you’re offered a spot in a show, magazine, or exhibition, but you have to pay a fee to participate. (This is different from entry fees to juried shows, which are legitimate.) These vanity galleries and publications have no real exposure or audience.

Watch for these red flags: you’re asked to pay to be featured, the websites are vague or poorly designed, and there are no verifiable credentials. I was recently ‘invited’ to a show with a major New York auction house. Very little research was necessary to show me that the curator had no connection with the real thing.

No Northern Lights Tonight, 6X8, oil on archival canvasboard, $348 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Phishing and identity theft                                                    

How it works: Scammers pose as buyers to get your personal information or gain access to your online accounts.

Watch for these red flags: Suspicious links or attachments in emails or requests for login details, banking info or your peer-to-peer payment apps. Apps like Venmo or PayPal are not covered by the same banking rules as your credit card or checking account, which means less protection against fraud.

Another oldie-but-baddie: the NFT scam

How it works: you’re approached about turning your art into NFTs—but asked to pay upfront minting fees. Or your art is stolen and minted as NFTs without your permission.

Watch for these red flags: I get several of these messages a week through Facebook. They are high-pressure, even after I say I have no interest in NFTs. These people can’t clearly explain the platform, the process or how you will make money. Often there are upfront costs for future earnings.

Île d’Orléans waterfront farm, 8X10, oil on archival canvasboard, $522 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

A rare but bad scam: gallery default

How it works: a gallery takes your work on consignment but doesn’t report sales or disappears with your pieces.

Red flags: no written contract, no inventory list or receipts, no communication. Sometimes these are signs of a disorganized gallerist, but you should be paid promptly (within 30 days) of a gallery sale.

How to protect yourself:

I only sell work through Square or, in rare instances, by check. Credit card services offer protection that is worth their high fees. But here are some guidelines to help you weed through suspicious offers:

  • Does the buyer reference a specific piece of your work and show a familiarity with your work, or is everything in generalities?
  • Does their email address match the gallery or name that the sender is using?
  • Can you verify their identity using LinkedIn, a gallery website or social media?
  • Are they pressuring you?
  • Are they offering to overpay or include shipping/refund instructions?
  • Do they ask you to send money to a third party?
  • Is the offer full of grammar and spelling errors?
  • Are you being asked for money?
  • Do you have a written contract for any gallery opportunity?

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

Posted on

Monday Morning Art School: art in times of stress

Skylarking II, 18×24, oil on linen, $1855, includes shipping in the continental US.

This may come as a big surprise, readers, but we’re in a period of upheaval. We all react to stress differently, but for many of us, it’s very hard to concentrate during challenging times—we’re too busy worrying and doomscrolling to focus on anything positive.

While keeping your artistic practice alive through stressful times is challenging, it can also be healing.

Breaking Storm, oil on linen, 30X48, $5579 framed includes shipping and handling in continental US.

First, let’s talk about working when you’re feeling paralyzed:

Lower the Bar Without Losing the Thread

I’ve just come through a long artistic drought. My way of coping was to do less, but to at least do something. For me, that meant drawing instead of painting, and I clung to teaching my weekly classes.

Doing something could mean watercolor sketches, tiny color studies, or even color-mixing charts. These are practice strokes against the day when you’re ready to start really painting again.

Make a tiny window of time just for art

When my house threatens to overwhelm me, I make a point of putting away ten things and then stopping. I insist on the stopping because if I don’t tell myself that, I’ll never start. It means cleaning isn’t an insurmountable burden.

A similar technique works with art practice. Make yourself a tiny ritual: sketching for ten minutes while you drink your coffee, for example. Humans find comfort in routine. And stop telling yourself that you have more pressing responsibilities. Anyone can afford ten or twenty minutes; I’ve wasted more time than that reading about the Kardashians.

The Wave, 9X12, oil on archival canvasboard, $869 framed includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Keep an idea journal

I can’t stress the importance of drawing your ideas, even if they’re just scribbles. Even chaotic things have creative value. I’ve recently stopped sharing my sketches, because they’ve suddenly gotten less-developed and more experimental. Not everything needs to be finished for public consumption.

Switch up your medium

When I’m flailing around in oils, I switch over to watercolors. They feel more relaxing, even though there are just as many ways to mess them up. It’s not that another medium is easier; it’s just that it applies pressure in different spots.

With a little help from your friends

Painters do art alone, but that doesn’t mean we need to isolate ourselves. I survived my art drought with the support of my students and my close friends. Even when you’re too paralyzed to make art, you can talk art, and that in itself can get you moving again.

Be patient with yourself

Okay, that’s easier said than done, especially for us impatient people. But your creative drought is also when you’ll gather new ideas and insights, think and even rest. It took me months to have the epiphany that got me moving again, and that was all built on the back of indirect work.

Skylarking, 24X36, oil on canvas, $3985 framed includes shipping and handling in continental US.

How does art reduce anxiety?

Let’s talk about why you should keep making art even if you’re feeling overwhelmed right now.

First, you’ll find that it helps reduce anxiety. When you make art, your brain shifts from a stress-driven state (the sympathetic nervous system) to a calmer state (the parasympathetic nervous system). Your heart rate slows, cortisol levels drop and breathing deepens.

Psychologically, making art puts you into a flow state. That has no past or future and therefore little space for worry. Art is, of course, all about making the intangible tangible, which helps you externalize feelings (even if what you’re making has nothing to do with emotion). That reduces the power of anxiety.

Art therapy has been proven to work for PTSD, depression, and chronic stress. Why not let it work for us, too?

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

Posted on

Monday Morning Art School: is artist self-doubt normal?

Cottonwoods along the Rio Verde River, $696 unframed, oil on Baltic birch.

“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” (Vincent van Gogh)

If Van Gogh occasionally felt like that, what hope is there for the rest of us? But don’t give up quite yet; not only is artist self-doubt universal, it’s also a helpful part of our growth process.

Artist self-doubt is a sign that we care deeply about our work and are pushing ourselves creatively. Most serious artists, from students to professionals, wrestle with questions like:

“Is this any good?”

“Am I really an artist?”

“Who really cares about this, anyway?”

In fact, when you aren’t asking those questions, you’re in danger of becoming a stale parody of yourself.

Eastern Manitoba Forest, 6X8, oil on archival canvasboard, $348 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Why we suffer from artist self-doubt

Almost everyone, in any line of work, has moments of imposter syndrome. That’s the feeling that you’re a fraud despite clear evidence of your skills, accomplishments or success. People with impostor syndrome often believe they don’t deserve their achievements. They fear being ‘found out’—even when they’re actually doing superlative work.

Artists carry an additional burden. Our work is inextricably bound to our innermost identities. Any judgment (real or imagined) of our work feels like a judgment of our selves. We can’t help that; we just have to recognize that the arrows of criticism are going to lodge deep. That goes for criticism from ourselves as well as from others.

In art, there’s no perfection. We reach points where we think, ‘wow, I’m really painting well,’ only to immediately start seeing other, previously-unnoticed flaws. That’s because the more we know, the more aware we are of where we can improve. (And people think art is easy.)

Lake of the Woods, 12X16, oil on archival canvasboard, $1159 unframed includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Comparison traps

Social media has a lot to answer for, but its comparison traps are purgatory for artists. Just as young women are barraged with bleached, buffed, airbrushed, filled, enhanced images masquerading as women, social media throws up images of ‘perfect’ art to confuse and depress painters. It’s easy to feel inadequate by comparison, especially when you can’t even tell if the art is made by human hands.

Progress comes in fits and starts

For all artists, progress isn’t linear. Some months, the paint will flow off your brushes; you may spend the next two months wondering why you thought you could ever paint at all. It helps to know that this is perfectly normal.

Pensive 8X10, oil on archival canvasboard, $522 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

But here’s the good news

Self-doubt helps sharpen your vision. It makes you think. That pushes you to reflect, revise, and improve. Furthermore, the more you paint, the less you’ll be in the grip of artist self-doubt. Like all other forms of anxiety, self-doubt fades with action. Regular practice builds confidence more reliably than any amount of inspiration.

What I find helpful

I keep a sketchbook and do private work that I don’t share with others. And I have a community of artists (my students and my peers) who keep me from feeling isolated.

I recently went through about twenty years of sketchbooks. It was fun to see the places I’ve been. More importantly, I could track development over time. It’s helpful to reflect on how far you’ve come, not on how far you still have to go.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

Posted on

Monday Morning Art School: how to prepare for your first art show

Île d’Orléans waterfront farm, 8X10, oil on archival canvasboard, $522 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

A student in one of my classes has been painting lovely small studies of birds. For the past two weeks, I’ve been musing on how she might display and sell them in her Brooklyn, NY, neighborhood. It turns out I’m not the only person who thinks she’s ready; she was just asked to mount her first show. We’ve had a lot of back-and-forth as she’s gotten things ready.

My first art show was in high school, when I could happily leave the prep to the grown-ups. For many years, I overprepared, with too much inventory and refreshments. I hope I’ve learned to be more balanced, but my Italian grandmother will peek out now and again.

How to prepare for your first art show

In honor of my student Amy, I’ve put together a list of questions I think are important. If you’re trying to figure out how to prepare for your first art show, I hope this helps.

Athabasca River Confluence, 9X12, $696 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Where should a beginning artist aim to show their work?

Approach coffee shops, professional offices and libraries to see if they would be interested in showing your work. Please don’t think of these places as down-market. I have had long, successful relationships with them, and they’ve resulted in better sales than some galleries.

How should you approach them? While galleries generally want you to apply online in 2025, that is too much to ask of a local business. The best way to approach them is in person. Follow that up by emailing them images of your work. Some kind of web presence is necessary, even if it’s a one-page free website. And you need a business card.

Assuming you’re not a hermit, you know people—at the Y, in your church, at the coffee shop you visit every day, at your local am-dram, your hometown library, at the dentist. Don’t hesitate to ask your connections.

Pensive 8X10, oil on archival canvasboard, $522 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

How many pieces do you need for an art show?

First off, don’t even go looking unless you have a solid body of work. I don’t mean work that you necessarily want to show, but a body of work with some depth that can be mined for content.

How much you need for a specific, thematically-related show depends on how large the space is and whether the work is to be hung salon-style or in a more open, contemporary way. When you visit the space, bring a tape measure and take photos. If they already have work up, count the pieces and compare the sizes to yours.

How should you choose a theme or title for your show?

That should derive naturally from your work, but if it isn’t, perhaps you could enlist a friend to help you narrow down the major themes of your work. “Historical landscapes” is a boring theme, but “Memories of Bad Old Butchertown” might be just roguish enough to draw people in.

Maynard Dixon Clouds, 11X14, oil on archival canvas board, $869 includes shipping in continental US.

Should the work be framed?

In a perfect world, yes. Paintings generally look and sell better in frames. However, give people the option to buy them without frames at a slight discount.

I realize frames are expensive and annoying, but they really do sell paintings.

Should the work be signed?

Yes.

How do you label the work?

Label each painting with the title, dimensions, medium, price, and your name. These labels should be typed. I have created a blank you can download. If you know how to use Microsoft Office, you can merge these from a list; if not, you can just type in the information. Print them on card stock, trim them to be 2×3.5”, and Bob’s your uncle.

Who should you invite?

Absolutely everyone you know. You’ll be amazed at who’s interested.

Twenty minutes you won’t regret wasting

This is a fabulous short video by the National Gallery on 14th century Siena and the invention of painting.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

Posted on

Monday Morning Art School: preparing for a plein air painting workshop

High Surf, 12X16, oil on prepared birch painting surface, $1159 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Plein air painting workshops? I’ve taught a few (gazillion). Like most good instructors, I’ll send you supply lists, clothing suggestions, and travel instructions before we set out. But there are intangibles that will help you have a better time.

Plan to be flexible. In March when I drove over the mountain to Sedona, AZ, the last thing I expected to see were inches of snow on the ground. But weird stuff happens. Weather, light and circumstances change. Adaptability is a great skill, and rapid change is what makes landscape painting both the most difficult and the most rewarding of all the painterly disciplines.

You can never plan for every eventuality—for example, my rental car from Phoenix had neither snow tires nor a snow brush. But if you set out with a broad range of stuff you’re likely to need, more or less you’ll have enough stuff to make a stab at almost everything. And your teacher or peers will have whatever you need to fill in the rest.

Sunset over Cadillac Mountain, oil on archival canvasboard, $869 includes shipping and handling.

Last year at Sea & Sky at Schoodic we knew we had a Nor’easter bearing down on us on the last day. We coped by preloading extra painting time earlier in the week. Everyone got lots of painting and learning in. We had the added bonus of watching a wicked storm crossing Schoodic Point, although there was no paint sticking to paper or canvas in that weather. Then there was the time Cassie Sano saw a bear.

Embrace imperfection: If you’ve ever wanted to learn to paint loose, plein air is your best teacher. You simply can’t fuss over the details in the field, especially in half-day exercises.

I tell my students they’re not in class to make masterpieces but to learn. Ironically, that’s when they often do their best work.

Ask questions: This is a hard one for me, because I’m not one for group sharing, myself. But instructors are there to help, and your peers often have valuable insights. Ask your teacher lots of questions. I’m usually grateful for them, because they reveal places where my explanations have been fuzzy or weak.

Surf’s Up is 12X16, on a prepared birch surface. $1159 includes shipping and handling in the Continental US.

Why should you take a plein air workshop?

Painting outdoors forces artists to observe light, color and form more carefully and accurately than working from photos. It’s far harder, and it teaches you to edit on the fly, so when you do work in the studio you aren’t slavishly copying your reference pictures.

Plein air challenges you to simplify and focus on essentials—composition, light, and value—leading to noticeable skill improvement.

Natural surroundings also spark fresh ideas and emotional responses that don’t happen in the studio. There are people joined by a common reverence towards nature, who are (overwhelmingly, in my experience) supportive, intelligent, and helpful.

Painting in public can be intimidating at first, but it builds confidence in your process and helps you become more resilient as an artist.

Lastly, we teach workshops in places that are beautiful—in my case, Maine, the Berkshires and Sedona—and wonderful to paint.

The Surf is Cranking Up, 8X16, oil on linenboard, $903 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

And sometimes there’s profit in it

Mark Gale sent me this over the weekend: “As I was prepping paintings for a pop-up market, I found myself including a couple from a painting series I took with Carol Douglas. Then I realized I have sold paintings from in-person workshops and other Zoom series with Carol. Yes, she will make you a better painter. She also has an uncanny ability to deliver intangible extras. Students from across the country meet, form relationships and stay in touch. Carol’s alums have an enduring community. And sometimes, that piece you thought was just a class exercise, ends up in the hands of a happy customer.”

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

Posted on

Monday Morning Art School: what medium should I choose?

Apple Blossom Time, oil on archival canvasboard, $869 framed includes shipping and handling in continental US.

I’m often asked about the best medium for the beginning artist. That’s like assuming that there’s a one-size-fits-all catsuit.

No medium is inherently easier or more difficult than another. They all have their challenges and rewards. Similarly, no medium is inherently more toxic than another; the toxicity of paint lies in the pigments, not the binder. You can avoid toxic pigments in any medium. And, perhaps most importantly, once you get past the entry-level supplies, they all hit an expense plateau, so you might as well choose what you like.

But don’t be surprised if you end up working in more than one medium. I use them all, and my great regret is that I don’t have more time to experiment.

A tiny painting done with Golden Open Acrylics.

Acrylics are fast-drying and versatile. You can layer and finish paintings quickly. They clean up well with soap and water, and inexpensive acrylic paints are available at most department stores at a low price (although you get what you pay for).

That same quick-drying characteristic is a minus when it comes to working slowly or en plein air, which is why most manufacturers now offer retarders. Retarders help, but never give you the open time of oils. Acrylics can also darken as they dry, and their final feel is more plasticky and less buttery than oils.

You can work acrylics leanly, but adding too much water breaks down the bonds. If your goal is transparency, you need to use an acrylic medium designed for glazing.

Rachel’s Garden, ~24×35, watercolor on Yupo, museum-grade plexiglass, $3985 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Watercolors are the most portable medium. With a travel kit, a brush and a sketchbook, you can paint anywhere.

Watercolors have a luminous quality that comes from the paper reflecting back through the pigment. They’re fast and spontaneous, and you needn’t worry overmuch if you screw something up; just paint something else. Cleanup is, of course, absurdly simple. Just rinse your brushes, wipe off your palette, and head home.

Of course, that’s all true until you set out to create something brilliant. The downside of watercolor is that errors are hard to fix. Once pigment sets, it’s often there to stay. That means you need to plan ahead. And getting consistent results takes practice and patience.

And good watercolor paper ain’t cheap, as my friend Becky constantly reminds me.

Oils offer the richest, most vibrant colors. Since they dry very slowly, you have tons of time to work, blend, tweak, and perfect your transitions, if that’s your thing. Oils have a centuries-long track record for durability without fading, and you can go from thin glazes to thick impasto with the same material.

Oils can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to dry to the touch, but don’t be fooled; that painting is still wet inside, which is why it can’t be varnished immediately. You will need odorless mineral spirits and a good brush soap to clean your brushes. The cleanup is a bit finickier than with other mediums, but it needn’t ruin your life.

Gouache is just opaque watercolor. It dries to a matte finish, and can cover underlying layers. It’s reworkable and fast-drying. It’s an excellent learning medium and is often used by illustrators because it’s quick.

Once dry, the paint layer can be easily scuffed or reactivated by moisture, so varnishing can tricky. Colors don’t always dry accurately, and gouache doesn’t blend well.

You need to work on a stiff board or paper, because gouache will crack if laid down too thickly or not on a proper support.

Shenandoah Valley, long time ago and far, far away… in pastel.

Pastels are expressive and tactile and support a wide range of styles.

There’s no need to learn brushwork with pastels, since there aren’t any brushes. Blending is simple and intuitive, as is layering and creating texture. Pastels, like oil paints, have a good record of longevity.

Finished pastel paintings are fragile, and need to be framed or fixed (which may change the colors.) Pastel dust is also potentially hazardous; more so, in fact, than any paint-bound medium. So pastelists should work in well-ventilated areas and wear some kind of gloves, since pigments can be absorbed through the skin.

My Tuesday class is sold out, but there’s still room in the Monday evening class:

Zoom Class: Advance your painting skills

Mondays, 6 PM – 9 PM EST
April 28 to June 9

Advance your skills in oils, watercolor, gouache, acrylics and pastels with guided exercises in design, composition and execution.

This Zoom class not only has tailored instruction, it provides a supportive community where students share work and get positive feedback in an encouraging and collaborative space. 

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

Posted on

Monday Morning Art School: basics of painting

Happy Dyngus Day! This marks the first real day of spring in my home city of Buffalo, where “everyone is Polish on Dyngus Day.”

Dawn Wind, Twin Lights, 9X12, oil on archival canvasboard, $869 includes shipping and handling in the continental US.

There are some fundamental principles that every painter should know. Even if you’re an experienced painter, you might benefit from reviewing these basics of painting:

Materials:

  • Understand the basic differences between oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, oil and chalk pastels, and tempera. Know which can be used in multimedia applications such as printmaking or collage, and which will cause chemical reactions that lead to decay. Understand how your specific media works in terms of open time, opacity and blending. (And, yes, I realize I’ve never written about this, so I’ll get right on it.)
  • Know how to read a paint tube and understand the difference between popular names and the pigments actually in the tube. Know the difference between what you want and what you need.
  • Know what kind of brushes are appropriate for your media, and your method of painting. There is a vast range of bristle material out there, and they are suitable for specific mediums and specific methods of painting.
  • Know what surfaces (supports) are suitable for your media, and what kind of sealant you need if you use an incompatible support.
  • Understand the difference between medium and solvent, where each are appropriate, and how they affect viscosity, opacity and drying time.
Seafoam, 9X12, oil on archival canvasboard, $869 framed.

Drawing fundamentals

Value

Peaceful tidal pool, 9X12, $869,

Color Theory

Fundamentals of composition

Nocturne on Clam Cove, 9X12, oil on archival canvasboard, $869.00 framed includes shipping in continental US.

Observation and reference

Maintenance

  • If painting in oils or acrylics, clean your brushes properly after each use. If painting in watercolor, rinse your brushes thoroughly after each use, especially if painting with salt water.
  • Store your materials someplace other than the back of your car (which is one of my worst habits).

If this is all review, congratulations! If not, you might consider taking one of my classes below this spring:

This spring’s painting classes

Zoom Class: Advance your painting skills

Mondays, 6 PM – 9 PM EST
April 28 to June 9

Advance your skills in oils, watercolor, gouache, acrylics and pastels with guided exercises in design, composition and execution.

This Zoom class not only has tailored instruction, it provides a supportive community where students share work and get positive feedback in an encouraging and collaborative space. 

Zoom class: Signature series

Tuesdays, 6 PM – 9 PM EST
April 29-June 10

This is a combination painting/critique class where students will take deep dives into finding their unique voices as artists, in an encouraging and collaborative space. The goal is to develop a nucleus of work as a springboard for further development.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

Posted on

Monday Morning Art School: what is a focal point in art?

All Flesh is as Grass, oil on linen, 30X40, $5072 framed, includes shipping and handling in continental US.

A focal point in art is the area of a composition that draws the viewer’s eye and holds his or her attention. It’s the visual center of interest.

Artists create focal points primarily with contrast in value, hue and chroma, but other elements of design also support focal points. These include lines that guide the viewer’s eye, textural changes, and placement. Detail and complexity will naturally draw the viewer, as will isolation (which is usually also an exercise in contrast). And everything else being equal, a large object will dominate.

Why do focal points matter?

A good visual composer, just like a good musician, guides his or her viewer through the composition. Focal points engage the viewer, and lead them through the space in a calculated way.

Saskatchewan Grain Elevators, oil on archival canvasboard, 8X10, $522 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Should a work of art have just one focal point?

Generally, most paintings have more than one focal point, although occasionally an artist will let just one section of the canvas dominate. Good examples are Rembrandt van Rijn’s self-portraits, where humanity, as expressed through his face, is everything.

A single focal point creates a clear, strong emphasis, but the downside is that there’s no path forward into the painting. Multiple focal points create movement and tension, leading the viewer’s eye through the composition. The longer a person looks at an artwork, the more they engage with it.

Early Morning at Moon Lake, 6X8, oil on archival canvasboard, $348 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

How to prioritize focal points

You, the artist, are the boss here. You should ponder the hierarchy of focal points before you ever pick up a brush. (That’s one reason for a good value sketch.) What is the strongest focal point? What is its spatial relationship to the others? One focal point should lead the band, the others should follow merrily along.

Make sure none of your focal points are at the edge of your canvas or leading off the page. Think of your focal points as elements that are connected compositionally, connected by color harmonies, lines, and value.

Are focal point and subject the same?

While focal point and subject often overlap, they are not always the same thing.

The subject is what the artwork is about—the main idea or theme. The focal point is where the viewer’s eye is drawn first.

In many situations, they might be identical; for example, a black dog running in the snow would be both the focal point and the subject. But in Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Red Hat, the subject is the girl and her stupendous hat, but the focal points are the side of her face, her lace fichu, and the flash of red at the far right of her hat. The focal points are masterfully drawn down the canvas by a single line of light. Rembrandt’s The Night Watch is a portrait of the militia of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch but none of the supporting militiamen are focal points at all.

Athabasca River Confluence, 9X12, $696 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

How do you apply this?

In your next painting or drawing, make a conscious effort to set out and emphasize focal points, using value, hue, chroma and line. Can you articulate where they are and how you want the viewer to read them?

This spring’s painting classes

Zoom Class: Advance your painting skills (whoops, the link was wrong in last week’s posts)

Mondays, 6 PM – 9 PM EST
April 28 to June 9

Advance your skills in oils, watercolor, gouache, acrylics and pastels with guided exercises in design, composition and execution.

This Zoom class not only has tailored instruction, it provides a supportive community where students share work and get positive feedback in an encouraging and collaborative space. 

Zoom class: Signature series

Tuesdays, 6 PM – 9 PM EST
April 29-June 10

This is a combination painting/critique class where students will take deep dives into finding their unique voices as artists, in an encouraging and collaborative space. The goal is to develop a nucleus of work as a springboard for further development.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

Posted on

Monday Morning Art School: Abstract Drawing

Abstract drawing, layered charcoal on newsprint, by Carol L. Douglas

As with abstract painting, abstract drawing is the opportunity to explore design without the pressure of realism. The ante is further reduced by dropping color. You need few materials:

  • A sketchbook, drawing paper, or newsprint.
  • Pencils, pens, markers or charcoal.
Abstract drawing, repeating shapes, by Carol L. Douglas

Start by loosening up

This can be difficult for those of us who’ve spent years learning figurative painting. Here are some simple exercises that might help:

  • Free doodling: Pretend you’re in a boring meeting and let your hand move randomly across the page.
  • Automatic drawing: This is a technique first developed by the Surrealists in an attempt to access the subconscious. Close your eyes and let your pencil move intuitively. Minimize or eliminate rational thought and conscious planning. 
  • Music for inspiration: Blast tunes and draw lines and shapes that match what you hear.
  • Continuous line drawing: Without lifting your pen/pencil, create an abstract composition by moving your hand freely. Let the lines overlap and intersect naturally.
  • Draw random geometric or organic shapes across the page. Experiment with filling some shapes with patterns and shading.
  • Make a messy scribble on the page. Then refine and build on the scribble.
  • Draw an emotion or word: Pick any emotion, and express it through lines, shapes, and value.
  • Smear, baby, smear: Make a big blotch of charcoal on newsprint, and then lift and smudge it with a kneaded eraser. Enhance as you see fit.
  • Repetition: Repeat a shape in different sizes and orientations, allowing patterns to emerge naturally.
Abstract drawing, layered angular shapes, by Carol L. Douglas

Once you’ve gotten used to ignoring reality…

… you can start experimenting with lines and shapes. Focus on curves and geometric forms. Play with thickness, repetition, and patterns. Explore different techniques, including layered marks, contrasting densities, and the bold use of negative space.

A common exercise when I was in school was to draw with your non-dominant hand. It reduces control, but I doubt it gets you in touch with your emotions. Closing your eyes might be more helpful. Keep playing; keep experimenting. You’re unlikely to find a breakthrough on the first try.

Why do I want to try abstract drawing?

Learning to draw non-figuratively frees you to start combining figurative and non-figurative elements in striking new ways. Even if you never want to abandon realism, it will make you a better designer.

Once you’ve escaped the strictures of reality, you’re free to start mixing up figurative and non-figurative elements at whim. By Carol L. Douglas

Inspiration for abstract drawing

Abstract art was the primary artistic movement of the 20th century. Its practitioners are too numerous to mention. I’m partial to the works of Robert Delaunay, Charles Demuth and Clyfford Still, myself. Find a few you love and study their work.

Perhaps more importantly, observe textures and patterns in nature. The symmetry, spirals, branching, waves, cracks, tessellations and fractals of nature are deeply programmed in our brains. The line between figurative and non-figurative art is often tissue-thin.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

Posted on

Monday Morning Art School: transferring your drawing to canvas

A painting that started as a watercolor, which I gridded on plexiglass.

Last week I taught a plein air workshop in Sedona, AZ. One of my students did a superlative sketch but somehow managed to flatten out the diagonals when transferring to her watercolor paper. Gridding is harder in watercolor than it is in oils and acrylics, but it is a skill that needs to be mastered when learning to paint. In watercolor, just use very light pencil lines and erase, or use tiny cross marks at each intersection. Or, if you’re transferring a drawing of the same size, use Saral transfer paper.

Why grid instead of freehand?

We use preliminary value sketches to work out questions of composition. They allow us to take risks that we can’t when going straight to canvas. Why reinvent the wheel, or worse, regularize our risky decisions in the final painting? Gridding is a fast and easy way to set our best drawings in paint.

On Friday, I wrote about free apps like Grid Maker, GridMyPic, etc. that allow us to paste grids directly over photographs in our phones. I’m looking forward to using them for gridding over my drawings, although for reasons of artistic control, I’d never grid across a photo. I have many notebooks full of gridded drawings that I wish I could make whole again.

First, consider aspect ratio

To start transferring your drawing to your canvas, work out whether the aspect ratio of your sketch is the same as the canvas. This is the proportional relationship between height and width. Sometimes this is very obvious. For example, a 9X12 sketch is the same aspect ratio as an 18X24 canvas. But sometimes, you’re starting with a peculiar little sketch drawn on the back of an envelope.

By the way, I never sketch into a box; I always sketch and then draw the box around my drawing. This allows me the freedom to explore what’s important in the scene without worrying about squeezing it into a preformed box. After, I can draw a box around it in the proper aspect ratio.

Everything starts with ratios

Remember learning that 1/2 was the same as 2/4? We want to force our sketch into a similar equivalent ratio with our canvas.

Let’s assume that you’ve cropped your sketch to be 8” across. You want to know how tall your crop should be to match your canvas.

Write out the ratios of height to width as above.

To make them equivalent, you cross-multiply the two fixed numbers, and divide by the other fixed number, as below:

Use your common sense here. If it doesn’t look like they should be equal, you probably made a mistake. And you can work from a known height as easily as from a known width; it doesn’t matter if the variable is on the top or the bottom, the principle is the same.

The next step is to grid both the canvas and sketch equally. In my painting above, my grid was an inch square on the sketch and 4″ square on the canvas, but as long as you end up with the same number of squares on both, the actual measurements don’t matter. You can just keep dividing the squares until you get a grid that’s small enough to be useful. For a small painting, that could be as simple as quartering the sketch and the canvas. I use a T-square and charcoal, and I’m not crazy about the lines being perfect; I adjust constantly as I go. The last step is to transfer the little drawing, rectangle by rectangle, to the larger canvas. I look for points of intersection on the grid, and from there it’s easy to transfer my drawing. It may seem time-consuming, but it saves a lot of work in the long run and will give you a painting that more closely matches the dynamic energy of your original sketch.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters