The Process

Have you ever wondered how they do it?  How long does it take?  What is the process of making art?

I have met a lot of artists these past few years and everyone is so unique in their style and method of painting.  It's interesting talking to them and finding out about their process.  Depending on the medium used and style preferred it can take a few minutes, a couple hours, or hours upon hours to complete their pieces.

People have asked me countless times how long does it take me to finish a piece.  At first I was a little embarrassed to admit it took hours upon hours; I thought that it was because I was new at it and I really didn't know what I was doing. What I've learned over the years is that you do get faster as you learn more and you paint more, but my style of painting is realism and continues to take hours upon hours.

My method of painting is time consuming not only because of the fine detail, but also because I paint a complete monochromatic first, then I add the colour, so in essence it's like I'm painting the painting twice. 

I find the most important thing to get a painting looking right is the values, or in other words, dark, medium and light.  This is what gives the painting depth.  If you don't get the values right you will have a flat looking painting; this is the purpose of the monochromatic. 

I love this part of the painting because it is the most challenging.  It's easy to paint a petal or a leaf, but the trick is to make it look real, to make it look like it's coming off of the canvas.  When I first started to learn how to paint, the ability to make something come to life in a 3 dimensional look is what hooked me, and it still continues to be my favourite part of the process, not always easy, but definitely worth the time and effort.