How to Prepare and Paint a Painting
The 12 Step Painting Process According to Artist John Hull
Nov 30, 2008
Artist John Hull explains the 12 step process to painting a painting. Artists of all skill levels, beginning or advanced, may benefit from this studio practice.
“Three qualities of a successful artist are high ambition for work, close association with great achievements of the past and a sound studio practice,” says artist John Hull. When an artist has problems in the studio, Hull suggests they first evaluate the number or quality of drawings. When having a good day in the studio, write down what you’ve done that day. “The more emotion, intelligence you spend, the more success you’ll have making interesting paintings.”
How to Paint with the 12 Step Process
- Find the Rectangle. First, find the rectangle of the composition. In your sketchbook, draw the shape through which the composition is to be viewed, or in other words the shape of the image to be on the canvas. The form of the rectangle generates a large amount of meaning. If it is vertical, it usually denotes a portrait; horizontal implies a landscape.
- Rough in the sketch.Once you have found the rectangle, continue by roughing in the sketch of what you are painting. “The composition is choices depending on what is important to you, the expression of this opinion,” Hull says.
- Grid the sketch. When you are happy with your composition, draw two lines intersecting in the center of the sketch, sectioning the drawing into quadrants.
- Transfer the sketch. Make the same grid on your canvas (or other support that you will be painting on). Many people use vine charcoal because it wipes off easily if it needs to be changed. The problem with this is the charcoal dust will contaminate the paint and muddy the color. Light drawing with a soft pencil is harder to remove, but won’t contaminate the paint. Another option is to thin out the paint and sketch with a brush. Transfer the sketch, drawing it onto your canvas quarter by quarter.
- Check for accuracy. If you measured correctly, the rectangle of your drawing on the canvas and the rectangle of the preparatory sketch will be in direct proportion to each other. Check your canvas drawing against the original sketch. Make changes to your drawing on the canvas if necessary.
- Set up palette. Hull recommends the colors black and blues (Mars Black, Pthalocyanine Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Blue and Cerulean Blue) to be placed in a row on one side, earth tones and white (Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre and Titanium White) on the adjacent side and yellows and reds (Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Red Medium and Alizarin Crimson) on the next side of the palette.
- Mix colors. Dark to light, mix the colors in your composition. This is just a way of organizing what you are seeing. Some people prefer to mix light to dark. If you are just beginning painting, you may feel more comfortable mixing just 10 colors that you feel best represent your painting.
- Begin painting. Apply the paint to the canvas darkest to lightest. Again, this is a way to organize your thoughts.
- Critique. Once the canvas is covered, step back and critique.
- Find Problems. Determine 3 elements that need to be fixed and in what order to change them. Start with the most major problem. Sometimes, after the main problem is resolved, the other problems no longer exist.
- Solve Problems. Fix the 3 problems one at a time, pausing after each to critique. Determine if other problems exist.
- Repeat. Repeat steps 10 & 11 if necessary.
Lastly, Hull's rule that is spoken but left off the official list is simply "Try not to screw it up."
The Artist
John Hull is a painter and a professor at College of Charleston, South Carolina. His work is shown nationally and has won many awards including the Thomas Benedict Clarke Prize.
The copyright of the article How to Prepare and Paint a Painting in Painting/Drawing is owned by Veronica Franklin. Permission to republish How to Prepare and Paint a Painting in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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