Back to basics: skinning the cat

In painting, there are plenty of ways to skin a cat. Every teacher has his own method for starting and working up a painting. Larry Robinson taught me to start the painting with a light charcoal drawing followed by runny washes. You should do two or three layers of washes. This helps you work out any compositional kinks before you start getting carried away with details. Larry also preached that you should learn the rules before you decide to break them. I’ve been doing just that for a while now… Breaking larry’s rules. In the really small paintings I’ve been doing, I felt like I kinda had too, they are just too small to start off with washes. I’ve been painitng with thick, goopy paint for a little while now. And although there is great satisfaction in palying with goopy paint, I started missing a more methodical approach. So, here before you, is the first wash on a set of three paintings about bees. I’ll be working on them this week for Thrsday’s painting critique. I must say, I feel like the composition is going to be so much stronger in the end. So yeah, Larry, once again, thanks for your rules. You are the leader.