Reasons NOT to Blend While Painting (and How to Break the Habit)

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[@DrawMixPaint]

IF you watch the entire video you will hear me say that I am NOT against blending at all. I just advise my own students who are using my method (and there are 100s of ways to paint, all valid) to hold off on blending until the canvas is covered (for the object you are painting). So lay in your paint, before you start "fixing" and blending. I also say that you may not decide to blend at all, leaving things unblended entirely - OR if you wish blend away - but cover the canvas first. But many artists that I love do leave things unblended. But this just my personal taste.

[@UncleTerry]

I always pick up things I've missed when re-watching your video. I bought your "How to paint Realism Video" recently. I need to re-watch them again before setting in on the DMP Method. Thanks for sharing your knowledge of painting realism with us.

[@felipecanonigo7685]

agree.

[@xcesar4impx666]

excellent video, down to earth ,and seeing the paintings at a museum ,i knew exactly what you where talking about, many paintings at museums are beautiful and detail and the metal tea pots are to die for, an as you get closer they look like messy buttery ,heavy brush strokes excellent video !!

[@mercurythunder3927]

Exactly, that is your personal taste to not blend, but for those of us that do, it does take work to blend and make it look for what it should. No one will tell me how to paint, that isn't your job. Your way is messy looking and takes too much paint and just not satisfying enough. Again, my take on it. If, anyone, wishes to be a good artist, then take the time to learn how to do things the long way, the hard way, so u learn to respect how much work goes into something. Then, if, u want to be more slack, do it this way, but I just couldn't do it like this, sorry. I take more pride in my work than this and some people get too caught up in the "teaching", that the power gets to them. Not all want to paint like you do. Enjoy ur painting but don't try to tell people, entirely how to do it.

[@erinpiccolo5186]

Mercury Thunder it’s not about not taking pride in the work, a huge part of getting things “right” is being able to see how color works. This technique focuses on contrast, temperature, intensity and hue. Color theory is about relationships and compositions hinge on the visual balance of how contrast, and that of color in this case, plays a huge roll. It’s not about going further later to refine and dial-in specifics, but overworking what could be shapes of shifting values can de emphasize the gorgeous qualities of what makes great paintings work.

[@jsngallery]

Hi, I'm John and I am an over blender.

[@notknown7705]

Hi, I'm Tom. I'm the complete mudslinger. Underpainting and overblending are my strengths :)

[@creativejourneys2789]

+Not Known 😂😂😂😂 both of you made my day. Made me 🙂

[@gr8fuldaniel]

Save a seat for me!

[@johannaignjatovic3466]

カムイリン photoshop painting

[@notknown7705]

How do you know it's a Photoshop painting, Johanna?

[@incgamc]

I love how they put the mic on his glasses :D

[@RockDove5212]

😂😂😂

[@autoexistente138mlp]

MMM maybe it' a camera

[@forknifecapt.2410]

The future is now

[@Nouno470]

it's called a pro gamer move

[@therealjamespickering]

It's so you can see what the talking about... or hear what he's seeing? I don't know. At least it avoids the rustling of the collar mount.

[@TheKingBJ]

Overblending is the painter equivalent of putting too much reverb in your music.

[@maxiepattie85]

I want it to go to 11! The shit machine only makes brown..... and it stinks!

[@robertwisden7202]

Wait.... there can be too much reverb? NFW.....

[@jayb94htx]

🤣🤣🤣

[@mongoose1234567890]

Or adding way too many overdubs on a master take.

[@GraveyardKid]

i do both

[@ghostinclouds4311]

When I first started painting, I was using gouache and I used to blend everything, then I switched to acrylics and this time I couldn't blend at all, so I started using more and more tones, which lead to better paintings in general. Then I switched to oils and started painting with the mindset that I was still using acrylic paints and the results are better than I could've hoped for

[@vincemoseslabtic7059]

@@nguyenphuonganh4453 I don't really try to blend in gouache mine would get overworked and the layer would get reactivated, rn I'm trying to get used to treating it like acrylic

[@T12E5]

It is totally possible to blend acrylics

[@ghostinclouds4311]

@Joan Goldsmith at that point I haven't even touched colours yet, yet alone paints, I always liked drawing in graphite and paint was a completely new medium at the moment

[@reesehesseltine5950]

Idk how, but I find ways to blend acrylics without even realizing it. Lmao, I also really only use acrylics when I have art block so really I just throw paint onto a random page in my sketchbook and see where it takes me.

[@conslin1147]

You are awesome!

[@aianabalibay9336]

Me, someone who paints with watercolor watching this: 👁👄👁

[@esejsnake1503]

I feel the same. It's still good advice for some techniques. Don't overwork it...

[@aianabalibay9336]

@Isabella Woods that's true. Sometimes I blend it out so far that I end up painting a space a whole color when I wanted it to be a smooth gradient lol

[@silva7493]

Me too, lol! It's making me think about getting some oil paints. Do they still make those? It's been several decades!

[@silva7493]

WTF is a color checker😄?

[@francesmmitchell]

Yanna Banana woohoo I’m not the only one!

[@williamschlenger1518]

John Singer Sargent said"place your colors where they belong and leave them alone"

[@hijodelaisla275]

In my case, I fear, that place is in the tube.

[@_JoyceArt]

I've always admired people who can achieve realism with rough strokes. I know someone who can do that digitally. I myself am a blender, but coincidentally recently started breaking away from the habit. Also, watching other great artists who are kind enough to share their wisdom on KZbin, I've only just now learned to let go of wanting everything I make perfect. The drawing I'm absolutely most proud of, is one where I kept telling myself that it's just practice and that it's okay to fail.

[@benjoseph8387]

learning to loosen up takes practice and experimenting for me.

[@blissfulbaboon]

there's no success like failure

[@MichaelsPaintingChannel]

I am one of those people who tries this digitally and it actually works, but it has take me very long to develope this brushes for photoshop.

[@susanstover4154]

Joy ce )

[@iLoveTurtlesHaha]

Like the video said, if you get your values right you don't need to blend much. Do your values first, then decide if you want to blend.

[@edagharachadaghi1586]

not blending makes a painting very interesting, and I personally love to see brushstrokes.

[@hijodelaisla275]

"personally"

[@user-vp2rh6ko4g]

People are too easy to get into the details and ignore the whole.

[@paulnoel7196]

OMG! I wish I had that on a recording in my studio....it is the biggest sin we commit as struggling artists.

[@jjroseknows777]

...oh, I was going to add: ...and the reverse is true too. and then your comment below, Paul Noel, it brought me back to painting and I have to think how does my reversal of the axiom work?! "People are too easy to get into the details and ignore the whole." to "People are too easy to get into the whole and ignore the details." Which, if I may say so is probably what I'd have been telling a young Sargent and I was his teacher. Think of all the masterpieces we'd have missed out on if Sargent felt compelled to refine the details. There is a lot of mastery with the hint. That's why I do say Sargent was daring - like that young girls face when Mark was saying how hard it feels not to go and correct it...because Sargent went almost too far and we are forced to take it or leave it...and who could leave the beauty that he showed us.

[@maddart4445]

That’s life. People worry about the little things but can’t see the joy of life.

[@shadowartist8892]

Its like when you're writing a book, You write a "shitty first draft." Then you layer in edits, rewrites and polish. Its the same process.

[@LynnePriceStudio]

The idea in painting this way is for the draft to be very presentable, good enough to not have many edits.

[@GreySeashell-j3m]

They also said to not edit, rewrite!

[@citaw517]

SHADOW ARTIST...in acting, I'd tell the students..."be bad...give yourself permission to fail big."

[@shadowartist8892]

@@LynnePriceStudio Thats the goal but sometimes I get off on the wrong foot and waste paint getting back on the right one.

[@PauloConstantino167]

KZbin's greatest achievement is the 2x speed.

[@Schmidtelpunkt]

Could have started at 7:00. (I still gave a thumbs-up for the information delivered from that point on...)

[@carpophage1243]

Earth's University of Science So many snarky comments about free information.

[@dcg1976]

Herr Schmidt oddly enough that's the point where he changes clothes.

[@Schmidtelpunkt]

"So many snarky comments about free information." If you really think this would be free, you have missed that attention has become a currency itself.

[@immrpandabear]

Holy crap I didn't think anyone else would do that but me. But he talked so slowly I just had to

[@theeditor1149]

"The whole point of this exercise is to finish with a very ugly painting that you hate, but your values are right" - he said this like those drunk people at bars trying to impart their philosophy in a wise way😄 but I loved his advice and think he is so right and it is freeing to approach painting like this. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.

[@ayatotah227]

i personally like some what blotchy paintings or the whole "painting ugly".

[@zebnemma]

I think it's fascinating. I look at old paintings from centuries ago that are painted in that style. My mind can't process sometimes how this sloppy style can result in such a cool painting. It's like magic and my mind is blown. :D

[@ieatpancreas2005]

SAME but when I am painting i just expect myself to paint everything perfectly and blend everything

[@TsetsiStoyanova]

This was eye opening to say the least! How did they know not to blend back then?

[@faatimah9562]

He said it himself, because they were painting from life. When we look at a photograph we can see all the details and tend to get caught up however back then they only had life to learn from

[@granmabern5283]

They had to paint quick to sell quick and buy more wine.... before it rained or the sun set or the boat took on water....and then they saw that it was popular and interesting

[@mazsroy9]

Because they weren’t following a bunch of rules but what they were seeing.

[@margaritahope4604]

Thank you for encouraging us to paint “ugly.” My paintings look like photos as I must have some OCD to over blend. Will try to leave brushstrokes on my paintings from now on.

[@phub4386]

Just because you overblend doesn't mean that you have OCD. Coming from a sufferer of severe OCD that has now caused me 6 months of daily compulsions and crippling anxiety, don't use our disorder to describe something that you do when you don't have it.

[@noitwasu3692]

@@phub4386 exactly! I've also had really bad ocd for about 2-3 years. It's not fun and it's not something to describe perfectionism. Thank you

[@phub4386]

@@noitwasu3692 Us OCD sufferers are often stereotyped wrongly. I wish people really knew what it was like to have our brains

[@suneasha2191]

@@phub4386 ppl say lines like i must be blind cause i couldn't see it, doesnt mean they are insulting blind ppl. Even obsessing over a lover is called OCD. There are different levels and types of OCD. People are too sentimental and defensive for no reason. No one is making fun of OCD so y come out so rude??

[@suneasha2191]

@@phub4386 obsessing over perfectionism is ocd so that is how ppl link perfectionism with ocd. For me it started out with perfectionism with art now i have started obsessing over it. I start having anxiety and insomnia if i make a mistake while painting and lose sleep over it. 🙃dont take ocd and compare it with others and evaluate how much ocd affect ppl. Not everyone has severe OCD. Just bcause someone has OCD doesnt mean everyone else who has it is to have the same symptom. Dont make a disorder into a cult, it makes it difficult for people with mild OCD or starting out OCD people fearful or scared because yall act so defensive and sensitive.

[@GalaxysDragon]

I'm a digital artist and I notice I tend to over blend. I admire other people's work (traditional and digital) who are able to use their brushstrokes economically. The texture in those pieces are so interesting. I want to incorporate that into my own pieces. So, even though this is meant for oil/ traditional painting, I definitely want to do this excercise. Thank you for making this video! it was extremely interesting and inspiring.

[@vilandiris2612]

I struggle with over blending too in digital. I have been recently experimenting with brush settings that force me to not blend, like brushes that have hardly any transparency controlled by pen pressure, almost completely opaque or 100% opaque. It's tough on my eyes when i start out but it seems to work once I get used to it.

[@joannavandeneijnden5437]

Wonderful information, all video's excellent, explanation is terrific, can't get enough . Thank you so very much.

[@not_obsidian]

I’ve looked at a lot of paintings and wondered where I went wrong all the time, and it’s just my tendency to over blend from beginning to end hhh TT this video rlly opened my eyes

[@Dakobah20]

How has your progress been 3 years later?

[@minea4295]

Hi army👋🏻💜

[@Craftsworldsocial]

This is very good advice I noticed when painting with gouache if I don't have my colors all down I can't add more layers or it'll get real weird -- with oils I think the super blended stuff can muddy things

[@jothiele3825]

Went straight to my 10 yo sister, who was painting. "You are over blending, Sarah"

[@sukilu1964]

excellent point. so hard not to blend, great exercise idea.

[@Dylanquinn666]

This is probably the most valuable lesson I've ever heard in relation to painting and it's something I wasn't even aware I was doing. I've had a real problem with my work looking flat and lacking texture and I'm certain this is why. I definitely overblend and I get too focused on individual elements early on instead of the overall consistency of the image/values. Thanks so much, you don't find this sort of info in a book.

[@jsngallery]

A tip for beginners (I wish someone taught me this when I was starting out). Learn warm and cool colors. This really helped me after I finally figured it out. Just know that there are warms and cools of every color. i.e. there are cool yellows and warm blues. PS, if you know this already no need to comment. Also learn the pigment database numbers, so you don't waste money on "false" tubed colors. Personally I mix my own colors from pigments.

[@SalkisRe]

What are the color database? Where do I learn them?

[@winonawins6932]

Can u xplain more pls like do u mean add a bit of blue to yellow to get cool yellow or thr r tubes avlbl in market?

[@hailee176]

Yes! I just started painting, but I’ve never really taken an art class or learned color theory. As soon as I started paying attention to the colors I was mixing and using, it changed my realism dramatically

[@ljg6350]

Salkis Re The color database is a collection of colors based on the RGB (Red Green Blue) color model It provides a way to specifically identify and number a huge predefined set of colors as well as over 100 different grays. For example the universal code for black is 0,0,0 in RGB. Not to make things more complicated but these can be converted to hex codes, CMYK (Cyan Magenta Yellow Key(black)) codes and numerous others. Do a google search and I’m sure you’ll find some more info. Basically the color database provides a way to name colors as well as provide a universal way for them to be replicated without trial and error. Hope that helps!

[@ljg6350]

Winona Wins Let me see if I can give you a quick uber simplified version of this theory. Th OP wasn’t saying to add blue to make the yellow cooler. You'll definitely want to grab a pen for this! Basically you can split the color wheel into 2 categories, warm colors and cool colors. Warm colors would include yellow, red, orange while the cool side would be blue, green, and magenta. Now take your paper and draw a large circle that takes up majority of the paper. Then draw a horizontal line that exceeds the sides of the circle splitting it in half. Now draw a vertical line that exceeds the edges through the center so you now have 4 equal quadrants. At the point of your vertical line label it Yellow. Moving clockwise label the next point from your horizontal line Red. Bottom of the vertical line is Blue the the last point Green. Now draw a circle on both sides of every line, a total of 8. Still with me? Now on each quadrant you want to mix the two colors closest to eachother two times, once with one of the point colors being dominant and then the opposite being dominant. For example if you took the quadrant between yellow and green the first color would be a more dominant yellow green and placed in the circle closest to yellow. The second would be a more greenish yellow and placed in the circle closest to green. Do this with the rest of the quadrants and you should end up with something like this (wish I would have found this before all the explaining!) www.justpaint.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Color-Circle-Split-Primary.jpg The warm colors are yellow and red, and any mixtures with the dominant color leaning toward one of those would be considered warm. There can be cool and warm colors of varying shades as shown on the greenish yellow (cool) and yellowish green (warm). This is obviously a simplified, very simplified model but I hope it helps!!

[@annacoribioanna]

Thank you for bringing this up, I noticed the same thing on the books I have from the old masters.... and then I see modern "realist" paintings and they are almost too realistic that they look like photos and not paintings, they also look less mysterious or elegant and I always tried to figure out what it is! I think this is it, the old masters of realism made "paintings" that look real, not exact photographs, and it is my philosophy that human beings create a bond more with a non-human thing. For example, we see "photos" of people in pain or about war all the time, yet, they people ignore them, but if those same images were a "painting" its a different story. People like to see other people through a sort of "glass" that's why they go to movies..... yet all that its proyected in movies or even art, we can see on the street. So even with realist paintings I enjoy more seeing paintings that look real, but within a "painting" not those perfected ones that get confused for a photograph. My goal is to pain "ugly"..... ! like you said, thank you for taking the time to do this video.

[@conslin1147]

I agree... There are youtube channels teaching people to draw or paint like a photograph. Just take a photo.

[@LucyHeartfiliaasdfghj]

I think this really depends on what kind of art you make and especially what kind of paint you use. Old great artists often used oil paint for their realistic paintings. Oil paint takes a very long time to dry, so you can easily still blend when you added paint to the whole canvas already. However, when you use acrylic paint or aquarell paint, which dries very fast, you have to decide what parts you want blended and what not quite early. I'm not an expert, just a hobby-artist, but this is my view on this topic.

[@Icecodes]

I can tell automatically he’s a great teacher

[@cheriesmith5140]

yes! if it helps paint the pic upside down. view it as an abstract. view the values and shapes and go from there.

[@Jess-wj2xb]

This is so true, I've noticed that when I paint something & I go back in and "fix" it, I think it looks 10x worse

[@benjimlem1284]

Is that... a microphone... on your glasses? :D

[@vii6429]

Copied

[@cosmatalindie3255]

One of my biggest faults as a self taught artist, I do tend to want to see the painting look as good up close as it does from a distance. The result is that it ends up looking good close up but undefined and lacking depth from a distance. Still trying very hard to break this habit and step back more often as I paint. Thanks for making video as it certainly helped me to understand why I do it and understanding is the first step towards fixing a problem.

[@271250cl]

Excellent advice. I recall reading about how Sargent constantly walked backwards and forwards, to and from the canvas, so that he could view what he'd done close to AND from a distance.

[@joo7454]

+Colin I also think that his rough & bold brush strokes are from his extensive sketch habits.

[@paulnoel7196]

One of the best advice I got in a painting class, when I got to involved and carried aways with detail was , use your 8' brush...that's the real secret to good art. If it doesn't look right 8' away it's a failure.

[@AgustinaMateos9]

But if you're working with acrylic painting you can't blend in the end

[@youcansoften]

I think he is talking about oils. Acrylic needs to be done quickly I agree

[@benjaminaustnesnarum3900]

The best tips I got from my life drawing lecturer: "You don't paint IN the details; you paint OUT the details." and "You need to step back and LOOK at the model/painting. I mean REALLY look at it. Step back further." - I had a habit of immediately starting with detailing the piece I was working on, because, I had worked mostly with mechanic pencils, or, inks with fine tips. The problem with this was that I'd overwork certain areas, and I didn't really look at the figure as a WHOLE; therefore, the overall painting/drawing was rarely consistent.

[@jamesbergeron9800]

Good advice, thank you. I recently did a (digital) still life of some fruit on a table. I spent like forty minutes blending and tweaking the grapes on the table, and then another hour smoothing out and tweaking the other fruits I was painting. After I took my nose away from the monitor after a few hours of hard work, I realized that my grapes were a cartoon purple, instead of the light cherry red they actually should have been, and that my shadows were flat across all the grapes, instead of varied like they should've been. Looking at the painting as a whole is common sense, but it's very easy to forget. You and a few other kind artists who share their knowledge on youtube have nudged me into ordering some oil paints. I'll keep your good advice in mind when I try my first oil painting. Thanks again for all your videos. Very nice of you to share. Cheers. =)

[@ANAHATAJADE]

I was always concerned about what people would think as they come up close to my paintings. Thank you for sharing that important point.

[@DasPstehtFuerPeter]

so what is a colour checker? i need that

[@ankitparkhe2773]

yes where can i buy lol

[@Prazzie]

@@ankitparkhe2773 Have you found out yet? There are some old videos about the color checker and how to make one and use one on this channel (posted 7 years ago).

[@annesaffer629]

Mark (Draw Mix Paint) sells a nice one, and he also has a free video showing how to construct one yourself.

[@bethhunt9849]

I cannot thank you enough for making this video! I followed your instruction and the next day, I "allowed" myself to paint an ugly painting. To my surprise, it turned out to be one of my favorite paintings I've ever done! Since then, I have created many more and some are better than others, but they are always better when I follow the instruction in this video. Again, from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!

[@estrid8616]

me, a first time watcher trying to figure out what a 'color checker' is:👁👄👁

[@estrid8616]

lloydsgem yes kind of.. 😰

[@beccagee5905]

He has a video explaining, tells you how to make one, and sells them.

[@kayaeki]

i thought as a digital artist he meant color picker

[@homemadeonourhomestead]

🖐 I’m an over blender 😩

[@frobbit30]

Thank you for making this video, I have learned more from watching your videos than I have during my college painting courses.

[@GMthunderbreak]

The real issue with this statement about brush stroke VS blending for a digital artist at least, is the view distance is completely different. No one looks at a digital picture from 5ft away, their faces are usually right up their monitor.

[@ThiagoCRocha-fh6lg]

For Digital Paiting, this is gold info

[@MysteriousAsteria]

Sadky I am so conditioned to focus on details first that despite knowing about proper color blocking I am almost never using it, because working on the details first is so tempting! It's really hard to unlearn that habit, once you have internalized it so well, so I recommend newbies to avoid it as much as possible and start with the proper technique instead. Your works and especially your progress will be so much better, I promise. Because of my shitty habit I still can't judge values and colors well even after years of practicing (and i did my practice very wrong also), so let that be a lesson.

[@sleyaraze8916]

This feels too personal.

[@stuffystuff1661]

2:52, weird, I love how paintings look up close.

[@thewill2create759]

Hm, I think this all comes down what style you’re trying to achieve. If you look at someone like Carivaggio he has a much more “polished” look. Where every brushstroke is blended and he achieves amazing realism

[@kaymuldoon3575]

I had an art teacher who used to call that effect on paintings as “painterly”.

[@PhantomZephyrV]

Golden advice there, Mark. Thank you again. Also, I have a question. i've been always struggling with flowers. Specifically the petal order. I can draw a sketch of a flower without a problem, but once I use oil paint, I lose my ability to discern petals from each other, and they all end up misplaced, regardless of my values being almost perfectly correct. Are there any tips on painting flowers, because my mother really loves flower oil paintings, and I wish I could paint some for her.

[@foreropa]

+Phantom Zephyr Ⓥ I´m not an expert but I think your problem comes from contrast. Contrast is what differences one petal from the other. Check this website, it might help you: www.craftsy.com/blog/2014/09/how-to-paint-flower-petals/

[@tractusintentio7516]

+Phantom Zephyr Ⓥ Difficult to say without seeing your work, but generally most students tend to use far too much paint, applying it with too much impasto. This creates a thick mushy layer that is very hard for beginning painters to handle. I suggest using full-bodied paint, in VERY SMALL amounts, applying it very thinly, just enough to fully cover the canvas. You should NOT see virtually any brushstrokes as you go along, as you are using such little paint and are applying it with great control. I also recommend using small round brushes and working finely. A student must master the brushwork and the nature of the oil paints at a fine level first. Once accomplished, the leap to working more broadly is much more easily attained. Hope this helps. :)

[@mattellrod8199]

Perceiving the correct value of something that has very intense color (high chroma), as with flowers, is difficult. If you work from photos turn it black and white to see the true value of the color. And step back from your work often to see if you are losing the values as you paint (perhaps by over-blending).

[@cheriesmith5140]

matt ellrod yes! great advice

[@jjroseknows777]

This helps very much, Tractus Intentio. NOW I see that I was more or less trying to BUILD the flower. Ah, yes, so obviously WAS overblending as I tried to push that paint around. And then my petals were misshapen if shape persisted at all and when all was lost to remove the excess with a trowel, and start over. I was actually thinking of, in cartoon form when the old couple to up to a Sargent. and she says, "See, I told you it was a paint by number!" This becomes more funny as time goes on and we see how distinct blocks of color IS the task and solution at hand. And for Sargent to "keep stepping far from the painting" I said, he was squinting and asking himself "Just how damned detailed do I have to get??!! And so that master knew when he captured the essence and he would let you squint too and see the beauty and the daring.

[@courtneyanderson8842]

You just fixed my entire life... this feels like such obvious advice but I'd never worked this way or been told to work this way before, and I can't believe how much it improved my paintings!

[@christinaarnoldin7167]

Thanks for this... I'm in the habit of sitting inches from my painting, for hours on end, and forgetting to get up to stand back and have a look at it periodically. It causes me more hours of trying to get it perfect then is needed.

[@souphater6428]

6:53 My Sims when they change their everyday clothes to their outside clothes

[@DINOLOVER6717]

So you’re talking about oils right? Because acrylics drying WAAAAY to fast for you to go back and “fix” something....

[@susanphillips5018]

I’m so guilty of blending. I want to go for the painterly look. I think you encapsulated, in one 12 minute video, on how I can do this. Can hardly wait to get started. Thank you.

[@pnartg]

As you say, it's a matter of taste. The examples you showed - Hanna Pauli and John Singer Sargent - were both late 19th century artists and that was a period heavily influenced by Impressionism and by a desire of artists to distinguish painting from the oncoming rush of photography. So showing lots of brush strokes and splotches of colour was all the rage at that time. But I prefer paintings that are delicately and extensively blended. I find too much overt brushwork to be distracting, and it's true that I'm not a big fan of Impressionism. But I do agree that blending should be done at the end, after everything else is painted in.

[@toddclancy4442]

I guess Velazquez was Way ahead of his time then....

[@orchardjpg]

this is such solid advice, I've always had an issue with how muddy my work looks because I over blend to the nines! I also add detail in the beginning which I've learned is something you should savor for last! Thank you for your tips and videos! I need to make a piece that I absolutely hate now ;)

[@mattellrod8199]

I LOVE Mark's videos - informative, generous, inspiring, practical. But this video doesn't say why blending is bad; it only shows why it's not necessary for a realist effect (citing Sargent). As a fan of highly rendered art (Ingres, Bouguereau, Marvin Mattelson), I'll throw out why OVER-blending is bad: (1) if you have two adjacent areas of different values and you over-blend, you destroy the value separation, weakening the 3-dimensional illusion. (see Mark's video on letting white paint creep into your shadows causing the same problem) (2) same with color - if you over-blend two adjacent patches of different colors, you combine the colors into one and lose the color variation, making for a less interesting painting, and in the case of human skin, less realistic skin tones. Painting alla prima, blending is particularly risky for that reason. I paint in layers myself, so I try to get the color variation with successive layers of translucent paint interacting, rather than trying to mix the 'perfect' color in one go, as would be needed with pure alla prima painting.

[@carpophage1243]

matt ellrod I agree with your comment. The problem is there is virtually NO advice or instruction on how to blend anywhere on the net or on KZbin except for a useful video by Florent Farges.

[@camishokrian7476]

thank you for this informative & constructive comment!! :)

[@manuelavivero]

Omg yesss haha I know I'm so late to the game but even as someone who tries to paint in a detailed, realistic way it is so important not to overblend, to "make it pretty"! I work with watercolour and yess it's better to layer targeted areas than to "blend", it gives really clean, bright colours.

[@DaughterOfDaddy-O]

I just took an oil painting class in my town and I was frustrated because I just wasn't getting it. Now I come across this video by chance and I get it! Loud and clear! Great explanations. Thank you!

[@hnodchuip]

I want to thank you for such a helpful advice! even tho I use digital art as a medium, (painting in photoshop) this tip was super helpful! my values are never accurate because of blending, and it frustrates me to no end as no one was able to explain what I wanted to hear, nor did they understand what problems I was having. B/C of letting my value go loose I was able to see the over all image better and the end product looks complete and not muddy and there was no blend needed!

[@redicent]

My art teacher tells me not to blend as well, as it makes everything turn into mediums

[@hawkeye9382]

The first time I ever painted oils, my teacher taught blending and I couldn't do it right. I was so disgusted. Nothing seemed to look right.

[@basicbase749]

“You don’t try to do a pretty painting” Me: side-eyeing Gouache painters😂

[@katepavelle9465]

How would you handle this concept in acrylic? It dries so fast, I really have to move on. When I get back to a piece later, it takes forever to re-match the colors (and it wastes paint, LOL). I've considered doing an acrylic underpainting and adding a layer of luminous detail in oil, plus glaze. Thoughts?

[@JU-ki9wb]

I love painting this way, less pressure and then it all becomes about the process and less of the result. Then it goes from ugly to not bad lol

[@redchilli450]

Times have changed, you can't hang on to what was done several centuries ago & say its still the gold standard. It's the digitaal age, you cant expect someone looking at ur painting on a mobile phone to walk 6 feet away and admire the magic unfold. If you think your painting will be in displayed in a museum for ppl to view it from a distance, good luck.

[@TeKn1qe]

Excellent point an excellent examples. This video nailed it imo and for me came at the perfect time as I just finished penciling my still life and really struggle with blending. I had every intention of this being my most beautiful painting but instead will use it for this exercise. One point you made really stuck out to me and it was regarding painting from a photo. I find when drawing or painting from a photo I get absorbed by the detail where as when I work from life not so much. I will do this exercise and post it to the forum. Thanks for your time and this video.

[@IvoHantl]

Hi Hark. Can I use those same rules by painting with acrylic paints? Even without blending edges?

[@rachelblackwell5207]

I love the look of looser brushwork up close and in the style of the old masters. Those paintings are so beautiful in their own right and I appreciate the traditional method of applying color, but I don't think creating a really polished painting with great detail is necessarily bad. Isn't it a matter of taste? Times move forward, other styles evolve... My background is colored pencil but I've fallen in love with oils recently so breaking my usual habits, would be so hard! However, I can appreciate both styles and whilst I'm still a newbie, I think for the moment I will continue to practice a more modern approach. This is very interesting though - quite a skill in itself. New subscriber here so thanks for uploading your videos 😊

[@Eliburgo]

Rachel Blackwell But with colored bencil you have no choice but to blend to achieve realism there's even a pencil that is a colorless blender painting it's not so sometimes less is more sometime it's the overall piece and not any specific nuance that deserves attention but it is all preference beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[@stephaniemitchell8509]

This is 12 minutes of reiterating the same thing: Make sure your canvas is completely covered and your colors/values are right before you blend. I still couldn't tell if he really wanted us to blend even after everything was covered, since the pictures he showed of examples involving brush strokes without blending looked really good to me, even up close. I love brushwork, it's what makes the main difference between a painting and a photograph, and photographs are rather dull to look at. The more blended, realistic, and photographic something looked up close in his examples, the more cartoony it looked. It should also be noted that the technique of waiting until the end to blend will only work for mediums that don't dry quickly, like oil, or that can be easily rewetted like gouache, or that require no moisture, like charcoal and graphite. I don't see this working at all for acrylics or watercolors.

[@CourtneyWilding]

Your videos are outstanding

[@lilcicero77]

Courtney Wilding they really are

[@franzbi8465]

Too much smoothness become boring. Rembrandt works are remarkable because of his brushstrokes. These strokes and blending make the artwork more lively. If we criticise Monet because of his works for blending too much is because he wanted to make his own mark. I'm an artist too and being in an artworld where nobody knows you for your ways of doing things is frustrating.

[@11gingin]

i dont know why, but this guy reminds me of a burnt out james rolfe

[@elisenation2139]

Loved this video! You mentioned a 'colour checker' a number of times, do you have a link to this somewhere??

[@timmartindale75]

Jeepers! Can I just say how cool it is that you're sharing this info for free? You explain everything really well. Thanks!

[@temporarymomentary]

If you want hyper-realism with sharp details > take a photo. True realistic painting doesn't have to be that sharp etc. Focusing on realistic details is a waste of time. Realistic details only work on a small illustrations

[@davidthegood]

Very good ideas - thank you. Will try and see how it goes.

[@cindyoverall8139]

It depends on your subject.. the Tonalists blended a lot.. Leonardo was a great blender. Great painting is walking down the middle of all attributes and be a master of all

[@mrfrogbutt1]

I LOVE your info because I used to over blend my work like a fool. I had to train myself to be more open to relearning to be more lose in my work

[@notknown7705]

Overblending is as much about making sure you have the correct color and value to begin with. If those two things aren't correct, you're left with three choices: remove the stroke, leave the stroke or blend it. Most of us simply can not just 'leave it'.

[@mrfrogbutt1]

Not Known I only took 1 painting class but im am more of an illustrator and printmaker. I am relearning painting now, I love these videos and seeing all the tips and having feedback from painters. I have tons of respect for fellow artists and am grateful that everyone is on here, where would we be without KZbin?

[@jytte47]

without KZbin we would be practising much more LOL

[@notknown7705]

Well said, hytte majer :D .... I just bought four student-quality stretched canvasses .... going to see if I can do as well on them as I have been on cardboard and styrofoam board. Very frustrating to screw up on better quality material, and produce 'masterpieces' on junk. I'm cursed :(

[@artistaccount]

​@@jytte47great point I agree with you 100%

[@gulagwarlord]

The finely modeled flesh tones in his paintings led many critics to accuse Bouguereau of relying too heavily on the badger blender. But according to Emile Bayard : Emile Bayard, 'William Bouguereau' in Le Monde Moderne, p. 854.There has been talk of badger-blending, which still amuses the artist, since he has never resorted to this technique ...

[@sunlight4tullip]

the best advice ever !!!!!!!!!

[@JK-uv5wg]

I believe that over blending starts with drawing then it continues to painting. I see some of my students using their fingers to blend in every single pencil line. Kind of strange. The result is fuzzy and blurry.

[@meeranatarajan4487]

Sir, I would love to watch your videos from the very beginning. Please advise. I also did not understand the Colour checker. I Guess if I watched from the very first video I shall be able to follow your method accurately

[@DrawMixPaint]

All of my free and downloadable videos are on my website www.drawmixpaint.com I hope that helps!

[@elsagrace3893]

Meera Natarajan yaaa, what's wrong that people don't listen?

[@paulinekneteman7667]

elsa Grace

[@bossshrek1241]

wait did carvaggio and velasquez use the same technique because their paintings look quite smooth

[@beverlybryce7591]

Your videos, method, and supplies make it possible for me to be a much better artist. Thanks for being such a great teacher! I have learned to trust you and your method.

[@gulagwarlord]

Learn to paint gradations considerately. Learn to identify the major and minor arcs of change, and then paint the arcs of gradations in small strips of form, on at a time, wet-into-wet. Stack these strips of gradation/changing form on top of each other and stitch them together while maintaining the proper amount of change across the strips. If you are a beginner, DO NOT mass things in with a middle-tone and paint into it. Please try the strip-shading thing until it becomes reflexive and you have a year or two under your belt doing it that way until you try the more haphazard approaches out there. Good luck -J

[@Keviamaya]

Is so hard not to blend :/ Even more so if you're painting from imagination

[@AnalogOsprey]

I’m gonna need you to go ahead and stop blending your colors. If you could do that, that would be greeeaat.

[@DebraKeirce]

Well, I wholeheartedly disagree. I'm glad we have options! Vermeer, Chardin, Da Vinci - These guys would disagree if they were alive. There are so many ways to paint. I think we should embrace them all.

[@jmmacb03]

In my humble opinion, Mark presented this video as an exercise. Some people will have values in a 5 value scale and others in 20 values from white to black. You are the one to decide if a painting is finished. There is zero downside to this exercise and once you have a more practiced eye there is nothing stopping you from blending all you want. But I want to have a choice. Also, Mark has not steered me wrong in a single video. Cheers.

[@carpophage1243]

Art by Scout Dawson I kind of agree but if you look close at a Dali he wasn't actually blending at all - he just applied very fine brush strokes in his better works. Yves Tanguy employed exactly the same technique. Michelangelo and da Vinci definitely blended - Michelangelo did it beautifully if sometimes cartoonish, but da Vinci's paintings are on the cusp between beautiful and clinical - though I would say they are all inspired. I find Rembrandts ugly sometimes because of the impasto - I don't like impasto at all. But his lighting is pretty much always beautiful. Sargent's style really does play on and please the eye.

[@mattmoves5920]

Carpophage: So you find Michelangelo sometimes cartoonish and Rembrant sometimes ugly because of the impasto. It's like saying I find Mozart nice but too easy listening and Beethoven not good because sometimes it's too dramatic. I'll stop writing here because I may start to be offensive.

[@paulnoel7196]

There isn't enough time in anyones lifetime to embrace them all (unless you meant appreciate them all ). You need to focus on a direction and stick with it. If you go into too many directions you will never get into your own groove and the paintings will never have soul. Most of us are amateur painters and will never have the talent of amy great artist. FOCUS on you and your capability ! Take a little from the artists you admire and make it your own. Unless you have studied with a Master you will never paint like a Master. This guy teaches a technique that works but once you've learned it you need to fly solo and not use it as crutch. If you don;t find your own style you just become a clone. Clones have no soul.

[@erinpiccolo5186]

This is a good idea for the first layers of a painting. It's like blocking in tones and values. How far you move to render the objects is a matter of preference, style, and skill, but the values remain as the structure. This is a way to paint the structure and not get bogged down with rendering.

[@solomanacosta8980]

It might be a good method for some people and for others it might be leaching out what we love about painting

[@rubberpicker]

What is a color checker?

[@jamieramirez1]

i had never heard of one of these either, but just looked it up b/c i wondered the same thing. he has another video talking about color checkers, it was linked to from the manufacturer actually: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iqa9Yadre7dsnJI

[@giuliazaffino3416]

I figured a tecnique at some point, you can unfocus your eyes to see if the effect of the blotches of paint are right in color and position instead of blending

[@bru1015]

Something that helped me was to work with pastels without blending.

[@notknown7705]

That actually is a good idea! I've mostly painted with pastels this year, but recently decided to have another goal at oils. Because I was blending less with pastels, I blended less (still too much) with oils.

[@benwalgate5142]

I just love this guys teaching methods he's the only person I feel a connection with, all the other tutorials on KZbin have lost me after 2 min of viewing

[@dianecostanza]

This applies ONLY if you are an impressionist or post impressionist painter. I’m pretty sure Da Vinci blended.

[@red2744]

no actually he did not but he worked in many many layers

[@sonomawinetourdrivers3895]

John Singer Sargent got paid approximately $150,000 per painting in today's money....

[@burpo]

And lunch.

[@JohnSampson]

All these so-called tutorials only matter to the people making them. There is no one way that suits everyone.

[@mercurythunder3927]

Just wanted to say to Draw Mix Paint, that I didn't come here to get attacked the way I have just for leaving my own comments and opinions. You are letting these people do this to me and I won't keep this back and forth crap that wouldn't of happened in the first place had you said or done something about it. I have nothing against you and just wanted to say how I felt and I got attacked by your followers. So, blocking you n those that have attacked me. I hope that you start defending those like me that just have a right to speak their minds without getting told rude remarks. If, you think that what they do because they are on your side, then that is bad. I won't be treated this way! This channel is not worth it to me, anyhow!

[@mercurythunder3927]

And, I stand firm on what I said above!!!

[@franciscaviani786]

Do not blend -- please show us what you are talking about. Fill the canvas with what? Show us! Talk less more action!!

[@Solaxe]

+The Man jeez calm down

[@carpophage1243]

Solaxe S Tell Francis to calm down

[@animemicheal]

its self explanatory. Obviously fill the canvas with a colour block representation of everything in your painting, then fill it in with the details, contrast, bla, bla, bla etc.

[@MysteriousAsteria]

Yeah, the video is more about theory. Though I think everyone interested in painting should already know about "color blocking". That's basically what it is: laying down the colored surfaces in blocks to make a blueprint as to speak of what values will go where. It helps a lot with getting the colors and the light situation right. You'll surely find a lot of tutorials if you search the term "color blocking" and how to go from there to the finished reuslt

[@digitalfroot]

you intimidate me. But i really enjoy your videos

[@TheEtherny]

What's wrong with blending? I think it's cool when you see something on a painting and as you get closer you find details you didn't know were there. I think each have their own taste and their own style, just like I can appreciate a painting which captures the essence without blending it to see the paint's textures and I too can appreciate the hard work of a hyper realistic painting.

[@vgart]

TheEtherny he's just saying to wait till the end to blend

[@kingsleysaxon9710]

Brains are excited when they are presented with suggestion rather than answers.

[@chaserUSA48]

Thanks very much. It took listening to a fellow Texan to awaken me to the fact that I have literally destroyed the last 46 years worth of my assertive brushwork through blending and then over painting. I taught Oil Painting for 28 years and helped launch a lot of good artists into the world of art making and have retired to my studio. Grateful for these few minutes of excellent advise that remind me that my first painting was my finest! Haha! Onward and thanks again Los

[@twinkyhouse2680]

This is what I've been trying to articulate for a while, I always hated photo realism paintings and gravitated towards thick brush strokes that give the illusion of perfection from a distance, it's the whole point of a painting

[@notknown7705]

That is true. I think another way of getting over blending is to use a knife. Using a knife, by its very nature, is about just laying down color.

[@deathwish766]

Twinky House What do you mean "It's the whole point of a painting"?

[@MissKoletta]

I'm so happy this channel exists :) I'd be happy if I could make a living painting, but my job is conservation of artworks. I love it, but I prefer painting :) Looking up to such authorities as Sargent or Lipking I get frustrated sometimes, thinking one life is not enough for me. I miss times when I was preparing my works for the entrance exams and had days and weeks just for developing techniques and getting some serious advice from my teacher. It's good to listen to you, Mark.