The #1 Skill to Learn for Loose Brushwork and Vibrant Color

[@IanRobertsMasteringComposition]

For more information. click here: masteringcomposition.com/2024-course-registration/

[@camerondavidhourd351]

Great information. Thank you for continuing to teach and remind all interested artists of the many basic components necessary to improve one’s paintings.

[@brentladue]

Succinct and well said. Thank you for all of your excellent videos and for sharing your knowledge in easy to understand ways. It's gold, and very much appreciated for those of us on our own artistic journeys.

[@IanRobertsMasteringComposition]

Thanks so much Brent. My very best wishes.

[@anastasiazueva8538]

Thank you Ian! Always watch your lessons. Very helpful advice! Value study and good drawing in advance will help the most I think.

[@IanRobertsMasteringComposition]

Glad you found it helpful Anastasia. All the best.

[@pooi-lengwong100]

Thank you for the lesson today. Very educational. Thanks for the heads up on future courses.

[@IanRobertsMasteringComposition]

I'm delighted you found it helpful. Best wishes.

[@kerstinebascope6493]

Excelent!... thank you!

[@IanRobertsMasteringComposition]

You are welcome!

[@alessiascolours]

So informative! Thank you :). Have you got any book recommendations regarding using muted colours and more advanced colour theory?

[@IanRobertsMasteringComposition]

Hi Alessia, looking at your @name there and your comment I imagine color is what really grabs you. But in light of your question (and not knowing anything about your experience) the thing to think about is the well known expression, Color gets all the attention but value does all the work. A couple of months ago I did a KZbin video on how you can shift the hue around but you need to be solid on the value and intensity. Honestly working on building really strong designs of engaging value shapes is way more important than color. The color embellishes it. That probably wasn't the answer you were looking for. But I hope it is helpful. All the best.

[@rossmcintyre1710]

Perfect info’……..perfect !

[@IanRobertsMasteringComposition]

Glad you liked it Ross. All the best.

[@123tabatha]

Another gem

[@IanRobertsMasteringComposition]

Thank you.

[@stefanstern3542]

So very helpful and interesting!...

[@meearo]

Ian, I'm only beginning to fully realise that loose brush doesn't mean slapping the paint on in a care-free manner; It means thinking carefully about the colour and value, where and how you apply it to the canvas/paper before you lay it down. But as you rightly point out: once you've decided and laid it down, LEAVE it. Beginners and non-professionals (like me) make more mistakes and tend to go back over the brush stroke multiple times; ruining any looseness and vibrancy.

[@IanRobertsMasteringComposition]

So you have the idea. But to your point about not getting the mark right and having to correct it. I have to do that too. But I don't brush what I have painted in the hopes of making it work. I get more paint, usually lots of it and lay it down on top of what is there. If you only put down the one mark it is amazing how much paint can be on the canvas yet you can still lay in one clean mark on top of it. The second stroke is just a smear of the two colors (on the canvas and brush). Try it. You'll see. Each time trying to find the right color so you can leave it. Good luck.

[@susanreinersuedahl]

​@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition This is very informative.

[@huntsail3727]

Interesting, this makes a lot of sese. I have a question. I see many artists approach the color, value, chroma in their work incrementally. They continue to adjust what they put on the canvas layering one stroke on top of another. Yet they also have vibrant colors, value changes, and expressive brush stokes. How do you do both? That is have the expressive strokes that you described in Sargent's paintings, and at the same time approach the finished work incrementally building on what you have already painted like I see many alla prima and plein air painters do?

[@IanRobertsMasteringComposition]

If you are talking alla prima and plein air we are then assuming they are painting wet into wet. Generally I'd say the first layer is thin, almost staining the canvas with darks. Each layer having a bit more paint. But the point is if you have lots of paint on your brush and you only make one mark, or two if you turn the brush over, you can lay a color on top of another wet color. It is when you try and make the third mark that you lift the paint layer below and now you are mixing on the canvas. But if you keep refreshing the brush you can keep adding paint. And that gives a clean fresh look to the painting. But the point is if you look at the finished painting you see each mark is put down a left. Not mushed around a lot. So you can keep adding layers of more paint but knowing you don't mush it. You paint it and leave it. And the color you found has to work or you will have to muddle around with it. Even though you might go over something you had already painted. Hope that makes sense. All the best.

[@sarahhill1492]

Hi Ian I’m keen to do this course but wondering what time the video calls on Thursday are ; I’m in Australia and this is the part I’m most interested in as I have your book and can only do so much on my own. Cheers Sarah

[@IanRobertsMasteringComposition]

Hi Sarah, the calls on Saturday (maybe 2 or 3) and the weekly calls on Thursday are at 9 am PT. So depending on where you are in Australia that is either way too early or way, way too early. They will be recorded. Being live on those calls is not that central to the course. And I will do one call late in the day just for all those that are in inconvenient time zones. I wouldn't let the live calls be the reason to do or not do the course. With best wishes.

[@niks966]

Awesome

[@IanRobertsMasteringComposition]

Glad you liked it.

[@roccoliuzzi8394]

Excellent advice as usual, however, it is hard to get from here to there. I have taken to doing small studies which invariably are more dynamic than my completed project, which I tend to over work. My only recourse is practice, practice, practice. Is that it?

[@anastasiazueva8538]

Same here! I had a teacher who used to say put stroke and leave it. And another one saying that then bigger your painting then bigger brush you have to use. Some artists use mop size brushes because they have to cover bigger canvas. If I get with a brush that too small I more likely will loose that fresh look by adding to many small strokes wich will break the unity of the painting. 😊

[@roccoliuzzi8394]

@anastasiazueva8538 Yes! I've been experimenting using half sheets and using larger brushes and trying to limit my time to two or three hours. Although I have a scrap sheet for testing, getting the right value often eludes me. It is astonishing how the surrounding colors radically alter perceived brightness. As with so many other things, skills comes with practice. Or so I hope.

[@IanRobertsMasteringComposition]

It is hard to beat practice. But like I say in the video deliberate practice is way more helpful than just making the same mistake over and over. So if you do lots of smaller studies. If you really like one, the compositional design of value masses, then do a larger of of it. But not much larger. Say your study is 8 x 10 then go to 12 x 16. Just a step. When you are translating that shift in scale consistently then go to 16 x 20 and continue with that size until again you are feeling confident. Hope that helps. All the best.

[@IanRobertsMasteringComposition]

Again deliberate practice might suggest just doing 1/4 sheets and focussing on just that one thing. How you mix a color so that you get the color in relationship that you want. Be less concerned with making art. Maybe use the same image a few times over and over as you experiment with that one thing. Good luck.

[@IanRobertsMasteringComposition]

Both ideas are good advice. But sometimes you just need a small brush to get a level of precision so the image reads well. But then often people just keep on with that same small brush for areas that would be better served with a larger one. And then the painting gets tight and overworked.

[@judynail1690]

Ian is it too late to join your class?

[@devoradamaris]

🫂sharing🫂thankYOU

[@deniseewert6372]

❤❤❤😀

[@debwicks2523]

Perfect summary, Ian, & now posted in my studio to keep me in line:) Question about how you started your demo - do I have this sequence correct? Toned canvas/let dry/charcoal composition sketch/spray fixative/start painting darks, etc. This sounds so much more forgiving than drawing with paint from the start - allows drawing modifications before painting begins? Another safeguard? Thx always! Deb (happy alum)

[@IanRobertsMasteringComposition]

Hey Deb, good to hear from you. That is the right order. Only the part about figuring what you are going to paint goes in there of course, and the tightening of its design and so on before you get to the charcoal part. And I put in the darks first if there some big dark masses. But say it was a well lit landscape with lots of lights and only a few smaller darks then I'd would not put those darks in first. It is more the size and therefore the role they are playing that would dictate that. Hope that answers your question. Good luck and all the best.

[@debwicks2523]

So helpful, thank you, Ian ~ will try that this week! Have never stopped doing the early sketches - creating that map first guides me through doubts along the way (and have come to love the calming drawing/design process vs hoping, rushing to paint). Magic, Ian - appreciate my time with you very much :) @@IanRobertsMasteringComposition