leonardo learning----how to paint a masterpiece in 2 hours before lunch

Start with a drawing on your canvas in pencil. Drawing is what holds a painting together so try to make a strong drawing. I draw my srawing beofre I do my base tone so it doesnt get ruined when I apply my base tone.

For my base tone I use an acrylic wash of burnt sienna. Keep it light and transparent. I think I went a bit lighter than I normally would on this one. I also gave my lines some definition. dont kill your painting by overfussing. let it work with you, let it speak to you...you are working with the canvas not against it.

 in order to paint you should know your subject, even if you are making her up. This painting came to me as I was walking through central park I had a strange feeling that there was a lady who had drown in the park and she was still there as a ghost so in this painting the landscape and her work as one. She is not a woman in the landscape, she is part of the landscape. I like to create stories in my head about the picture I am working....this lady likes to be painted..she is happy to be brought into material form. Here I have added some blue as a sky.

I am now adding the foliage which becomes the shadows of her face and soul. I have friends who think art is supposed to look like a photograph. I see no point in that. I used to make photorealist work..it is like eating air--no point. I feel bad for artists who cant let a painting show them where it wants them to go. the art spirit will guide you if you open up to it. I remember when I made my first painting of this lady I thought  Iwas painting a mess and that my approach was crazy--using green as a shadow tone? But I stuck out the storm...

 okay..she is starting to find some legs--this is my expression in art when you get past a point where it doesnt seem to sing yet to when you start to hear the angels... I used charcoal to bring out her features and giver her some more life. When you are painting on the edge anything goes....At this point I am using acrylic...not oils. I occasionally use acrylics for an under painting, they dry fast and are great to build forms---acrylics are flat--no richness so I use oils to glaze on top of it. ancient alex secret--shhh.

Okay. I am done as it is noon and that was my promise. So in the final step I used oil paint to bring it home. I used some turps to darken up the charcoal lines as well. This paintings all about balance and not have the central park landscape fight with the figure. I am cygnus--the bringer of balance..fyi. I have learned one thing in art and that is the most important thing in a painting is convey and energy and feeling. It is a transference of emotion using the tools of paint and oil etc. I have no use for lifeless art howver well painted and I have no use for abstract bunk that has no life either. it is about spirit. Hard to capture in two hours but when i paint a painting in two hours there is 6,000 paintings behind that painting and 3o+ years of obsessign over art everyday like it was my last meal.