IT-Hammar

I often meet people who would love to paint more, but either don't know where to start, or how to keep on painting. As I'm starting to find what works for myself I'm discovering ways to make it easier, and I thought I'd share some of them with you:

1. Crush all obstacles between you and painting. It's hard enough to paint a good picture, but it's way harder if you never start. Keep looking for what makes it fun, and don't let anything stop you:

Follow your gut. If something makes you want to paint, do it. And if something makes you not want to paint, change it. No subject is a bad subject. The most important part of painting is painting. If your projects have potential, you'll get back to them later because you want to. And, when you learn something new you can apply it to all of your work immediately. Think of it as improving a collection. And if you want to scrap a painting now and then to make room for something else you still have plenty of others in your collection, so it won't feel that scary.

You can always find time to paint. If you want to paint, make time for it. Cut down on your TV-time, or paint while you watch. Cut down on your social media time. Reduce the number of chores you have to do at home. Spend less on expenses that aren't essential, so you can work less. Protect your painting time!

More tools are not necessarily better. Simplify how you work. If preparing or cleaning up is a hassle then you're likely to paint less. And it takes time that you could have spent painting. Make painting as accessible as you can for yourself.

2. Work with making your palette work for you. Improve your palette whenever you feel it's not meeting your needs. You need to be satisfied with your palette. And if you're painting many pictures at the same time you need to know that your colors will work on all of them. The easiest way to do this is to use the same ones all the time. You get to know your palette better, how to use it better, and how to find the right color faster. It will give you continuity in your work, and make it easier to put paintings together. Use as many colors as you like. I prefer four because of its simplicity. It was also important to me that the pigments would be as little harmful as possible. After a long while I've ended up with this palette that I'm very happy with so far:

* Titanium dioxide
* Yellow iron oxide
* Red iron oxide
* Ultramarine

No. These pigments don't create every color in the world, and no palette will. But they *represent* all colors and values.

3. Keep searching for the technique you love working with. It's often good to have variation within the boundaries of the palette, and it's especially important to have fun. You can use different tools, or consciously use them differently to create unique traces on the surface. Currently I use both palette knives, brushes, cloths and sand paper when working, and switch between them whenever I feel like it. If I get tired of one technique, I spice things up. Move towards your ideal technique without setting rules for yourself. Try not to force yourself inside a box. You have nothing to lose.

4. Find your groove. When you notice ways that make you work longer and better, try to work them into a pre-painting routine that puts you in the painting mood. This can be any one thing, or any sequence of things that you associate (preferably only) with getting ready to paint. A cup of coffee, a walk, meditation, whatever suits you. Set up your work station before doing the routine, so you can go straight to painting afterwards. When you're tired, reboot with your routine and continue for as long as you like. Work on improving this routine as you discover new things that made your day particularly great.

5. Don't be afraid to be wrong. Several times I've been so determined to finish a painting, that I started hating it and ended up not painting at all. Nothing can be worse when trying to be a painter. So I decided to free myself from myself. If a painting doesn't feel right anymore, and is sitting in the corner laughing at me, I kill it! To hell with the good intentions I had when starting. The work was not in vain. I've learned something by doing it, and now I'm moving on. Try it! I find the best way for me to kill a painting is painting over. I'm re-using, which is good for the earth as well as my economy, and I don't have the apartment full of failed paintings I'm trying to get rid of. Often the texture of a painting (or paintings) underneath give a nice touch to the layers on top. And sanding down before painting over will give you the smoothness you might want before starting something new. Make sure to dry your painting off with a wet and then a dry cloth, to get a clean surface for the paint to attach.

What do you do to make your painting easier and better?

Happy painting!

For a painter the palette is the most important tool. Without it you are useless. One of my painting mentors said to think of painting in musical terms, and I think this is very useful. Your palette is your instrument, and it has to be able to represent all the notes so you can perform your music well. It also needs to have a system so you know where to find your notes on the instrument. This doesn't mean it has to be able to create all the sounds in the world, but a way of representing all the notes. For instance: a guitar doesn't sound like a piano, but you can play the same notes on them. On your palette the notes are your colors and values. This can be narrowed down to yellow, blue, red and white. "Black" is made by mixing all three primary colors. Which colors you choose will have a huge impact on your spectrum of colors, so I advice working with this continuously and adjusting whenever you feel your palette is not working the way you want it. You'll save a lot of time if you sit down and play with the colors for a while and compare them with other combinations to see if they will fit your needs.


This is a photo of my palette. After years and years of frustration I have come up with this system to keep my colors neat and tidy on the palette so I know exactly where to find the right color at all times. To make it easier to explain I have divided it in to zones separated by grey lines:

1. Primary and secondary colors. Straight from the tubes: blue, yellow, red. Between them I mix green, orange and purple. Mix a maximum of two colors together here. No white.

2. Clear grays and browns. Mix three colors in this area: blue, yellow, red, and blue again. No white here either.

3. In this zone I mix primary and secondary colors with white. I divide this area into four zones. Mix no more than three colors at once here, and only within the area it belongs. You can do with just three zones, but I like to give the blue some extra space because it is more easily made dirty by other colors.

4. This is the ONLY zone I mix more than three colors at once. This means you can mix all your four colors here without messing anything up, and create a spectrum of greys and browns mixed with white.


I keep white in opposite corners of the palette to separate white that is mixed with clear colors from white that is dirty. Whenever the white in the upper left corner gets too messy I move it to the lower left where it will do no harm with the already dirty colors. You can also move left over color from all your other areas here to make space when you need it. In the upper right corner I put dry paint that I scrape off the palette to clear mixing space. I usually scrape my palette clean before or after painting.

If your colors change a lot when they dry, it might be because of too little oil in your paint. Just use a little more oil to make it glossy and clearer. I use raw linseed oil. If it still won't be glossy you can always varnish later.

Hope this was helpful. Happy painting!