Creative Painting Process & Experiments

Sketchbook page of loose portrait drawings in pencil, charcoal, and crayon, with a speech bubble that says habits.

Process

How to Break Your Drawing Habits (Change Your First Decision)

Stuck drawing the same way every time? Try this: whenever your brain says where to start, do the opposite. A simple loose portrait exercise.

Page of loose drawings of the same bottle, starting with a careful construction sketch and getting looser, bolder, and more colorful, with the words construct and explore.

Process

Why I Paint the Same Subject Over and Over (and Why You Should Too)

Why I’ve painted the same simple bottle for 12+ years: the subject is just a way to explore. Construct it, push it, and find new ways to paint it.

Loose acrylic harbor painting with a sailboat, houses, and trees along a straight horizon, used as an example of a painting that needs more angles.

Process

How to Critique Your Own Painting (and Decide What to Fix)

Not sure why a painting feels off? Here’s how I critique my own work: spot stiff shapes, straight lines, and dull color, then fix it or start fresh.

Loose acrylic painting of four bottles in red, brown, and green with orange, blue, and gray backgrounds and black crayon scribbles at the top.

Process

10 Tips for Painting Loose (That Actually Work)

Want to paint loose? Here are 10 tips that work: draw loose, paint on paper, keep it simple, mix media, and stop chasing finished art. Plus a bonus tip.

Watercolor

Wet-on-Wet Watercolor Bananas: A Loose Progression Exercise

Practice loose wet-on-wet watercolor with bananas. Paint four studies, leave the first unfinished, and learn to scrub out and blot when a wash goes wrong.

Mixed Media

How to Paint a Horse Loosely: Acrylic, Charcoal & Mixed Media

Learn how to paint a horse loosely with acrylic, charcoal, and watercolor. Focus on rhythm and movement, then simplify, lose edges, and let the painting breathe.

Garage art studio with a painting table, hanging rakes and shovels, and a red tool chest in the background.

Process

My Garage Art Studio: You Don’t Need a Perfect Space to Make Art

Garage art studio with a painting table, hanging rakes and shovels, and a red tool chest in the background.

Four drawings of a coffee cup, two careful pencil sketches on top and two loose versions in pink marker, green crayon, blue crayon, and charcoal below.

Process

Loosen Up Your Drawing: Expand Your Range of Motion

Drawing too tight? Learn how switching tools, pencil, marker, crayon, and charcoal, expands your range of motion and helps you draw looser.

Loose mixed media banana drawing with bright yellow and green crayon, blue background, and black graphite line work.

Process

Banana Drawing Exercise: Explore Mixed Media Sketching

Stop trying to draw bananas “right.” Use them to explore graphite, marker, and crayon in loose sketches and discover your own expressive style.

Side-by-side pencil drawings of a tea kettle, a careful construct drawing taking 3:30 minutes and a loose deconstruct drawing taking 45 seconds.

Process

Why You Need to Draw It First Before Painting Loose

Loose painting isn’t about speed. Learn why a slow construct drawing comes first, how it makes a 45-second loose drawing work, using a tea kettle exercise.

Side-by-side pencil drawings of a cup and saucer, a careful contour drawing on the left and a loose, fast gesture drawing on the right.

Process

How to Draw Loose: A 2-Step Construct & Deconstruct Exercise

Learn how to draw loose with a simple two-step exercise. Draw the same cup tight in 2.5 minutes, then loose in 30 seconds, and see why it changes your painting.