Canvas Painting

Enjoy Your Subject

There is one thing any artist must do when first learning to paint on canvas.  This is to choose subjects which interest him.  In other words when you are painting something you do not like, it will show. 

The quality of the painting will not be as good as the others you have done.  You will not pay as close attention to the details because you will want to hurry through and get it done.  This will result in a poor quality painting. 

Compare the two pieces of art work.  My mother did them both.  She loved the blue herring and hated owls.  Can you tell?  Anyone who is familiar with her work can take one look at this piece and know she did not enjoy doing it.  There is more detail paid to the leaves than the baby owl. 

When you like what you are painting, you will do very well.  Stick with what you like to paint and leave everything else to the other artists. Do not compromise your quality for any reason. 

Compare this piece to the owl.  Now compare it to the first blue herring.  The artist was able to capture the essence of the bird in this painting.  She focused completely on the bird with no attention to the background at all.  With subtle shading added to the background color, which is barely noticeable, she was able to show the light source coming from the left.  By focusing on the bird, the viewer can sense a feeling of tiredness.  To be honest, this bird is much older than the one in the first picture.  The artist was able to capture this feeling.  Yet there is still something proud in the way the bird is holding himself.  One other note of interest.  By putting the bird on a section of fencing, it gave the painting some level of grounding.  There does not have to be a lot of detail in the background in order for the painting to be noticed.