How to start a painting and work with simple 1-point perspective. Design tips shown with iPad cropping and 'V of sky' idea. Filmed for a live class on Zoom (Part 1) and specific areas of concern are illustrated in the demo for students, based on paintings submitted for the critique (not shown in this video). Part 2 shows knife work for edges and brush work to take the art further to completion.
Make a commitment to your MAIN IDEA and stick with it! This is different than a FOCAL POINT. Focal point can be too ridged of an idea and can create a frozen - locked in feeling. The main idea will guide you to good artistic choices: value, masses, shapes, edge destruction or embellishment. The main idea might shift your focal point during the painting's creation, that's OK. This flexibility fosters a great way to communicate with paint... the painting to you, you to the art, and also the message will convey to the viewer.
When working on your art do you find a stoping point and don't know what to do next? Are you worried about an area that is too precious? (you know it might be wrong or discordant to the art, but you don't want to redo it?)... this demo addresses those feelings and shows destruction of elements that might have been working in isolation, but all aspects of the art need to serve the whole painting. Also an important idea is to not assume the sky is white. Note how in the demo Christine makes the sky look 'too dark' at first, but she is keeping in mind the bright lights (these are the lightest), therefore this has bearing on all other aspects of the art, thus the grayed sky (photo does not show this gray).