Dagger Stroke  Technique #1

Look at the strokes above.  And look at the blank canvas next to them.  The energy that is contained in the strokes completely changes that canvas.  This is creative energy which we can engage with and mould into our Fine Art image.  This is not about trying to capture an image - that will come.  It's about empowering the canvas with our creative energy.

As you will have seen in the Common Problems page and if you've taken the Ten Point Techniques Test, tentatively applying paint in the early stages of a painting shows fear and leads to very limited results - poor results which terribly restrain your career success and your personal satisfaction.  This is very common when artists have been taught with poor technique, or when an artist chooses a subject and lets that subject over-rule their creative autonomy.   The Dagger Stroke removes these problems instantly. 

To understand the advantages and power of this Stroke, it's important to learn the way an image or subject is moulded. In Fine Art painting, a subject is not defined from the outset where paint is dabbled on bit by bit to finish it - that's really just a form of painting by numbers.  You can paint any subject you like, of course, in advanced painting, but the difference is that the subject is brought about by a combination of techniques and layers, where each technique and layer interconnects, so you are actually moulding the image much like a sculptor would mould their art in clay. 

Although it happens on a two-dimensional surface, this moulding of the subject is liberating and empowering - you have control over the creative process and can take advantage of the multitude of effects which naturally arise with advanced technique.

It might be of interest for some artists to know that the result of the Dagger Stroke can be so raw and crude that no-one but the artist knows what has been painted.  The subject will be there, but it will be there in foundation.  Other techniques applied to that foundation allow for the subject to be created, so that the artist has full control over the degree to which a viewer is led into the work.  Viewers can be led into the subject or image boldly or as subtly as the artist likes.  Bold images can 'blow viewers away' the moment they see the work, and subtle images can work their way into the viewer's mind over many months and years.

The only way to be able to deal in this sort of power and quality is to have enough of your creative energy on the canvas right from the start. No fear; nothing tentative on the canvas - just your art.  The Dagger Stroke is perfectly suited to getting instant results for you to develop your Fine Art painting. 

Blending  Technique #2

Once you have your creative energy on the canvas - and that's just a fancy way of saying your paint, your art - you can begin to refine it.  Refining that raw paint takes away future problems with the work, and begins the process of moulding the subject or image into what you want.

Blending is a technique which engages in this advanced process at a very high level.  It does this naturally once you know advanced painting structure (which comes from simply using the techniques).  Unfortunately, Blending is taught as a means to an end in itself: it's a very common technique beginning artists learn.  You've probably done it a thousand times.  Obviously it's an easy technique to do.  But what you probably don't have the benefit of is the way it interconnects with other techniques during the creative process.

To learn the technique of Blending is not so much about learning how to do it, but where the technique resides within that advanced creative process.  Some 'art teachers' use blending to such a high degree in the creation of their painting that the result is really just craftwork.   It's a technique which can bring instant 'results' to a canvas and give the artist extremely quick satisfaction at having brought about an image. But the problem for that artist and those who paint this way is that their work will not improve - it can't go anywhere.  Paintings created with an over-use of the Blending technique won't ever be able to show the vast multitude of effects which are otherwise available, and these artists' careers will only ever remain at that most basic of levels.

When you learn your Fine Art Techniques, always remember to use Blending as a technique which engages in raw, empowered paint in order to refine that energy and remove future problems.  This way, you will use it as sparingly as you possibly can, and you will have then available to you those other vast multitude of effects.  Why is this?  Because when you blend, you are running the risk of decreasing the visual energy in your work. 

If you want subtle images, and subjects full of softness and light effects, and things like mist and sea spray and fog, Blending is not the way to achieve these.  Start raw, start with power, and combine the techniques following to obtain these effects. 

The difference is profound.   Craftworks executed in paint that have been created using predominantly Blending will have mist and fog and spray and light effects which always look the same, day after day - there won't be magic in the work and there won't be anything a viewer gets from that craftwork (it's not art) after the first time they see it.   Fog and mist and all these things and more which have been created in advanced technique continually offer the viewer new discoveries! 

This happens because the work is jampacked with art - with your art - which is naturally magical and which actually creates images in the viewer's mind.  And because your viewer has different thoughts, and various feelings, happening within them each day, so too does your artwork inspire and connect within them differently that day. 

All these things are achieved naturally when you use advanced technique.  When it comes to Blending, use it as sparingly as absolutely possible.

Painting Knife  Technique #3

Exactly the same problems occur for artists who predominantly use the Painting Knife in creating works, as those problems mentioned about Blending above.   Doubly troublesome, is when 'art teachers' instruct people to paint with these two techniques in combination.  Nothing will limit your work more, nor kill of any prospect of true art satisfaction and career success.  Some 'art teachers' might add, say, 'dabbing the paint on with the end of a brush' to these two techniques, in which case you've been taught nothing more than craft making.  Just because you've put paint on canvas doesn't mean you've created art, even though you can see an image or subject as a result.

You can get a quick fix in advanced technique.  Look at the photo above - there you'll see the tail feathers of a parrot created in just one stroke.  Proof this is one stroke can be found in our Fine Art Techniques DVD Triple Pack where you see that stroke being made.

But the Painting Knife technique is much more than a quick fix. It's one of your awesome Day One Empowering techniques.  As with the Dagger Stroke, the Painting Knife thrusts your creative energy onto a blank canvas.  The result though is very different, and used in combination with the Dagger Stroke as part of advanced painting structure delivers you untold artistic possibilities.

This technique is not to be confused with the Creative Knife technique, which is where the knife is used in later stages of the painting (after Day One), with paint altered by medium.

You can empower a canvas in just seconds using the Painting Knife technique, and you can empower very large canvases with awesome ease.  But remember this technique produces a creative foundation.  Other techniques are applied over the top, engaging that creative energy, refining what's there, and empowering that some more, to deliver you thrilling satisfaction. 

Caress Stroke  Technique #4

Something about the buttery silkiness of oil paint makes this technique very sensuous.  Indeed, it's a sensitive stroke to make.

Also a Day One technique, the Caress Stroke is applied with the brush very flat to the canvas.  Slowly, oozingly gorgeously the paint on the brush is taken from it by the wet paint which is already on the canvas, enabling you to refine the work.  You can even change the color of the underwork with this technique - one of the reasons why we are so liberated when it comes to color, in using advanced techniques.

Apart from its ability to change colors for you, the Caress Stroke can also alter or enhance texture.  This is crucial in Fine Art creating.  The brush above is about to make the Caress Stroke, where you can see the bristles of the brush don't touch the canvas.  It's only the paint loaded onto the brush which touches the painting surface, requiring a sensitive and thoughtful approach, hence those lovely refining qualities it produces. (In the photograph above, the thick stroke on the left might be caressed out to soften its texture).

Another value of this stroke is that it can free a subject for you, by placing an altered foundation upon which later techniques can deliver many new possibilites, rather than having your work or subject stuck in one place.  If you've painted before you'll appreciate the benefits of this.  Instead of an area of your painting just not working,  and remaining troublesome, possibly even ruining the whole piece, you can now Caress some paint onto that area, creating a new foundation and opening up those possibilities. 

This gentle stroke can achieve many other benefits for you, once you find its place in your painting structure.  It's always a sensuous joy to do.  Beautiful!   

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