5 Ways to Get Your Painting to Stand Out

Bell Tower at Carmel Mission (c) Mary Hubley

How do you decide what to paint, when everything in the landscape is screaming for your attention? Here, at Carmel Mission, I was faced with a stimulating landscape that overwhelmed me. The gardens billowed with color, and the rugged Spanish architecture was over the top.

Standing in one spot, I did a slow 360-degree turn, and at each angle I imagined a different masterpiece. Everything vied for my eye.

But when everything stands out, nothing stands out on the canvas. A painting with too much going on is unfocused and jumbled. So, what to do?

5 Ways to Get Your Painting to Stand Out:

1. Focus. Decide what's really important. I study the view and determine what I love the most - in this case, it was the flower and sky colors, and the shape of the bell tower.
2. Edit. Narrow it down. Don't paint everything. Focus on just the most important aspects of a scene.
3. Create a strong composition. All my paintings start with a single-color under-painting to work out the composition first, before adding the complexity of color.
4. Block in the values. With the same color as the under-painting, block in the darks, then lights, and finally the mid-tones. Create the highest contrast in the area where you want the eye to go.
5. Use a limited palette. Finally, add the color. And don't overdo. Too much color everywhere can end up looking like a jumbled muddy mess.

Genre: Landscape
Painting Name: Bell Tower at Carmel Mission
Size: 20" x 16"
Media: Oil on Canvas


-- Mary Hubley
mary@maryhubley.com
www.maryhubley.com

Sunflowers as Painting Subjects

Sunflowers for Sunday (c) Mary Hubley

Paintings of Sunflowers

I started this painting with a light background, but found that they just didn't pop enough. Sunflowers are powerful, strong creatures, and I needed to give them more definition. The answer: I darkened the background and now the sunflowers stand out.

Van Gogh Sunflowers

Inspiration of Van Gogh

Growing up near the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I would spend hours in the impressionist exhibit, and in front of a particular Van Gogh Sunflower painting. Van Gogh's painting has an intense light blue background, and surprisingly less intense colors for the yellows in the flowers. This makes the background stand out rather than the flowers. However, the effect makes the flowers soft.

Student's Paintings of Sunflowers

To the right are some of my student's sunflower paintings. I picked up the bouquet on Sunday morning at the market, and used it all week as the still life subject for both my painting and drawing classes.


These paintings were the result after two hours of painting sunflowers.


Genre: Still Life
Painting Name: Sunflowers for Sunday
Size: 16" x 20"
Media: Oil on Canvas


-- Mary Hubley

Cummer Museum Oak Tree

"Cummer Oak" (c) Mary Hubley

Cummer Oak

This sprawling live oak tree is at the Cummer Museum, in Jacksonville, Florida. Underneath it are the museum buildings and garden. Massive branches reach to the ground. People meander underneath, in the deep shade. The painting is a show of light and shadow. The canopy features cubes of greens, making light dance off of the canvas.

Genre: Landscape
Painting Name: Cummer Oak
Size: 16" x 20"
Media: Oil on Canvas

Another Great Shell

Another Great Shell (c) Mary Hubley

I paint lots of children on the beach. I live at the beach. It's where children are left to their own creative play. They run, pick up seashells, build sandcastles, while parents watch from a short distance away.

Genre: Figure
Painting Name: Another Great Shell
Size: 16" x 20"
Media: Oil on Canvas


--Mary Hubley