Someone recently told me: If you want to solve a big problem, paint small. For a small problem paint big.

Chris is a great painting teacher! Not only does he give you guidance...he makes you think for Yourself! That’s so important!

I am starting an oil painting, so I picked a photograph of still life composition. Just a lovely red apple with a great background of black, tan, and grey. I started to do some small sketches, and as I have not drawn for decades. I started to draw the apple as an apple, but I missed out on the most important part of my art training 26 years ago. Always see the shapes at their basic and work from there. I realised the apple is almost a vase shape, so I stopped drawing what I thought apple and looked at the picture and tried to see the shapes. I did really simple thumbnail composition sketches with just the basic shapes and lines. I learned a lot from the 16 sketches. They were like a cartoon spread sheet and the more I did the more I learned. I still have a lot to learn, ie on my observation and think more as well. The key point is here is not rush into stuff.

I have watched many of your videos and have learned from them all, but I think this one in particular will help me the most. I have never really practiced painting. I definitely have not taken the time to do a small painting first before committing to a large canvas. It makes so much sense, but I needed you to point the obvious out to me. Thank you Paint Coach!

I discovered something! I usually play music while painting. I listen to your videos at the end of a hard day while falling asleep. NOW - I'm listening to your videos As I'm Painting! Even though I heard them before, I'm getting more out of them, especially when related to what I'm painting. Thank you Chris.

Your tutorials helped a lot to improve the contents in my channel.

damn you are so good at your craft! There is nothing you can not paint! AND you are so young! I am going to be curious to see what down the road it looks like for your work considering this is what you can do now!! You have (hopefully) many many years ahead of you to do even more! That is an exciting concept. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and skills with the world. If only youtube existed when i was a child and had teaching like this to guide me! Love your stuff!

You truly are amazing. Your way of teaching is so clear and easy to understand. You're my FAVORITE oil painting KZfaqr teacher ❤️ I appreciate you so much

Right on time. Funny how you are always right in time with subject matter that is helpful, thank you. I like that when you speak it is right on time, no-nonsense speak. You truly are the paint coach.

Thank you Chris. Your talks are very inspiring . I'm going to try some of the things you've talked about. It's a little difficult for me as I'm nearly 78 years old. But I'm trying.

Always look forward to these videos.

Very pleasant to lessen to your teaching. Thank you for your kindness 🌞

Thank you for sharing your progress story. It really does take hard work!

Thanks so much! Great info and inspiration. Blessings and be safe.

Always such useful advice! Thank you! ❤️

Love your artwork and your videos are really helpful too! ❤️

Excellent topic and I think, as a beginner, going back and forth between sizes, like you said, is helpful. Each size presents it's own challenges and learning opportunities. Thanks!

This has been very helpful. Love all your paintings. Thnx. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

great tips! Thanks for sharing !

Yes, I agree. I paint in watercolor and do 4 paintings on a 9 by 12 paper. You really put into words all the reasons why this is good to do (very well). It also teaches you to loosen up because you can do the same subject, over and over again and is economical. Right now, I'm I'm working on doing better value and color work. To excel, you have to study. The techniques I have mastered.

What great info! Love love your videos!

Such a useful video!! 👍🏻

Great tips, definitely helpful, each video I learn something new. Who are some of your painting heroes? I'd love to hear you talk about old masters who you may look up to or current artists who you follow day-to-day. Love the videos!!

Thank U, great tips as always :D

"He who is too big for small things will be too small for big things" Donald Noel (jr.) A great video lesson. Thanks Chris.

Thanks Chris, always good tips.

I just got a painting commission that is 24X60 and watching your videos have really helped me being a new oil painter! Thank you ❤

Hey Chris. I recently found your work on KZfaq and just love how you teach!! I painted as a child and got some commissioned work. But with life happening- marriage, kids, work,nursing school I haven’t painted much until my youngest daughter liked it and started doing acrylics with her-mostly landscapes and animals. I’m Now starting over with oils and chose the Eye of God from the helix nebula on a 4’ x3’ canvas. Never painted so large and am having a TERRIBLE TIME trying to get the variegated clouds right 😢. Any suggestions on blending clouds? How do I find your Patreon page? Keep up the fantastic work and teaching! You have inspired me to at least Try Again! Thanks so much for all the teachings!! You’re the Best🙌🏻❤

Just wanted to throw in my process here to maybe give people ideas or inspiration. I use small painting to figure out color schemes and depth. I use a limited split primary palette to make my painting flow better. So, my smalls look abstract with no details. Sizes are 4x4s or 3ishx4s and I use an 8 filbert because you can use it flat or on the side. It's a habit now. I use it for all mediums. Absolutely invaluable. Hopefully this info will help. Thanks for your awesome channel. Just recently found you.

My first large painting was a study copying one of my favorite painting by my favorite painter. It had been a revelation for me! I think trying a larger canvas without trying first this exercice would have been way harder for me.

Very helpful!!

Thanks Chris! I usually paint small (8x10) but today I started an 11x14. Not very big but it’s a start. Glad to hear your advice because a friend of mine who is an incredible artist suggested painting big so that my ‘style’ could come out more. Not exactly sure what he meant, but I find smaller canvases challenging and time consuming enough for now!

Again,very helful tips even for advanced artist!

Nice video.! Fully watched and liked .

Thanks hoss, good editing of video. Great advice, once again. Helps a lot to hear these concepts. Btw ‘hoss’ is a reference to Hoss On Bonanza tv show, one very kool dude!

Around the 6:30 mark you spoke of the difference between copy mode and understanding mode. Could you unpack that some more in a future Paint Talk?

With the little cup. Hat trick. Painting plein air is hard yep. But people around look and tell you it's beautyful. PS: the root thing is self-confidence.

Thanks for the great painting tips, Chris. Love hearing about your first hand experiences. Have you used Lavender oil as an oil thinner instead of Gamsol? I am using Gamblin Safflower Alkyd Painting Medium and am looking for a non-toxic thinner. Thanks again for all the good advice.

Thanks so much for all your videos and your heart to teach and serve other artists. I’m learning so much from you; I aspire to become better at painting and have my own art business one day! I wanna be you when I grow up! (Even though I’m 31 years old…. 😂)

great advice. im getting commissioned a certain subject i wouldn't usually go for.... but need to just appreciate the experience and what ill learn from it

Glad to hear that you advise practicing smaller ones, i see so many people say to paint big as it is easier but i struggle allot with the big ones, scared to use the paint maybe lol, doesnt help that i am pretty crap though!. But i will persist. Thanks for the useful info once again!

Thanks for the good tips! It is so hard for me to not paint details, but I'm working on it. In past videos you suggested squinting, which is helpful. Do you have any other tips that would help beginners, like myself, who struggle to paint "semi-realistic"? In other words, loose, but not too loose and a moderate amount of details. Which details to include, which to leave out?

I don't paint smaller than a 8x10, and I try not to paint under a 11x14, just for the time and how that breaks down into price per hour spent on the piece... but doing a small 8x10 study before making a 24x48 or 36x48... yeah, extremely helpful!

I was fixing to ask this exact question! So my next question is this: If i join as a patreon can I pick which videos I get to watch or do I simply take them as they come? I prefer landscapes and would rather watch those until I want to do portraits. Thanks for the work you put into these videos because they're awesome.

Valuable information as always. Thank you for the video! I do have a question I'd like covered. Canvas edges. I don't stretch my own Canvas. I usually mask the edges for clean lines... or sometimes to match the dimension ratio of my photo reference. I've been told that's not normal and reduces the value of the work. So I'm trying actually painting the half inch wide outward facing edges... it's not easy to make sure they work with the rest of the painting. Not to mention the bottom edge that rests on the easel. Should I mask, should I not? If not, any tips on painting the edges? (Obviously this would not apply to panels)

Very good video Chris. Very interesting I'm now in the middle of painting a close up portrait of President Trump and it's 4 foot high, with very little except his head and the top of his shoulders. It's easy to get a very good portrait, a very good likeness simply because if I move the nose or the eye out of position one or two millimetres then nobody would know or care. Now when I paint very tiny portraits and I've done a few over the last year it's much more difficult. Why ? Simply because if the tiny head is 24 millimetres wide and you move the nose out by just one millimetre then you'll notice instantly. With small stuff you really do need to be very accurate. With landscapes, who knows if the tree is in the wrong place even if it's out by five millimetres ? About a month ago I painted a four foot high portrait of Winston Churchill and it looks superb. Even from thirty feet away it's got that "Wow factor" It's on display, but it's not framed yet. I'll put it into the local auction and see how it goes. Winston took me about four days from start to finish. I do the undercoat in acrylic and then use oil paint to finish it off and finally get that lovely finish with a coat of retouching varnish. But today I've now had to stop Trump's portrait, because yesterday I received four commissions to paint four big paintings of various lorries owned by the client. The canvas will be 600 mm x 900 mm oil on canvas So Trump will have to wait a little bit The tricky bit with the lorries is that there is a lot of writing on the side of the lorries. The company's name, address and phone number plus a logo, so they'll be small and will need a lot of patience to do. If you've any tips for small lettering don't hesitate to let me know - Thank very much I'm happy to learn stuff every day Kind regards to all - Chris in Thailand

On point! Timely! Thank you for your help!

Also...small painting can be used as stepping stone for big Painting....as value study of the bigger painting

Painting is so different from drawing. Drawing you learn big and move down.

Hey Chris :) if you don't mind, could you please give me some tips for painting hair? I've always struggled with it and in the end it'll just look like a brown smudge with white streaks. I need help with the process of painting hair and building up the layers. Btw I love your art and you're a great teacher :)

Chris # i want let you no that view finder can be good help with paint a big or small psinting.

Thanks for this! Question: is it normal to see some grainy textures on a finished painting, or why does it happen- if you've encountered this?

OMG! The big paint is Incredible. How many hours worked on it? Mr Best 😊💪

Hi Chris, thanks to your videos I’m trying to transition from acrylics to oils (very difficult!!). One thing I dislike about acrylics is that they all seem transparent to some degree, and the opacity and open working time of oils at first attracted me. However what I find difficult to work out with oils is layering and glazing, since the earliest layers may still be wet, and get muddled into the new layer I’m trying to apply. Help!

I m very interested.

How important is it to go off a picture or reference?when learning to paint n practice technique.. should I be making my own landscape or finding a picture or looking for something on nature to focus on..and if picture is much smaller than my canvas or larger?

Do oil paints get old or separate?

Pain Talk!

Would be nice to c painting demos!!!!

Do you do watercolour also?

Is it worth taking a risk leaving job to paint for a living? Dave

Machine 🤩🤩🤩

,kool

That’s what Andrew tischler does he takes a small panel creates a small painting on a small canvas then he transfers it on a big canvas.

I just started selling my artwork so I’ve been painting small until I can afford bigger canvases. My biggest issue is how to sign a small (5x7 usually) piece without distracting from the artwork. Any advice?

Hi, How to overcome the challenge of moving model and the changes in light over my model when painting from life. Please answer

How about daily painting in small....and big when you go for comission

It seems cheaper to paint small when starting out- less paper, less paint.

Damn you are so cute...!! And informative too 😉 what's not to like!

Can't you just use small brushes if you are painting small canvas and vice versa? 😂

Make *POSTCARDS$* out of the SMALL PAINTINGS *$(TO SELL)$* MAKE COLOR PRINTS *$(TO SELL)$* 💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰

Slow down for an eye? Dude, just buy a bigger brush!