Zoltan was one of the best 😊👍🖌 I learned more in one week with him than two years of art college😊

You are very welcome😊👍

some people do have a higher natural aptitude with the "skill" but that is only one quarter of the Talent equation. It also requires creativity, knowledge of concepts and experience. The skills can be learned then it is all about what you do with them... kind of like the tortoise and the hare😊👍

Love to hear that... Painters block is just really the fear of creating a bad painting. Once you give yourself permission to do that... the "block" goes away👍

Love to hear that Lynn 😊❤️🙏

One of my favourite pieces of advice was from Frank Webb who said, "We all start out digging little holes all over the backyard... but at a certain point its time to pick one spot and dig deep" It doesn't have to be forever and it doesn't have to be the "perfect" spot. Whats important is to pick a spot and start digging. If it becomes apparent that this isn't "it". Then pick another spot and dig deep. I dug deep on portraits initially... and then on watercolour... and then on more abstracted work... eventually when I started digging deep on my current, subject, style and medium I realized this was "it" for me. But it was not a straight line to this point and I left a trail of half dug holes in my wake👍

Glad you enjoyed it 😊👍

😊👍

Most welcome 😊

Hi Catherine, That is exactly the right question. The first thing is to do is to determine what is the one aspect of your work that is the weakest... and would also have a dramatic impact on the quality of your work if you were to make it a strength. Then you should focus on improving that particular thing. That might involve doing more exercises than actual paintings... until you can see noticeable improvement. What a lot of artists do is just avoid subject matter or stylistic approaches that showcases their weaknesses. This is exactly the wrong thing to do and results in zero growth. For most artists that I see... the two biggest weaknesses are drawing and composition. By mastering these two basic skills most artists would see a dramatic improvement in all of their work. As you master various skills and concepts... then you need to ask... ok what's next... and as Gary Vee says just rinse and repeat for the rest of your journey. Hope that helps

That seems like excellent advice. I guess the next trick for me would be to identify what is my weakest area. I'm not convinced it's either composition or drawing. I think it may be an ineffective use of value ranges - perhaps a subset of comp or drawing or both!! :) Anyway guess what? I live on Big Bald Lake (near Gallery On The Lake) and have seen your spectacular art in person many, many times! :) I met you at a demo right there about 10 years ago when I was beginning my own journey. You were in the rotunda.. do you remember that? I was too new to this challenge to actually learn much tho!!

@@catherineselinger4806 Gallery on The Lake has been very good to me over the years😊 I have an online course on Colour and Composition that you might find helpful. It’s regularly $79 but here’s a link to get it for 50% Off if you are interested: www.timpackerartacademy.com/offers/q73DLR2y/checkout You also might get some value from my free webinar 10 Keys To Selling Your Art In it I talk a lot about how to continually improve your work. You can watch it at www.aspiringartist.ca Cheers😊

@@timpackerfinearts thanks so much Tim! I just purchased the course. I have the Birches and Crimson course already and it was just great! Thank you! :)

@@catherineselinger4806 👍

You need to be clear about what is your actual goal. If it is to reach your ultimate potential as an artist and to reach a point where you can consistently create great paintings... then I believe that you need to be willing to spend time in process mode... where you will have paintings fail... lots of them. When that happens you need to understand that it was not a waste of time or materials but a necessary part of your artistic development. The important thing is to examine what went wrong when a painting fails... creating successful paintings is not just about knowing what to do... its 50% about knowing what not to do. The only way to really gain that knowledge is through your failures. Hope that helps 😊👍

Thanks

@@lorrieann5071 👍

Its the Canadian "eh" 😊