Create Perfect Paintings: An Artist's Guide to Visual Thinking

The Ultimate Resource and Reference Guide for Artists

Discover an innovative self-critique method that will empower you to answer the artist's most common questions: Now What? and Is it Finished? With hundreds of insights, tips, and illustrated techniques, Create Perfect Paintings shows you how to push your work to the next level regardless of medium or style by strengthening your perception, technical skills, and visual thinking.

Exercises and examples illustrate how to critique your own creations and evaluate them step by step for further improvement. You will learn to identify and modify artistic choices--from negative space and color ratio to controlling eye movement, depth and contrast--to see their impact and help you use them to the best effect in your work. What you'll find inside:

- Section 1: Essentials--Reviews and defines artistic terms and concepts.
- Section 2: Play Phase--Shows you how to tap into your creative right brain. Learn to challenge the process and break habits to free your spirit and inspire variety in your art; also covers materials, tools and surfaces.
- Section 3: Critique Phase--Introduces a groundbreaking method of contemporary critique called The Viewing Game: a comprehensive, systematic and fun way to analyze, edit and enhance your paintings.
- Sections 4 and 5--Bonus sections explore how to resolve creative blocks, convey artistic messages, boost your personal style, display your work, and turn painting into a career.

"May this book increase your productivity, add ease and flow to your creative process, clarify your ideas, add nuance to your personal style, and most importantly, add joy to the miraculous act of painting." --Nancy Reyner