Painting in a Series

Yesterday I wrote about painting the shrimp boats in Apalachicola. The lacy rigging against the sky has a quality that appeals to me. Once you find a subject that intrigues you, it may be worth a second, third, and fourth look. Not only will it teach you how to approach painting the subject with more confidence, you will learn information about that subject. Inevitably, a shrimp boat captain will come over for a look, and I can ask him questions about how the boat operates, contact that an ordinary tourist may not get to experience.

Lots of people ask me how I get the rigging lines so straight. They assume I've used a ruler

The secret is in the speed of the stroke. The slower the stroke, the more hesitation is likely to show up. The nervousness will result in wavy lines. So being familiar with a subject because you're working in a series will let you just "hit" that line. So don't just paint a subject once!