12 tips for painting loose

the things that help me paint & draw expressively

Hello! Last week I had the joyous experience of Scottish coastlines in winter sun. I decided to film my painting trip for you, and share it in a youtube video.

As well as sharing the materials I’m currently using at the moment, I talk through my favorite ways to paint & draw loosely. This blog post is a distillation of the 12 tips I share, so you can refer back to them easily in your own studio.

If you’d also like a dose of mixed media painting and winter sunshine, you can watch my latest video here:

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My Top 12 Tips:

Tip 1: use materials which offer unexpected results

• Painting loose is about balancing control with none - I love materials which like to do their own thing, and ask me to work with them, rather than the other way around.

Tip 2: start your painting on top of something

• Begin on top of something rather than a blank page - texture, old art, a color wash, a big deliberate mistake
  

Tip 3: simplify your reference!

• Capture what you are drawn to and ignore the rest
  

Tip 4: warm up with no-pressure drawings

• The eternal mission of not taking ourselves or our art too seriously. Give yourself the grace to warm up, and get your eyes and hands moving before you think of challenging yourself
  

Tip 5: trust your gut - draw what you notice

• Listen to what YOU like, not what you think you SHOULD be capturing. Did you intend to paint a scene, but can’t stop looking at that rock over there? Great - paint the rock and follow your inspiration.
  

Tip 6: abstract your colours

• It’s so much fun to capture a sense of a place or subject, rather than solely the visual representation. Try abstracting your colours in a way that represent a more emotive side to your subject matter.

  

Tip 7: rotate your page as you paint

• It’s too easy to get overly attached to our work and switch back to capturing a realistic scene. I like to keep rotating my page as I paint to stop myself getting sucked into a literate depiction of place.

Tip 8: work on multiple paintings at once

• Getting too precious? Start working on multiples at once, hopping between pieces. Never done this before & want to try it out? We’re exploring this in our two Studio Play zoom workshops on Patreon this month - February 2025. This will be recorded to watch back at a future date. Info on these calls below.
  

Tip 9: lean in to the nature of your mediums & tools

• Allow your materials to move & behave how they like - this helps relinquish control & tightness of our process. In the ink wants to run over there, let it and see what happens.
  

Tip 10: treat all paintings like an exercise

• Getting worried about ruining work is especially easy when moving out of sketchbooks. Try approaching works on loose pages of paper, canvas or panel, like you would your sketchbook page.
  

Tip 11: practice play

• Linked to tip 10: Play is another muscle to be practiced, like analytical drawings and all other skills. If we can practice working lightheartedly on a range of surfaces, we will find developing work much less daunting - at the end of the day, it’s all play!
  

Tip 12: step back & ask the work what it needs

• Painting is a process of back and forth, and taking time away from the work or a step back in the process will help you see what the painting is asking for. Often times we get too het up in what we think we want to do with the vision of the piece in our minds, rather than clearly seeing what is in front of us and responding to the work physically in front of us. If the piece isn’t matching the vision, hold the thought and try that again later on a new page, rather than forcing the work in front of you to become what’s in your mind.

If you’d like to join us to explore working on multiple paintings at once, I’m leading this workshop on:

Sat 15th February 2025 | 8.00 - 9.15pm (uk)

Tuesday 25th February 2025 | 10.00 - 11.15am (uk)

To join the workshops register as a Studio Play tier member on my Patreon, The Outdoor Sketchbook Collective:

Thanks again for following along, and I hope these tips help you out! ✨

Orla