When is a painting finished?

How do you know when a painting is finished?

Well isn’t that the big question? As an artist, knowing when to stop is the hardest part of the process. Technically, you could continue a painting forever. Adding layer upon layer and never come to an end. I have ruined so many paintings because I couldn’t stop, taking it that little bit too far then have to spend more time trying to rescue it! It’s a vicious cycle and one that can very quickly become tiresome if you’re not careful. So how do you avoid this? Well here’s five tips that i’ve developed over the years that always help me:

Take a break!…..

It may seem counter productive taking time away from painting but trust me. Take as long as you can away from the paintings and you will come back with fresh eyes and a brand new perspective on what you’ve created.

Put the painting in a frame…..

Never underestimate the power of a frame. I use floater frames, so it’s easy to pop the panel in the frame temporarily and see the piece with a clean border. If you don’t have any frames available you can use an in situ app to digitally add a frame to your painting. It gives the same result, helping you to see if the painting is finished or not.

Put the painting on a clean wall….

If like me your studio walls are covered in drips and splatters in all colours then it might be hard to see the wood for the trees! So if you have a clean wall you can pop a few nails in, it’s the perfect spot to hang your painting temporarily. A neutral background will help the painting stand out and bring to light what’s missing.

Work in a series….

My current series is the first time I’ve worked on several paintings together and trust me it’s a game changer!… when you get stuck with one painting or you’re not sure if it’s done, you can quickly move onto another and come back to it later. It also helps to have a few paintings to compare against. You can compare compositions and tonal values across the series and see what’s working.

Use an art journal….

throughout my process I regularly journal; taking pictures of my work, sticking them down and writing about them. What’s working? what’s not? what have I enjoyed? This method helps me decide if a painting is finished or not as it forces you to pause and think. Self critique is a valuable tool as an artist.

I’ve used all five methods on my latest series “Macabre Messengers”. Click below to see the paintings.

I hope you found this useful, these tricks are great to have in your toolkit and should help you to improve as an artist as they have for me.

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Stay Strange

Cally :)