Problem Solving for Oil Painters: Recognizing What's Gone Wrong and How to Make it Right

Finally - a book to help you solve all your painting problems!

Inside you'll learn how to study a painting and correct problematic areas. Study topics include:

Ideas
- Is there a good abstract idea underlying the picture?
- What details could be eliminated to strengthen the composition?
- Does the painting have a focus?
- Are the unessential parts subbordinated?
- Does the painting "read"?
- Could you finish any part of the painting?

Shapes
- Are the dominant shapes as strong and simple as possible?
- Are the shapes too similiar?

Value
- Could the value range be increased?
- Could the number of values be reduced?

Light
- Is the subject effectively lit?
- Is the light area big enough?
- Would the light look stronger with a suggestion of burnout?
- Do the lights have a continuous flow?
- Is the light gradiated?

Shadows
- Do the shadow shapes describe the form?
- Are the shadows warm enough?

Depth
- Would the addition of foreground material deepen the space?
- Does the background recede far enough?
- Are the halftones properly related to the background?

Solidity
- Is the underlying form being communicated?
- Is the symmetry in perspective?

Color
- Is there a color strategy?
- Could a purer color be used?
- Do the whites have enough color in them?
- Are the colors overbended on the canvas?
- would the color look brighter if it were saturated into its adjacent area?

Paint
- Is your palette efficiently organized?
- Is the painting surface too absorbent?
- Are you using the palette knife as much as you could?
- Are you painting lines when you should be painting masses?
- Are the edges dynamic enough?
- Is there enough variation in the texture of the paint?

Gregg Kreutz has won numerous honors as a student and professional painter. His paintings have been represented in many juried shows. Gregg is represented by the Fanny Garver Gallery as many others, including the Grand Central Galleries, New York, O'Brien's Art Emporium, and the Dirk Walker Gallery in Brimingham, Alabama. He teaches painting at Scottsdale (Arizona) Artists School, the Fechin Institute (New Mexico), and at the Art Students League in New York City where he lives.