This Week’s Art Practice: A Mindset Shift and Some Breakthroughs

For Week 5 of Bhavani Krishnan’s Study with the Masters course, I painted a study of a Penleigh Boyd landscape. I know I say this every week, but this one really felt like the most challenging so far! I was completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of colors and expressive brushwork in the original. At first, I found myself struggling, trying to capture everything, but I had to keep reminding myself—this is a study, not a copy. My goal wasn’t to reproduce every brushstroke but to focus on the overall color and value relationships and simplify where needed.

I honestly wasn’t sure I’d be able to pull it off, but in the end, I’m mostly happy with how it turned out. Considering my goals and limitations, it was a great learning experience.

For portrait practice, I worked on a nose study from Arthur Gain’s Alla Prima Challenge course, focusing on controlling edges and really thinking about how to describe the form. Then, I applied what I learned as I repainted the nose in my portrait of my daughter.

This is where I had a bit of a mindset shift—one that actually felt quite significant. I realized that I don’t need to exactly copy the skin tones from my reference. Instead, I can rely on what I’ve learned about structure, value, and color relationships. I can also take inspiration from how past masters solved similar problems—adjusting temperature, values, and making artistic decisions rather than simply replicating what I see.

I’m not ready to show the portrait yet, but I do feel like this realization has helped me make real progress. If all goes well (and I don’t mess it up again!), I’m hoping to finish it by the end of February.