by Jill Stefani Wagner

These are really abbreviated paraphrases (in no specific order) of a few of the many things we artists learned at the Kim English Workshop. Some of them seem so obvious, but are things I often forget. Others were completely new to me and helped me approach my paintings in a new way. You’d have to attend one of Kim’s workshop to get the full explanations of these wonderful tips.

Thanks so much to Kim English, all of the welcoming Cincinnati Art Club artists and especially the group leader Eileen McKonkey who shepherded us all through the event.

•  Mass all big shapes in at the beginning.

•  Exaggerate the pose to give it more emphasis.

•  Less strokes.

•  Paint a stroke once and move on.

•  Make large “Mother Puddles” of premixed paint and mix your other colors from them.

•  Use more paint.

•  Look for relations and connections.

•  Careful palette setup and use. Messy palette = messy painting.

•  Legs are half the height of the figure.

•  Seven types of draped fabric.

•  Mix colors of equal value for best results.

•  Paint with a larger brush.

•  All colors are relatively warm or cool depending on the color beside it.

•  Premix a warm and cool white

•  Paint fast and with energy!!

Some samples of Kim English’s paintings:

Kim’s palette:

Workshop students: