Often overlooked is the lowly thumbnail painting sketch. This kind of painting can help you when you are groping for ideas, or have an idea but are not sure how to compose it, or you are not sure how to work out the color combinations. Perhaps you are trying to take your painting to the next level and want to get looser with your work. When we are always in "masterpiece mode" our critical parent side kicks in and we can often freeze up, get artists' block. This is because we don't want to fail. Remember back when you were a child , your "adult " parent always complimented you when you did any art, and you were playful and had fun with your art. Unfortunately that side gets pushed down as we get older and enter a competitive critical adult world. No one likes to "fail" . The hard truth is the most successful people "fail" more than most of us because they try more than most of us. It is the juice behind the saying "practice makes perfect". I say this over and over again in class, but it cannot be said often enough. You cannot learn nearly as much from you successes as you can from your failures. It is the way you establish boundaries on your tastes and skills. In any case the thumbnail is a playful place, where you are not trying to create a masterpiece of detail, but a place to get a "BIG picture" a sense of distance on your theme, or a new perspective if you will, or just to warm up to and clarify an idea. You cannot fail on a thumbnail, because failure , or should I rephrase, experimentation is the whole point of a thumbnail. Then after warming up in a thumbnail, take what you have learned and new techniques you discover by accident, and apply that to your more serious work. I have seen some of my students create masterpieces by accident that were only 2" square!! You have much less emotional investment in a thumbnail, therefore allowing your child to come out and play. Play is how we learn, fear is how we truly fail.
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