The Best Way to Evaluate Your Mark-Making

'Excitement in the Air'               8x10        plein air pastel            ©Karen Margulis
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It happens when you aren't paying attention. When you are caught up in the moment. When you are painting with passion and excitement. That is the time when you let go and stop overthinking every mark you make. That is the time when your own personal calligraphy emerges. You are making marks to express your feelings and you stop thinking about HOW to make them.....you just simply paint them.

In yesterday's blog post I wrote about mark-making in pastel. Read the post here. I wrote about the importance of embracing your natural tendencies for applying pastel to paper. Are you a linear painter? Or Bold or delicate?  How do you even know?

You can take a look at several recent paintings and evaluate the marks you made. But here is an even better way:

The painting in today's post is a plein air pastel I did during a paint-out. The weather was changing quickly. A storm was moving in. I had to paint fast! I had to simply respond to the scene. I painted furiously and with passion. My marks are my own. I didn't stop to think about the best way to apply the pastel. I just let my marks fly.

Tomorrow I will address the power of marks and how we can harness them to create better paintings.