When is it FINISHED??

It can be difficult to know when your paintings are done that’s for sure! For many artists, making the decision about when to stop or if you’ve done enough can be a real challenge. The fact is, when you’re working in a more abstract or abstracted way without the constraints of realism, deciding when it’s done can be highly subjective.

That’s not when you want to hear though is it? A friend of mine sometimes says to me ‘I know art is about asking questions but for that kind of money, I want answers!’. So let’s see if there are some answers because although it’s not always clear when you’ve reached an end point, there are certain things you can look for to help you decide.

Watch on YouTube

The three main things I look for in my work are

Mark Making

Composition

Paint Surface


If I feel satisfied with all these elements, I can be reasonably sure that I’m on the right track.

Mark Making

I like to see a good variety of marks in a painting. In my workshops, I students sometimes ask why their paintings are lacking in energy. The answer is often that there aren’t enough different marks in them. Imagine you only use one brush for a whole painting. You may be able to vary the marks a bit but in general a lot of them are going to be the similar size and have the same character.

This can give the painting a sense of monotony. People’s brains are easily bored and get distracted. A lot of the same thing can make it hard work to retain the attention of the viewer. However, if a brush stroke leads into a pencil mark that’s layered over with a splash of paint and in turn that leads to an area of texture or scratching, the energy is just there. You hold the attention by keeping the stimulus going.

Loads of marks!

Composition

As I touched on at the top, it can be harder to know when your painting is working when realiasm isn’t your main goal. Even in the simplest terms, a bit of realism makes it way easier to know if your composition is working. You can relate recognisable elements in the painting to each other, trees, houses, boats, whatever your subject happens to be and make decisions on if they balance out.

In more abstract work you have to look for ways to find balance without common points of reference with the viewer. In the YouTube video (above) you'll see I’m talking about how the different areas of the paintings lead your eye around the image. This gives a sense of rhythm and movement and helps to retain the attention of the viewer in the image.

Another key indicator is trying to achieve a sense of balance within the composition. Consider the overall distribution of shapes and tones. I like to look for a balance between the busier mark-heavy areas and parts that are quieter with large areas of light or dark.

Balancing lights and darks

Paint Surface

I do like to build up layers of paint. This applies mostly to work on board or canvas where the physical nature of the paint is a major factor.

In general, I like to have a reasonably even distribution of paint texture. At least not have areas which are undeveloped. Even if large areas of the finished painting are ‘quiet’, predominantly one colour or tone, I still want it to have a feeling of maturity. I like there to be a real history to the paint surface. I want it to feel worked rather than unresolved.

Lots of big spaces but plenty going on within them

As you probably know, I like to work on a series of paintings rather than one at a time. This is a great way to evaluate your own work. You can leave ones you’re uncertain about, turn them to the wall for a few days while you work on others. When you come back to them, the answers may be obvious.

These are the main things I’m looking for and I appreciate that a lot of it is subjective, largely depending on what you like to see. Also, I haven’t mentioned deciding whether the painting evokes the feeling or atmosphere you set out to communicate! Trust your artistic instincts as maybe this is only something you can know.