Well as I always say, someone has to show you how to start and it has to be simple. When I started to teach I found the one thing all beginners, and even some amateur painters had in common was a very disordered approach to their work.
The very same applied to me when I started to paint. I was unsure where to start and when I did, I was jumping about the paper like a bucket of frogs!
So I was determined to devise a system which students found easy to use and remember. The answer was to break every picture into four distinct parts.
Once they did this their painting improved in leaps and bounds. However, as students left the class and did not paint again for some weeks or months, they seemed to forget what I had told them.
So I racked my brains and found what I wanted to say in a simple unforgettable sentence:
"Have Some More Fun".
The first letter of the four words represents how to paint a picture e.g.
Have = Some = More = Fun =
Horizon Sky Middleground Foreground
In the following pictures you can see how the method works.
HAVE - HORIZON
First we draw our horizon line, always straight across the board.
SOME - SKY
Then starting, at the top of your picture and keeping above the horizon line, paint in the sky.
MORE - MIDDLEGROUND
Next just above the horizon line paint in a letter "M" to represent the mountains.
