Daily Painting: Paint Small and Often To Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist

Now this is a unique book. A collection of short stories on many artists and their tips and recommendations to improve your art. The author advises to improve your art by painting “small and often” or get into that habit of painting quickly, frequently, and for short periods. Whatever your medium, you must practice to improve. Each chapter contains an important element of successful artistry. I found chapter 6 to be very impactful. Drawing and proportion. I struggle with this. The author provides useful tips here, including use of a viewfinder. I never did understand why that would be helpful, now I do!! This is a clever and valuable book. Seriously, give it a chance. My first impression was that this was not going to be very valuable for me because I only paint watercolor. It’s not about that. It’s not about what you paint or what you use, it’s how to get better at it. Buy this book and read it! You can thank me later.

This book is among my best art resources! Painting small has removed fear and anxiety and helped me paint often and joyfully. I love the layout of the book with tons of paintings and all the essential wisdom I needed to improve my work. Highly recommend!

I bought this book because I started painting only a year ago and because I am completely self taught, learning through books and videos. This book has been the most valuable resource yet in pursuing creative ventures; it provides a great deal of information about pointing and about the daily painting movement, as well as engaging stories of daily painting artists. I made my first daily painting after I finished the book. Now, thanks to this book by Carol Marine, I am a daily painter as well.

I am a big Carol Marine fan. I am an Artist, I paint in a somewhat hard edged realistic manner, and this is helping me to loosen up. Every page is an inspiration. Easy to read, good examples of other peoples works, too. I would have liked to see some more examples of paintings in Acrylic and in Pastels. That kept it one star short, for me. Otherwise an excellent book to have for all Artists, all ages from 14 to 100-114...! Excellent size to carry around with you everywhere, high quality, excellent color photos. Good step by step examples. Buy this one for yourself or aspiring Artists friends and family members. Would make an excellent gift.

Inspiration works in strange ways. One artist inspires another, who inspire others. In Daily Painting, author and artist Carol Marine talks about how she was inspired by Duane Keiser who's another daily painter. So since 2006, Marine has been painting daily, and selling her work online. Marine talks about her experience on painting daily, where she finds inspiration and subjects to draw, techniques involved and how you can sell your paintings online. It's very inspiring and insightful. It certainly gives me the if-she-can-do-it-so-can-I feeling. Actually the book covers more technical topics. Here are the contents. 1. How daily painting changed my life (and can change yours too!) 2. My materials 3. Subject matters 4. Value 5. Color mixing 6. Drawing and proportion 7. Composition 8. Staying fresh and loose with oil 9. Fighting artist's block 10. How to photograph and edit small paintings 11. Tips for better online sales I really like the idea of painting small. Somethings the size of a blank canvas can be intimidating. It's difficult for a small painting to match a big one in terms of impact, but it's likely to sell better because it's more affordable. All these info are mentioned in the book. It also includes a chapter on subject matter that talks about the kind of subjects that work well on a small canvas. Marine uses oil as her main medium. However her tips and techniques can often apply to other media as well except for things specific to oil, such as wiping a canvas and starting over again. Throughout the book, there are many other artists being featured with examples of their paintings, sometimes with interviews, such as in the latter chapter on dealing with artist block. All paintings featured look beautiful and inspiring. The best part about the book is it shows you the possibility of selling your work online. It's a model that works for Marine and other painters. I've went ahead and check out the listing of other artists and her paintings on eBay and some other websites and can see people buying at the listed price. It's great to see other artists make a living using this method and it's something that anyone can get into. It's certainly very motivating. This is a great book for all artists. Highly recommended. (See more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

I read a sample of this book a couple years ago, and for some reason didn’t purchase it. I came across it again on Amazon last week and decided to buy it. I am so glad I did! The instruction is top notch, especially the chapters on color mixing. I am anxious to get back to painting and leverage the information.

I absolutely loved this book, ‘Daily Painting: Paint Small and Often To Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist’ Here’s the biggest reason why it was fabulous. As an artist, such as myself, when I went to ‘School Of Visual Arts’ in Manhattan, from 1978-1982, our painting teachers were always wanting and expecting us to make our own HUGE canvases, over 4 feet, in both directions. It was a while ago, & obviously we didn’t have the ‘thing’ called a computer. We had to learn, not to just make our own stretched canvases, but the bigger painting we did the more attention we received by the class & teacher. It was the day of ‘Studio 54’, everything had to be big and talked by the critiques from the teacher & class, right down to the spec of color, whether needed or not needed! If ANYONE had a painting less than 5 feet, that person was not considered a ‘serious artist’ & resorting to purchasing your own canvas, which was an absolute sin, by many famous students and professionals at SVA, buying ones own small canvas meant you were lazy! Well I wasn’t lazy! And in those days I was a very poor, student, artist & buying more paint meant more money I didn’t have which led me to making my own paint, like all the famous artists did from Day 1 until paint was in tubes?! YES, I learned the hard way and it taught me self discipline also..but as a 59 year old, am still an artist..I NEVER knew how to paint small?! It just wanted considered art..those were my teachers, I’m sure there were a few around..but when Andy Warhol decided to make one of my best friends in our freshman year, Keith Herring, famous, and Keith’s canvasses were the symbols of the ‘80’s all around HUGE blank empty subway ‘canvasses’, painting small was taboo! Writing this I probably sound like a fool! But we didn’t have an ability to photoshop, to make tiny figures, unless we were in film school, but I was a fine artist/illustrator, and didn’t get praised for my paintings of the “Masters”! “It’s not BIG ENOUGH..Jackson Pollacks canvass was on the ground, or in his empty room! Picasso threw his paint with his brushes to create ‘Masterpieces’!! So do you see why I never knew how to paint..small? This book, I so wish I had purchased the Hardcover, but I still make it work..has taught me that I did absolutely NOTHING WRONG as an 18 yr old out of HS to a world of “whatever you knew before..threw it out the window!” I knew I was good yet intimidated by others perfection and not my own!! I owe my journal painting and actually, Bible painting over scriptures & verses due to this book! I owe many things & challenges I never did, whether writing or my painting to things I learned in later life. This book not is just encouraging, but as everything I wrote above, I guarantee my ‘friends’ in the art world know EXACTLY what I was speaking of & the ‘BIGGER THE BETTER’..was always the motto, but if you think about it as much as I did..how the HELL are you productive or successful on a daily basis..painting LARGE?! Thank you Carol Marine! I love you for opening my eyes to ‘teaching older dogs newer tricks”! I can’t wait to finish my gallery show with smaller paintings too!! Thank you again ❤️ I promise for you young art students, painting large is NOT always the best. It has its great moments, but think of the great ideas you’d miss out on if you’re not being productive sooner than later? I highly recommend for new artists and us older artists who used to know the “you no know I knew”?! 😁😁😁💕💕

Love this book! This is a great book for lapsed painters, as well as beginners, or for anyone who feels the need to make creativity a part of their daily life. It truly is like a breath of fresh air. Work small and set yourself free from the myths you may have learned in college (at great financial and personal cost), that you need to paint large, stretch your own canvases, have gallery representation, etc. to be a "real" artist. What a relief! I wish my painting classes in school had been more like this. Years later, I still remember having to spend weeks on a large painting of a truly hideous still life set up by the instructor (who wasn't a very nice person). Which brings me to another reason to praise this book--the author comes across as a positive person genuinely interested in helping people become better painters. No pretentiousness here. Daily practice. Daily learning. Art school painting instructors, please take heed of this book. The Daily Painting movement is also making original art affordable for regular people. This book does have a bit of a bias towards oil painting, as that is the author's preferred medium. Perhaps future editions could include chapters on other popular media, like watercolor, acrylic, or monotype. There is a chapter on dealing with artist's block, with contributions from several artists--very helpful information, and great to have multiple perspectives. I'd also like to see more information on using photographic references effectively, something which was missing from my education.