 Welcome to Monet Cafe. Please subscribe to keep more videos like this coming your way. Today we're going to talk about expressive mark making. I am happy you're here. Let's get started. Have you ever wanted to get more energy and movement into your artwork? Well, you've come to the right video because that's what I attempted to do here and while I've been providing a lot of real-time content lately. This one is going to be a speed version, but I'm going to talk you through the process. I'm working on a piece of UART sanded paper. This is the 400 grade or grit. It's a nice sanded surface and when you work with pastels it's really nice to have a sanded surface because you can get more layers, more vibrant color and often it's preferred by pastel artists. Now that tool in my hand, that long skinny it's a piece of charcoal actually. It's called Willow or Vine charcoal and I really like this because it helps me to get the point of this video more expressive mark making and more gestural feel. Now this portion is real-time, but I wanted to slow it down a bit so I could talk to you about the concept of getting your artwork more expressive and having that sense of energy and movement. I find this is a challenge for many artists wanting to loosen up and not be so tight or stiff with your work and notice the reference image that I have there on my iPad and it's pretty expressive, right? Well, I actually put it in a photo app. That's my husband's hands by the way in the background. I think he was I don't know giving me a cup of coffee or something. I can't remember, but thank you. He's so sweet. But anyway, I put the photo in an app. I've been using lately. That's one of the best I've found and I'm actually going to be sharing a tutorial for my patrons. If you're a patron of mine from my Patreon page, we will be going over this app in a tutorial that I have and it is really great for giving your photo some expressive energy. And even though I love technology and I like to utilize it if I can, you don't have to have it, okay? So you can do the same thing with really just analyzing your photo and looking at the elements and considering where is the energy in this reference image. And to me it was that sweeping road that was curving up from the left to the right and then up into that sky. It was a really nice reference image anyway. And so you want to intensify those gestural motions. Right now I'm just blocking in. I'm getting in the colors and the shapes. I always like to recommend that you work on the big shapes first and the values. Now, you see me using a very dark value right here. Well, look at the image. The darkest value I have a video I just uploaded not too long ago about value and how it works in life. Darkest values are usually in the foreground and with vertical elements. So there is that tree, you can see in the reference image, that looks like it's closer to us. So it's going to be the darkest thing. And then also those other two trees that are in the distance, you can see that they're pretty dark at the base. And then of course there are some darker elements with the grasses on the sides of the road, especially in that little entry section there. Now, another tip for expressive mark making is keeping your strokes gestural. That means to not be tight and fussy and slow with your marks. You want to make a quick and sweeping mark and you want to be fairly accurate with these. I mean, they're not totally haphazard. They are planned out, but you get better at these the more that you do it. I also recommend, like I said before, large marks first working down to your smaller marks and blocking in like I'm doing and also identify, like I said at the beginning of the video, where the expression is going to be mostly. That's like your focal point. And those will be the marks that you make that will be the most expressive and the painting overall will be expressive in its theme, but the marks that we make again can work for focal point and directional elements to move the eye throughout the painting. In my case, I was thinking that the road would have expressive marks to pull the viewer in and back down that road up into the sky and perhaps like an S shaped curve back around to that foreground tree and keeping the viewer's eye within the painting. So that's the goal. So once again, expressive markmaking shouldn't be overdone everywhere in the painting, even though you can keep that painterly and expressive feel throughout the painting in general. Now, other than the markmaking, what else could make a painting expressive? Well, of course, color and you want to choose colors that are expressive and are perhaps a bit exaggerated. Even though I'm doing what would be called local color in this painting, you see my colors are similar to what's in the scene. I'm punching them up a bit. For example, I'm added some lavender to the sky there. You can see to the left of that tree. And I have a tendency to see color in a photo that's there just suggested barely there. And then I exaggerate it. And that usually helps me to keep the painting harmonious. I'm not going like out on a limb and choosing a crazy color. I'm choosing something that I sort of barely see and then just simply exaggerating it. Another thing that helps with expressive painting is negative painting. For example, like the trees, the two trees on the side of the road carving into them negatively, rather than drawing or painting individual positive shapes of the branches and the leaves reaching up. I just think negative painting has a suggestive and expressive feeling to it in general. So there are a few tips for expressive painting. And I love this style. I need to make sure I try to focus on doing more of this myself. And I am going to add some music at this point. So continue to watch. It's sped up a bit. But my patrons, I'm going to include the reference image in this post on my Patreon page. And my patrons can actually do this as a homework assignment and submit their work in our homework album. I love to see what you do patrons. But Monet Cafe, enjoy, recreate it yourself if you like. And if you do, please tag me on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. And I love to see what you do. So enjoy the rest of this. Be sure to watch because I'll be back in a little bit. Hey artist, I hope you enjoyed this little lesson on expressive mark making. Also too, I happen to upload this video even though I recorded it earlier on. I call it Resurrection Day. Happy Easter everyone. And I hope you enjoyed this lesson. Again, follow me on all these platforms, subscribe, become a patron. And as always, happy painting.