Stop Thinking and Start Painting!
Do you realize that the biggest obstacle to artistic success is all in your head' Every time you pick up a brush, a battle rages between the two sides of your brain: the intellectual and the visual. This book will show you ways to ensure that the 'good guy' wins! Once you learn how to make that shift from logical to visual thinking, you'll be amazed at the sudden leaps forward you'll take in your art.

Your intellectual brain is useful for many things--generating shopping lists, organizing meetings and balancing your checkbook--but not creating art. It wants you to repeat the same shape over and over again . . . get caught up in petty details . . . separate the view into small, unrelated pieces . . . and replace true, firsthand observation with quick-fix symbols. The result is tight, biased paintings instead of free, spontaneous responses to colors and shapes.

Your visual brain, on the other hand, helps you find a space on a shelf for the sugar, straighten a painting on a wall, walk between two objects without colliding, and other spatial and visual tasks (akin to those you need for painting) that you perform with a bare minimum of conscious thought. Being a good artist is really a matter of bringing into conscious use what your visual brain normally does on an unconscious level. Carl Purcell will show you how to shift into that visual mode of thinking at your will, every time you pick up a brush!

Develop Good Technique
This book begins by illustrating some basic techniques that are essential for obtaining that freshness of color and application every time--from mastering washes, to getting the most out of your brushes, to breaking free from the One-Item, One-Color Syndrome and replacing those overworked areas with mingled color. All of these techniques will bring vitality to your paintings.

Be a Shape Collector
Carl then shows how looking for interesting shapes rather than great subjects is the start to a stronger painting. Seeing the world as light and dark shapes will help free your art from the tyranny of reality and edit with ease every time you select a subject to paint. When you paint with your artist's brain, you're free to change any shape to suit your needs, move any shape to enhance your compositions, and add any color to a shape when you feel it's necessary. You can't paint good shapes if you are not aware of them. Let Carl help you put shapes into visual categories: Light Value, Dark Value, Color, Space.

Paint in Your Right Mind
Like all favorite North Light artists, Carl is wonderfully down-to-earth. He's got a genuinely articulate way of getting his idea across. More than once, I guarantee you'll hear yourself saying, 'Oh, yes! Why have I never noticed that before'

This is one of those books that will stay with you for life, that you'll revisit many times throughout your painting career. Taken to heart, Carl's teaching can have a deep impact on your art. It will simplify the dizzying array of nature. . .change the way you look your favorite subjects . . . cause you to see the world a little differently, a bit sharper, in fuller color, as an endless puzzle of 'good shapes.' Best of all, it will bring more joy to your painting process.