I painted the above piece in my journal after attending a Ted Nuttall demo (and while deep in Felicia Forte‘s portrait drawing workshop). Mr. Nuttall is the watercolor artist du jour, and since he teaches what seems to be an exhausting series of workshops across the country, I’m seeing more and more copies of his style in watercolorlandia.

And with good reason. He paints big, he goes outside of the lines, and his color choices are fabulous. His paintings are deliciously loose and free (although he spends much time planning and controlling his process.)

One of things I haven’t liked about my paintings is that they are overly tight. This thumbnail painting you see above,  was painted when I was fresh from Mr. Nuttall’s demo, I drew this man (I was watching some movie, but I don’t remember who the guy is), and painted it in the style of Mr. Nuttall. It’s not a very big painting, but I really like it.

While I don’t want to be a Ted Nuttall-clone, I do want my paintings to have a more free appearance. Which means I must break all kinds of old habits.