The last few strokes of every painting provide ample opportunity to make crucial enhancements. Let Xiaogang Zhu show you his way to chart a course toward a successful conclusion.
Getting a painting idea off to a good start is essential, but knowing how to finish is equally important to self-expression. In the first stages of the painting process, I work with the shapes to come up with a good composition, build an exciting pattern of light and dark values and establish a harmonious color scheme. These steps provide a solid foundation, but then it's time to wrap up the painting with a few key moves. The specific actions needed vary depending on each individual painting, but generally speaking, I work through a series of five important characteristics that I feel bring my paintings to a satisfactory finish.
1. The large masses
Once I have covered my entire surface with a very general, flat pattern of large masses of color, I stop to evaluate my progress. At this point, I consider the painting as a whole without thinking about finishing any one area. This is important because I'm looking at the relationships among the shapes, judging how well they're working together.
In particular, I examine the overall pattern of lights and darks, checking to make sure that most of my values fall in the range of medium-light to medium dark so that my painting is neither too light and chalky nor overly dark and gloomy. I also expect to see more contrast between the shapes in and around my focal area and less contrast elsewhere. Regarding color, I evaluate the color temperatures, hues and...
