Years ago I used to paint "plein-air" all the time. These days I rarely venture away from the comfort of my studio, which is a shame and something I've been working on rectifying of late. 

"Only the painter who knows his business can create the impression that a picture was done in one stroke" ~ Pierre Auguste-Renoir.

One of the most commonly asked questions is, "How can I simplify my paintings?". The answer lies in the planning process, a step usually thought of as "boring" and therefore omitted.

"Thumbnail sketches” are small, preliminary sketches used to work out composition, tonal balance other areas that can make the painting process problematic. They can be used to explore the effect of adding or subtracting elements in your painting without committing time and paint to a large sheet of paper.

Before starting a painting it's a good idea to make some compositional sketches, because planning makes the painting process easier.

At some point every artist wonders how they can move forward with their painting. With this in mind I wrote the following article, which I hope will answer as many questions as it raises.

Painting, with the intention of pushing yourself beyond that which you can comfortably do, will take you further. That's easier said than done, of course. I have used my painting above to illustrate this article as it was pivotal in my own journey as an artist.

Creating a plan for achieving whatever you want begins with knowing precisely what you want to achieve and creating a list of things that will take you there. 
To help, I have divided the task into three stages...

"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." ~ Zig Ziglar.

Accept a challenge. 

”The seed of your next artwork lies embedded in the imperfections of your current piece.” ~ David Bayles.

I am a great advocate of the saying "failing to prepare is preparing to fail" however, whilst creative brilliance is often achieved through consideration and detailed planning there are few gains without risk, but this can be a hard thing for artists to come to terms with.

To take any kind of risk in order to develop your artwork is difficult once you have attained a certain level of success.  However, as creativity implies the production of something new, you can see it is not always of benefit to have a clear idea of an end result in mind. Therefore, challenging yourself by taking risks should not be seen as something detrimental to creativity but rather, should be seen as an opportunity to be open to new possibilities and stop prior judgements being made about a works outcome.