Hi, I'm Nancy Rainer. Thank you for joining me for this video, where we'll focus on ways to improve your painting. We'll take a look at some of the most common painting issues and their solutions. All painters deal with issues or problems. In fact, I like to think of painting as just that a series of problems to solve. The first problem is the blank canvas.

Add something to that and voila, you have your next problem. When there are no more problems to solve, it's finished. It might not always seem that simple, but it is an easy way to think about our painting process. In the beginning, when I start painting, it feels fun, playful, but then after a while, I often find myself asking, now what or is it finished? This is a key moment. It means I'm ready to move from what I call a play phase to a critique phase.

Time to analyze what to do next and to see if there are any issues that if resolved, would make our painting more attractive, more attention getting more visually exciting. My book create perfect paintings focuses on both phases, and contains a special system to identify issues. One of my favorite ways from the book to find issues is to look at a painting I'm currently working on and say it's too and then I fill in the blank with the first thing that pops into my head. It's too busy, it's too dark, it's too boring, etc. Let's take a look at some of these issues more closely.