Besides, “Make it your own”. I often tell my acrylic group painters to trust the process! Mostly, I’m a type “A” personality so I need to know the plan. This is one of the hardest things to let go of when you are a painter, but you must trust the process. Many times, you start out with a painting, and it won’t look like much of anything, don’t get disappointed because acrylic painting is about working back to front and in layers. Eventually, you’ll get to the point where your masterpiece looks exactly what you were intending and at times it feels like it’s the very last step. Trust the process, and don’t give up! That next to the last step will surprise and amaze you!

When I first started painting, I had a death grip on my brush to the point where my knuckles were white. If you have white knuckles, you are holding the brush too tight! Loosen the grip, relax and trust the process. The second hardest thing to learn is there are multiple ways to hold your brush- the pencil method is most common for detail work but if you are making branches or something more whimsical- relinquish the control of the brush and hold the handle way at the end, far from the brush! I know it’s difficult to change but trust the process! Trust the process but also know when you need to stop, walk away, get up, put the brush down! Overpainting is a thing, and it happens! Often these subtle changes are all that’s needed to craft your masterpiece.