The phrase ‘The Devil is in the Detail’ refers to an idea that whatever one does should be done thoroughly.  An unprecedented level of skill is required to produce photorealistic art with minute attention to detail.  But this is not to say there is an equal level of skill required in producing more loose and expressive art that transcends the capability of photographs, injecting a dynamism and quality of unique human expression.

A recent visit to the Ashmolean museum in Oxford brought this idea to light when I came across a painting titled ‘Eight Donkeys’ in which Chinese artist Huang Zhou has managed to encapsulate the essence of a donkey in a masterful simplicity of brushwork.

Eight Donkeys by Huang Zhou

Since I love the details in life, one of the hardest things for me to do as an artist is to concentrate on recording the basic form and line of the subject first.  Inspired by Huang Zhou I set to work with charcoal on ‘Bliss, Common Seal’.

Bliss, Common Seal by Nicky Muizelaar

I was very pleased with result as it communicates the feeling I wanted to convey, although no doubt Mr Huang Zhou would have said I used far too many strokes to achieve it.  Back to the drawing board and armed with a brush and sepia watercolour I completed ‘Let Loose’, a play on words in more ways than one.

Let Loose by Nicky Muizelaar

A lot less strokes, but no less thought and consideration as to where and how to place them and in what paint concentration.  Not quite as spontaneous as the Chinese painting technique.  But a step in the right direction to achieving that looseness and sense of movement, the very essence of the subject which inspired me.

If you are similarly afflicted with a preoccupation with detail, here are a list of techniques I used to counteract it:

• Start off with thumbnail sketches of the darkest and lightest tones.
• Place your source image several metres away from your observation point.
• Blur your source image by placing a film of tracing paper over it or photoshop it into black & white.
• When working from life, squinting your eyes is a time honoured technique.
• Don’t overthink and spend endless time planning, just sit down and draw/paint.
• Repeat the exercise over and over again, the above image ‘Let Loose’ is my third attempt.

Have you found any other ingenius methods that work for you?