Unity in art adds cohesiveness, certainty, and an overall harmony within our design. This is one of the hardest design principles to put into action on location. It’s an extremely good habit to acquire, but very difficult to do.

Unity also refers to a consistent approach to making art that creates a style from painting to painting. Our clients and galleries come to expect this look so they can build on your (and their) success. It also makes selling your art easier. Not sure I totally agree with this, but it is what it is.

Unity is achieved through repetition, harmony and simplicity.

Repetition: We’ll learn about repetition in the next post. Stay tuned.

Harmony: We learned about harmony in previous weeks, but here’s an approach I’m currently using that helps create my harmony. Underpainting: I enjoy the thin under thick approach to oil painting. This helps me to create a unity for the entire painting. For watercolor, this same underpainting approach is achieved during the first wash of light value and color. Subsequent washes subtract light and value while adding color, all to define my shapes and forms. For oil painting, I’ll use some of this watercolor approach knowing my future moves will require thicker paint to cover or add shapes and forms with opaque paint. For watercolor, I’m not opposed to using some opaque paint at the very end to pull out and reclaim some of the lighter parts. But use this opaque watercolor paint very sparingly, otherwise your paintings quickly become muddy and chalky looking.

Simplicity: And this is where it gets challenging. The very act of unifying the sameness across shapes creates stronger shapes and a better overall design than more detail ever would… 99 times out of 100.

Take this bit of advice: When Ego, Fear or Ignorance tells you to add more details, simply because you see it and you can do it, you’re listening to the wrong voice. Don’t! Instead, do the opposite – simplify, simplify, simplify. And for a fourth time…simplify!

Your paintings will be stronger because your design is that much stronger. And that’s because your shapes will be clearer and cleaner. This you now know, but to put this into practice is extremely difficult. And twice as hard while plein air painting.

Unity of style is led first by good design.

Here’s what I mean.

For those who want to challenge the norm, I encourage the use of different mediums to create art. Using your good design skills leads you to make good design choices, in whatever medium you’re using. From simple sketching to paper cut outs, pencil, pen and ink, charcoal, watercolor, oil, pastel, to gouache and acrylics – all these have unique properties and qualities.  I do this use of different mediums to not only mix up styles, but to further challenge and grow the importance of good design across all mediums. What I learn in doing a watercolor painting can be applied to my next oil painting. For example, watercolorists often use a negative painting technique to create shapes within their painting. In other words, painting around an object to define it, versus painting positively the object itself. By developing your negative painting skills in watercolor and then applying those skills in oil, you create remarkable unity within your design and create harmony across your entire painting curriculum.