"Fresh Eyes" and the Rearview Mirror Technique For Painters

You know this feeling. You’ve been working on a painting for a while, a long while...

It’s going okay so far, but you are aware that something’s a bit off--you just can’t tell WHAT it is. It all looks pretty good, but...you know what you know, even though you don’t know exactly what’s missing or off in some way.

This happens all the time, and it’s just something to get used to. It just means you need some perspective.

How to use the "Fresh Eyes" Trick

This is one that most people know about, it’s easy to use, and you should definitely be taking advantage of it if you aren’t-- because it’s like free advice (that you actually want)!

If you are working on an easel, set it up so that when you leave the room to grab a coffee or tea, it’ll be the very first thing you see when you walk back into the room.

If you aren’t working on an easel, prop your canvas up straight, or hang it on the studio wall. (Hanging it on the wall is a good one, because your brain expects to see finished art on the wall, and might tell you what’s missing if you are nearly done with the piece).

Sometimes even 5 minutes is enough for a simple problem-- longer if it’s more complex.

While you are gone you’ll want to intentionally think about something else. Don’t mentally problem solve or wonder what the solution is, take a real break and let your mind go someplace else entirely.

When you come back in the room and your painting is on the easel, or propped up right in full view, it’ll strike you differently than before. You’ll likely see something you weren’t seeing before. Something that jumps out at you and grabs your attention first.

A lot of the time, that break from painting will put you in a different mood, and you’ll see what you were doing and decide it’s actually looking a lot better than you realized. If that’s the case, all you needed was a break!

If there is actually something to fix, your elephant in the living room will usually appear.

It may not tell you exactly what you need to do, but it will likely point you in the right direction!

How to use the "Rearview Mirror" Trick

This one is really useful, and nice because you don’t even have to leave the room to see what might need some adjusting.

When we work on a piece for a long time, we get so used to the image, that we start not seeing it for what it really is. We might be digging into surface details and missing a bigger layout mistake-- or we have the thing laid out nicely and our light and dark areas aren’t looking right.

So, without further ado, here’s the deal.

Take any mirror, it can be a small handheld mirror like a makeup compact, or a larger one that you can still hold comfortably.

All you need to do is turn your back on the painting and look at it in the mirror instead. If you are holding a tiny mirror, you’ll be scanning across the surface looking at details. A larger mirror will give you more of a full view of your whole painting.

Try this with a couple of different sized mirrors. You’ll know which you like better by how curious you feel about what you are seeing. I like to mix it up and use a larger mirror to show me my overall layout, and whether it’s looking as balanced as I think--and a small one to scan over all the surface details without seeing them in context with the rest of the painting.

Of course, it’s all going to be in reverse. That’s what makes this so useful.

When we’re working, we get used to seeing what we want to see, and sometimes don’t notice something awkward about our composition. With the image flipped, those kinds of mistakes will catch your eye right away because it’s showing you what you’ve been missing.

So if you use either of these techniques--or both, ideally--it will really help you become more aware of anything that’s being lost in the translation from your head to your hand. It’s a great tool for self awareness, and really, they are both a lot of fun.

Work them into your painting practice, and see what you’ve been missing!