PSST member Carolyn Hancock

You and PSST.
from PSST member Carolyn Hancock. Stay Home to me almost meant stay in the studio., giving me time to practice my favorite way to paint. It  s the opposite to years of practice. Doug Dawson calls it puzzle painting, and Tina Garrett uses Richard Schmid's  Selective Start, so you can probably guess how it goes: tiny piece to next shape. There is no drawing, just painting what you see. The concept is that you paint the first thing correctly in shape, size and color, then add the adjoining small shape. Get the hang of it, and you don't have to go back and make corrections. 

Richard Schmid writes in his book, Alla Prima, Everything I Know About Painting: "Why was it necessary to paint something almost right--and then correct it? … Why couldn't the first strokes of a painting be correct in drawing and complete, with edges, value, and color, and be identical to what I saw on my subject? Why couldn't the second stroke also be like that? … The answer was -- no reason at all! If I could see the colors and shapes of a subject well enough to correct them, then I could also get them right the first time." page 63. Tina Garrett has an excellent video that includes Selective Start, and so much more good information.

I have several short time lapse videos showing this method on my Facebook page, and here's a quick one. The detail of a self-portrait was also painted by Selective Start.