Tom Hoffmann > Quotes

“The best way to find out if something needs to be in the picture is to leave it out.”
― Tom Hoffmann, Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium

“the number of colors you use? Do you make deliberate decisions about how colors are distributed on the page? Are you thinking about color temperature and relative intensity? Are your darkest darks all the same color? And most important of all: Do you always make the same color choices, no matter how your purpose changes? Begin your assessment by identifying the feelings you were after in several paintings. Do the color choices you made support your intention? How might you have enhanced the emotion? Would using more colors, or fewer, strengthen the feeling you sought?”
― Tom Hoffmann, Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium

“If I sacrifice the simple beauty of the paint for accuracy or complexity, I have made a bad bargain.”
― Tom Hoffmann, Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium

“Experience comes from outside ourselves and accumulates inside, but understanding always comes from within. Instead of asking the authorities your question, first try asking yourself. For example, if you are after a feeling of serenity in your painting, should you introduce a new color for this next passage, or refer back to one you have already established? Or, when you are trying to mix a good gray and it keeps coming out brown, what color should you add? You have a lifetime of color experience. If”
― Tom Hoffmann, Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium

“viewer—have roles to play. When one does all the talking, it leaves the other with nothing to do. Part of the pleasure of a conversation is the mutual acknowledgement of common understanding. A well-chosen word refers to ideas and experiences that both participants appreciate, whereas describing everything implies that the other person has nothing to offer. Paintings that tell me too much always feel vaguely insulting, as if all that is wanted from me is to be impressed and say, “Wow!”
― Tom Hoffmann, Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium