Drawring, as they say in the Northeast...

So, have a point. Have an idea of what you want or need to do as a painter, or artist of any kind. Know what demon you need to feed, or thing you need to work out, or joy button you need to push. Which means, give yourself permission to know yourself.

Then, LEARN TO DRAW.

Steve Martin made the joke a long time ago, about how to make a million dollars and not pay taxes. "FIRST, make a million dollars. THEN, when the tax man comes around, two simple words: 'I... forgot.'"

Simple advice. Of course, the joke is the first part. There is no easy way to accomplish that part.

It is the same with any creative endeavor. First you have to put in the time, and learn the basics, the chops. There is no more important way to approach the building of anything than to have a solid foundation, and in representational and abstract painting, it is drawing. Drawing is everything. You do not need color with good drawing.

Drawing is not pencil lines on paper, it is everywhere where line is formed, anywhere where two values collide, where two different hues meet, where red meets yellow and black in a giant abstract painting... that is the drawing.

That drawing determines everything, it is the words and sentence structure. You cannot say anything without them. Color is the content, the fleshing out. A line made by the meeting of black and white shapes is the beginning of the conversation. That conversation tone changes when the exact same shapes meet but one is red and one is yellow, or one is pink and one is plum. But the line and shapes are the same. The INTERESTING part is the fundamental drawing. It is made MORE interesting by color...

In my own paintings, I am constantly working on the drawing, right up to the end. It is what tells me when I am finished.