The Practice is Paying Off
7:20 AM
As I have mentioned before I am a s-----l-----o-----w, painter. It takes me forever to paint anything. I love details and I tend to get mired down in them way too early in a painting. When you start painting details too early, you lose sight of the big picture, lose the details in the layers and they have to be repainted, and this can lead to losing that fresh, clean look.
I am also very conscientious about edges, drips, splatters, etc. which slows you down considerably. It gets to the point where even I become bored with the painting and I run the risk of not finishing it. There is also that thing called confidence that can really slow you down too. Painting slow is especially harmful if you're trying to make a living at your art, you're not finishing paintings, and you have nothing to sell.
All of my little daily exercises are my way of practicing speed, accuracy and staying away from the details until it's appropriate to paint them. They are intended to be "good enough" to capture the essence of the subject, and still maintain the freshness of the painting.
The painting above is a result of my attempts to become faster - I painted it yesterday afternoon in about 3 hours! And that pleases me no end! I tried two different versions of this painting in October and both took me the better part of the day and I would not post nor attempt to sell either because they're not very good. One is not even finished.
In an effort to sell more work I've decided to make the work available on the blog first before I list the painting over on my website. This won't be everyday, but I want to give as much exposure to the new work as I can. So if you see something you like please let me know!
8 Creative Thought(s)
These peppers are just beautiful!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Teri!
ReplyDeleteGosh, Laure, this is so wonderful! I love the fresh, glowing colors and the composition is great.
ReplyDeleteRead your comments with interest. I'm a really slow painter too (couple that with the fact that I'm using colored pencils and, speedwise, that puts me about on par with the two toed sloth) so it was helpful to read your views on the subject. I'm trying to speed up, but I still want to be able to experiment. Is that like trying to have your cake and eat it too? :-)
You can have your cake and eat it too - you just have to choose whether you want 3 ingredients or 13!
ReplyDeleteI do the little sketches (Bucky, eggs, Tucker) to get more confident at color choices, drawing skills, etc. so that when I do work on a bigger piece some of the choices are non-events. I also find that by keeping my hand in the "sketchbook" all the time that I don't have to re-learn some things that I think you get rusty at if you miss a few days.
Hope this helps!
...I love those peppers. They are so vibrant and balanced. They have a good feel to them. 3 hours is fast, and on top of that, they are perfect!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kelly! Every once in a while it all works out right! This was one of those times!
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the trip thru your site
watercolor is hard, and you did a fabulous job
your paintings are beautiful.
Bravo. Excellent results!
Thank you, Chris, and thanks for stopping by to take a look! Hope you can come by again!!
ReplyDeleteLet's talk!