BRING OUT YOUR CREATIVITY
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Gallery
  • Blog
  • Store
  • Contact
  • Resume
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Service
  • Let Me Make Some Art For You
  • Youtube
  • Email Sign Up

My Struggles With Indecision In My Painting

9/19/2019

1 Comment

 
Picture
I want to start off by saying that I think looking at your reference photo for a good while before starting to paint or draw is smart. I talked about this in my post about how to improve as an artist. But if you get into the mindset that you have to know exactly what to do before hitting the canvas, this can hinder your productivity and cause unnecessary anxiety. Eventually, you need to be okay with going forward with a piece without being one hundred percent sure.

I struggle with this myself. That's why I'm writing about it. I can't help thinking I've wasted time because I was afraid to paint the wrong thing, when I could have moved forward with the piece by putting something, anything, on the canvas.

Why do you think we try on clothes and look in the mirror instead of mentally figuring out what looks good on us? We're not afraid to try something on for fear that it won't flatter us. I know I'm not, at least. If the item doesn't suit us, we just don't buy it.

I don't always know what colors to mix to get a shade that I see in my reference photo. It can be a debate between mixing yellow and brown or brown and white? The only way to settle this conflict with myself is to get out the paints that I think will make the color I want and start mixing. The more colors you mix, the more this sense of indecision will subside.

You won't be a hundred percent sure if you like something or not until you see it on your canvas or paper. I'm thinking of what Lisa Clough has said in her live streams, which is to adopt the attitude of "Let's see what happens when I do this.
Picture
let's look at how this is manifesting in my current piece. I really want to paint a sheer green over these reeds. Because this area is so small, though, I need to be super careful to thin my paint down enough so that it doesn't go on too thick. I don't have a lot of area to spread the paint out after all, so even a tiny bit is going to look very thick if I'm not careful. That makes me hesitate.
Picture
Here's how the reeds came out. Not exactly what I was envisioning, but I'm pretty happy with it.
Picture

There's an obvious highlight on the side of this palm leaf I'd like to paint. It doesn't look green to me. If anything, it looks like a light tan color. I'm nervous about painting it because I've tried and failed to paint this highlight before.
Picture
I tried using my unbleached titanium white. I was happy with my shade choice from my first brush stroke. Your eye will always know better whether something is right or wrong visually than your mind will. All I had to do now was make sure I followed the shape I saw in my reference photo. I brought the unbleached titanium white down to the bottom of the leaf in a pointed shape. Then I cleaned and dried my brush and blended out my edges.
Picture
For my second attempt at painting the little tan highlights on the palm leaf, I used a my liner brush. I was much happier this time. I noticed there were also some thin stripy highlights too, so I painted those.

I saw some colors, like yellow, brown, and purple, in the leaf closest to the river that I'd missed before. I didn't want to use straight yellow for it, so I mixed it with violet, because I thought it looked a bit reddish. I noticed there were some highlights on the side the same shade as the ones I'd painted on the palm leaf, so I painted those.
If you're working in a medium that's not easy to cover up, like watercolor or colored pencil, you might want to keep a piece of scratch paper(that's the same type of paper your project is on)to test colors before using them on your project.

​Assuming it's not a commissioned piece, though, even if you do put the wrong shade down, at the end of the day, it's not the end of the world. You'll probably be the only one who notices the "mistake" anyway. Do you really think if you have a great foundation drawing, a fantastic balance of lights and darks, and phenomenal perspective,(okay, I'm getting a little ambitious here, but just go with me), if you're piece has all that, do you think the people you show it to are really going to notice if you used the "wrong" shade of blue somewhere. No, they're not.
1 Comment
Wayne Tyson
10/2/2019 05:36:34 pm

You're right to just lay down some paint (or play with some clay or?) until it seems to suggest shapes and colors.

Hilare Hiller wrote an excellent essay called "Why Abstract?" Worth reading.

I don't know about you, but I have done a lot of mediocre work, and some that are the result of not trying to control. Trust yourself.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

      Never Miss A Post

    Subscribe to Newsletter

    Sara Millett

    Painter of portraits and wildlife

    Archives

    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016

    Categories

    All
    Acrylic Floral Paintings
    Acrylic Nature Paintings
    Acrylic Painting
    Acrylic Paintings
    Acrylic Painting Video Tutorials
    Acrylic Portrait Paintings
    Acrylic Portraits
    Advice About Art Supplies
    Advice For Beginning Artists
    Animal Drawing
    Animal Paintings
    Art
    Art Advice
    Art Discussions
    Art Thoughts
    Art Tips
    Avoiding Blooms In Watercolor Painting
    Avoiding Plagiarism In Art
    Being An Artist
    Colored Pencil
    Color Mixing
    Color Mixing Exercise
    Creative Process
    Creativity
    Drawing Tips
    Glazing(technique)
    Graphite Drawing
    Hair In Watercolor
    Improving As An Artist
    Inspiration
    Issues With Watercolor
    Lightfastness
    New Ways To Mix Skin Tone
    Originality In Art
    Painting A Deer In Watercolor
    Painting Advice
    Painting Animals In Acrylics
    Painting Backgrounds
    Painting Experiments
    Painting Human Features In Acrylics
    Paintings
    Paintings Done On Ampersand Boards
    Painting Skin Tone
    Paintings Of Animals
    Paintings Of Birds
    Painting Tips
    Portrait Drawing
    Portrait Painting
    Portrait Painting In Watercolor
    Portrait Painting Tips
    Portraits
    Portrait Tips
    Product Reviews
    Thoughts On Productivity
    Tips For Painting Fur
    Use Of Underpainting
    Videos
    Watercolor Painting
    Watercolor Paintings
    Watercolor Painting Tips
    Watercolor Portrait Painting
    Watercolor Portraits
    Watercolor Techniques
    Watercolor Wildlife Painting
    Wildlife Art
    Wildlife Drawing
    Wildlife Painting
    Wildlife Painting In Acrylics
    Wildlife Paintings
    Youtube

Privacy Policy​
Terms Of Service​
Contact​
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Gallery
  • Blog
  • Store
  • Contact
  • Resume
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Service
  • Let Me Make Some Art For You
  • Youtube
  • Email Sign Up