This week, I worked mainly in my home art studio since errands this past Saturday led me to conclude that I was not going to make it to Lee Hartman’s oil painting class at University Art.
This week, I continued to block off my latest painting. It is an ambitious endeavor given my limited experience in the area of oil painting. I chose it because of the bright colors and the people in the foreground. And it is these people that are troubling me. My initial sketch of the four girls working the candy apple and lemonade stand was just too tall. I didn’t realize this until after I had them all sketched in and a couple of days went by.
Fresh eyes have a way of revealing things which you are not aware of when you become too deeply entrenched in the work.
Hence, this week, I spent most of my time erasing each of the girls and adjusting their height on canvas. This of course resulted in me overcompensating and made one of the girls look too short…even Clint noticed. Eraser was used again, little pink shavings falling to the ground of my studio.
It was during this third round of adjustments that I realized it will never be completely perfect and I could be paralyzed in this phase of the painting process.
Planning is important, but it is only the first step of many steps toward a completed piece which can result in something beautiful or ugly being created. It was time to stop planning, and for me to charge forward armed in one hand with brush and the other with palette.
I know what I need to do instead.
