Painting and confidence

Yesterday, I wasn't very happy with my painting. I spent several hours painting without conviction, hesitantly, you could even say fearfully or at least anxiously. It happens sometimes.

I think the why of it is that having advanced a painting so that it begins to please or satisfy me, I start being afraid of messing it up. I paint, but I am unconsciously holding back. Actually it's not that unconscious, which helps to maintain the general level of tension, but I am unable, at the time at least, to do anything about it.

I am not alone in encountering these bouts, from what I read and hear, it happens sometimes to artists - people creating. It is sometimes a part of the process. 

Inevitably, I paint less well when I feel this way. Not that it is necessarily *bad* painting, but it is more of grind, maybe less "true".

Today all was well again, and I painted with quiet attention and confidence, feeling nourished as I painted.

Here is a detail of the painting from this evening (I worked a lot around the eye and nose):

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The full painting, still in process but feeling good:

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Gazing up - so far

Here are stages so far :

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Advanciing little by little. The face is taking on more a little more life and the skin is beginning to feel translucent.

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Necky Woman looking up - Painting process

Just a provisional title for the painting I started this week.

Below is my painting broken down into a few snapshots.

The painting is oil on acrylic base on linen canvas 50 x 70 cm.

The painting as it stands this evening

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4 stages of the painting
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A few words on the process:

In the first snap I have put down two layers of acrylic, first red and then green. Why did I choose those colors? Difficult to give a very rational reason. The original subject in the photograph was outside with trees in the background - that gives green, and red is a complement to green and so vibrates with it. When putting on the green I painted loosely leaving large spaces to let the red show through. I don't know how much of the under coat will be left visible at the end, but at the least it serves to stimulate me with the color interaction and the texture.

In the second snap, after transferring my drawing to the canvas, I painted the broad outlines, still in acrylic. Those two snaps are from the first day.

The third and fourth snaps, on the second day,  show the colors beginning to block in and the light and shade beginning to show up, this time in alkyd oil - it will be dry by tomorrow.

As ever I will exert myself to try and retain the freshness which comes easily with the first coats of paint, but gets more difficult as the painting comes closer to the finish.

A painting is a moving target.

Night Parade - Painting stages for the day

While waiting for my dancer to dry, I started this today. Here is the progression from the day's session.

Acrylic base

Acrylic sketch

Oils

Step by step video of painting "Who am I?"

As promised here is a step by step in 6 stages of painting for my self portrait "Who am I?"

I put it in video format instead of posting the seperate images. More fun. But blogger blured it down :(

Step by Step Painting

Its always interesting to look at different stages of a painting. Of course, each painter will have their own process, but this is fairly typical of mine. I always try to take photographs of the different steps, but sometimes I get sucked into the painting and forget.

The first photograph has only fairly thin acrylic, it is my rough "drawing" stage. Then from the second photograph onwards I am in oils.

 Step by step of Sunset and snow, rue des Eaux-Vives

Click in the image to see a larger version

 

Step by Step of Self Portrait

Self Portrait  step by step.

It's always interesting to see how a painting evolves from start to finish. You can see five stages of the painting from the previous post. In the first one you can see the distortion of the face after a quick placement of the features that were corrected as the painting progressed.

I often like to put down a background base which is complementary to what I imagine is the final overall color.

I try not to have too much of detailed plan to allow the direction of the painting to progress as a sort of dialog between me and the painting. (click on the image to see a larger version)

Step by step of Self Portrait - oil on canvas 40 x 50 cm

Fist stages of my current painting

Its always interesting to see a painting as it develops...
(Click image to see larger)