I’m working hard to find my own voice and have the courage to create what I want to create regardless of how my art is received.
I love being influenced by other artists, the internet, movies, books or anyone. But there comes a point where I have to sit in a quiet room and reflect on what I want to create. Today’s session at the Cooper Lanza gallery was no different.
I was going to begin the session today by doing a portrait that focused on the form of the head and make sure that I get a sense of three dimensions within the forms. I planned to do this by starting with a drawing to get it as accurate as possible then begin painting. But once the model posed I was inspired to do the whole figure. I had to do the figure, but I kept with my general plan to draw first, get the forms as accurate as I can, then begin with paint.
Although, through this whole process I had to continually fight, what I felt were, unauthentic urges.
- Go fast and get the whole figure done.
- Use less detail and stick with a larger brush.
- Stop measuring with your pencil just put it down.
In the end I’m glad I picked up my smallest brush. I’m glad I told myself to “get the face to a point where I was happy with it before moving on, and the same for all other areas, one square inch painted well is much better than a whole painting done poorly”. By end of the three hour session it felt like I was only painting for 1 hour and I had to force myself to get up and take breaks. Getting lost in what you love is wonderful.
At some point I plan on stepping into a more loose approach to painting the figure, you can see that currently in all the colors that I embellish, but for now I’m happy with my progress and my small inches toward something different.
