I began today’s session thinking that I should abandon this figure painting and start a new one. I’m glad I didn’t follow through with that notion.
Today I stuck with the painting for the whole session. No preliminary drawing or studies, I just focused on taking the groundwork that I have already laid down and improved upon it. I think this is the 7th time I’ve painted the torso and upper arms of the figure, but this is the first time I felt that I got it right.
I think yesterday’s session helped tremendously. Yesterday I focused on breaking down the torso into simple, yet accurate, blocks of color and value. So today I felt all that I had to do was adjust these areas with correct gradations from dark to light, adjust color intensity in some place and apply some accurate textures.
The good part is that this figure painting has improved dramatically with this session. The bad news is that the painting is only half way done. So, I really need to keep up my motivation and focus on bringing it through to the end.