Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Well.

A failed painting does not make me a failure.
A failed painting does not make me a failure.
A failed painting does not make me a failure.

I'll probably be repeating that often. Right now I'm repeating it while looking at this:

 

I dunno. I came back to it today thinking I'd tighten things up. The pitcher wasn't so bad, but when it comes to those darn rose petals I'm stumped. I tried a million ways and scraped off a million layers, and this current way is not looking great, either.

Stylistically, I actually like it as is. If I saw this on Etsy, I'd think it was a cool, interesting painting and I'd pin it in my art folder on Pinterest*. Problem is, this is totally not the style I was going for, and it's a firm belief of mine that a good artist ought to be able to paint exactly how and what she wants.

Anyway, I'm leaving it alone for now. I took Harley on a bike ride and listened to this song on repeat for a while, and I'm feeling significantly better about life in general.


* I mean, no I wouldn't

3 comments:

  1. Girl, I feel this. I started working on a portrait of Mabe to give to Dabe for father's day, and in the rough sketch I feel like I captured her really well.....

    ....in the sketch I did on the canvas she looks like a demon.

    I dunno....

    But I actually really LIKE what you've got going on here! Push the weirdness. Maybe?

    <3 <3 KJTrott

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  2. Samantha!...Kaitlin! haha I didn't know I'd see two of my favorite people here! Hey, our greatest lessons are learned in our failures (BTW your failure in painting would be like my masterpiece!) I wish I was so much better at learning to step out and fail.

    And I agree with Kaitlin, even though it didn't turn out like you thought it would it looks really good and yeah, push the weirdness!

    Also, I am now officially following your blog so I should be way more consistent at keeping track of your stuff. The song is great too! Happy belated half b'day haha love you!

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  3. Oh, Kaitlin. Portraits of family members ARE THE WORST. I'm actually working on a few right now and there's, like, SO MUCH PRESSURE to get it right, you know? Ugh. Hopefully you can get it right, but if not you should just give your Dad the sketch. Frame it and it will look really avant-garde, and simple, and beautiful.

    This is a very technical (boring) way of painting, but sometimes I photograph my painting and load the image onto my laptop next to the reference picture. Something about seeing them the same small size, side by side, is very telling - like all those years of "Which One of These Is Not Like The Others" from Sesame Street is finally paying off.

    Good luck, Friend!!

    David, you are such a good brother. I love you!

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