News — Process

Image notes: Least favorite dog of the set, but I love that background, and I learned a technique I will use again.

Thirty-one days sort of. First some math, if I count today's, I did 24 paintings in the last month. Which if we're counting is 22 more paintings than I posted in February. I’m pretty sure I painted more than I posted, but how will we ever know?

The painting a day is a fascinating exercise. It was challenging and rewarding in totally unexpected ways.

The Pros:

This is my last dog for a few days while I get my wisdom teeth out. (Yay?) See you Sunday! (Or maybe Monday. But I promise to make up the missed 3-4 days. :)

It's always so fascinating to step back and look at a painting through the eye of a camera. So sure, I bring it into Photoshop and do my best to make sure the image on screen matches hue and value to the one in front of me on the canvas, but there is somethign about seeing it by itself. How that one step of removal can show you all sorts of things you hadn't noticed before. How that nose needs more red. How the left jowl pushes forward and needs to be pushed back. How I finally got the color of blue I'd been trying to get for a few weeks (cobalt and burnt umber for the win!)

This probably counts as my first layer. Now time to put it away and think about all of those components. Shelf the pluses and the negatives and then come back to it again another day with fresh eyes.

One of the reasons why I love painting is because I love the mental challenge of painting. This can of course be a tightrope between a growth experience and a very frustrating experience. Often both simultaneously.

Abstract artist Virginia Cobb says that she likes to set up problems in her paintings so that she forces herself to find solutions. I didn't truly understand that until the past few months of painting. Problem paintings can turn out to be the best paintings. Maybe not visually but artistically. Because at some point if you've worked a painting too hard or too long, you get to a point where you don't have to be careful any longer. There's nothing left to protect. And when there is nothing left to protect, you can really start learning something.

Over half way through the Painting a Day personal challenge. Only 13 more days to go. (Phew!)