Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Glorious imperfection

I started a self portrait the other day, and it was fabulous. The painting of a portrait, that is, rather than the painting itself. I've been working on still life after still life for so long now, I was dying to work on something else. And as hiring a model isn't in the cards for me just now, I went for the self portrait. I was so excited to be working on a figure again, however, I neatly skipped over most of the requisite beginning stages. That is to say, I started full-out painting without ever having solidified the drawing. Day two will be a headache of cursing my own impatience and trying to rework the drawing. C'est la vie. I also have a decided reluctance to show my in-progress paintings, or even the finished work for that matter, when they contain people. And as I'm very much in favor of ridding myself of irrational fears, such as the fear that the painting may be such a terrible failure I'll lose the ability to paint forever, I'm making myself post the following image, in all its glorious imperfection.

Block in of a self portrait:

2 comments:

  1. ...No imperfection there, my dear; it's all part of the process! Brava. Missing you in Virginia, S

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  2. I think this is looking good, don't worry about it being perfect at an early stage (or ever). I have these same concerns in my work. Another issue I had with posting pictures of works in progress is the idea that the painting fails and I abandon it. This happens only rarely now (thankfully) but it felt pretty embarrassing when it would happen in the past (and I had been posting it in progress).

    Good luck with this one, this is a great start. I look forward to seeing it progress.

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