Home Forums The Think Tank Creativity When you’re stuck on a painting…

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  • #472964
    Leah Howard
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        What do you do? Do you just keep trying until things look right even if you only make a tiny bit of progress each day and have to redo things a few times? Do you take a break and work on something easier for a bit?

        I started a new painting a few days ago thinking I knew exactly what colors I wanted to use what I had in mind isn’t looking like what I thought it would on the canvas. I have a new idea for the background but no idea what color I want the horse now (it’s a sort – of close up of a horse). I can’t think of what would look nice with the background I like, and the colors I think I’d like to use for the horse don’t seem like they’d work well with the background. I’ve spent like the last 2 days just browsing reference photos to try to pick something. Now I’m less sure than ever because there are endless possibilities. Then again, there are endless possibilities so I should just pick anything. Haha.

        What do you do when you find yourself in a situation like this?

        C&C Welcome!
        @leahpaints

        #825432
        sykirobme
        Default

            I’ve put aside paintings that weren’t working for me, but I never seem to get back to them. Generally if I want to do a piece but it isn’t working for me in its current state to the point where I’m avoiding the work, I’ll just sand it down, gesso over the canvas, and begin again.

            #825429

            As skyiobme says, put it on the shelf and start on another subject. Life it too short to stop painting with a blockage on the line. Move on and just paint something else. If the muses inspire to re-visit the blocked painting, so mote be. Otherwise move on.

            It is only on a basis of knowledge that we can become free to compose naturally. -- Bernard Dunstan
            blog.jlk.net

            #825423
            La_
            Default

                you could post an image of it here and we’ll try to give you a hand

                la

                _____________________________________________
                When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know Peace

                #825422
                brusher
                Default

                    Leah,take a break from this one – but keep looking at it, thinking about it. The answer will eventually come to you through your instincts. If you want, you can write notes or a “task list” of things to do to improve it, (or what you think the problems are), and tape the note on easel or board – It has worked for me, consistently.

                    Cathy

                    #825434
                    Leah Howard
                    Default

                        Thanks for the tip, Cathy. It seems like everyone else agrees that it’s better to set it aside for now. I didn’t touch it again today and I know part of it is just a “fear” of applying that first brush stroke of the day. But that hasn’t stopped me before, and I did set up this painting more as a challenge to try a new angle and composition than I tend to gravitate towards. I’d like to eventually get nack to this one, but I also think there’s nothing wrong with just sticking to painting what I like to. ^^

                        C&C Welcome!
                        @leahpaints

                        #825426
                        Use Her Name
                        Default

                            I sculpt, and have various pieces that I left off at various times “taking up space” in the studio. I have been to professional (high level) sculptor’s studios and have seen the same type of half-done sculpture knocking around.

                            The way the mind works is that there are periods of intense focus followed by periods of analysis. I have had pieces that I liked too much not to tear down and have put aside to “think about” (analyze) for as much as a few years. There is something that is “working” in them, and yet something else that I have to “figure out” before I consider them to be going my way. Once that thing is figured out, or resolved (often sub-consiously)I finish it. Where this information comes from is your guess as well as mine. Perhaps you just have not been introduced to the element of knowledge that you need.

                            So, in short, I would keep it intact, and then “search” for the part that is missing. Often artists get inspiration from the art in museums, or some favorite art or art style. Start reading and looking, and I am sure that it will come to you at some point.

                            I mean, how many times have you realized that it was only after that trip to the woods or that conversation with your mom, or some other event that some unconnected piece of information resolved and became connected? Art is a puzzle, like math, with rules, and with un-rules. (The known known, the unknown knowns and all that la-de-dah). You are the filter, not the art itself. The art is only a by-product of thinking.

                            No longer a member of WC. Bye.

                            #825421
                            stlukesguild
                            Default

                                Beginning a painting is easy. Completing a painting is far more difficult. I had a professor who drilled this idea into me… but I ignored it… until years after art school. I used to work on several paintings at a time… reach an impasse… become frustrated… set them aside and begin another. Now I work on a single painting at a time and battle through the “ugly stage” until the work is complete. With time I have also come to realize that the best paintings aren’t merely a realization or illustration of my initial idea. After a certain point, a painting takes on a life of its own… becoming something more than I had envisioned.

                                As for the “muses” or “inspiration”… I agree with Picasso: “Inspiration exists but it has to find you working;” and Chuck Close, “Inspiration is for amateurs, the rest of us just show up and get to work.”

                                Saintlukesguild-http://stlukesguild.tumblr.com/
                                "Beauty is truth, truth beauty—that is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know." - John Keats
                                "Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea."- John Ciardi

                                #825435
                                Leah Howard
                                Default

                                    Interesting to see someone who takes a different approach. That is what I tried with my last painting – pushing on even when I wanted to set it aside and getting it done. I’m so glad that I ended up completing the painting. The own I’m working on now is harder to do that with, I think because I’m not relying so much on a reference photo and having a hard time visualizing my idea enough to execute it.

                                    C&C Welcome!
                                    @leahpaints

                                    #825427
                                    Use Her Name
                                    Default

                                        Oh, I know that in Sculpture (and painting) there is an “Ugly” phase that you never think you will get through. I am not saying totally give it up, I am just saying take a rest for a while and try to resolve the issue by thinking about it. I am saying also that obsession needs to be spread out. I also happen to believe in working on several pieces at once. When I run out of steam on one, I can move to another. I often work every other day on one or the other. More rest in between. I also do not work from photos in the sense of one photo per project (copying a photograph). I guess I think that art should not be easy. Nothing good is easy (shades of my father!).

                                        No longer a member of WC. Bye.

                                        #825418
                                        Robin
                                        Default

                                            I sculpt, and have various pieces that I left off at various times “taking up space” in the studio. I have been to professional (high level) sculptor’s studios and have seen the same type of half-done sculpture knocking around.

                                            The way the mind works is that there are periods of intense focus followed by periods of analysis. I have had pieces that I liked too much not to tear down and have put aside to “think about” (analyze) for as much as a few years. There is something that is “working” in them, and yet something else that I have to “figure out” before I consider them to be going my way. Once that thing is figured out, or resolved (often sub-consiously)I finish it. Where this information comes from is your guess as well as mine. Perhaps you just have not been introduced to the element of knowledge that you need.

                                            So, in short, I would keep it intact, and then “search” for the part that is missing. Often artists get inspiration from the art in museums, or some favorite art or art style. Start reading and looking, and I am sure that it will come to you at some point.

                                            I mean, how many times have you realized that it was only after that trip to the woods or that conversation with your mom, or some other event that some unconnected piece of information resolved and became connected? Art is a puzzle, like math, with rules, and with un-rules. (The known known, the unknown knowns and all that la-de-dah). You are the filter, not the art itself. The art is only a by-product of thinking.

                                            So true. I ran across a painting recently while cleaning that I had so much trouble with I put it aside. I can see now why it was a failure 5 or so years ago, glad I could recognize that it was just wrong, and not just unfinished.

                                            Robin

                                            #825419
                                            Robin
                                            Default

                                                Katy, have you ever gotten your resolution via a dream? I have.

                                                It’s like it’s there but needs to break through.

                                                Robin

                                                #825436
                                                Hopskidee
                                                Default

                                                    Depending on the scale of the work, I either: a) do another version ie start from scratch if A4 or smaller, b) soldier on with the same painting til I get the desired output (this is mostly with oils. For oil pastels I find there’s a limit to how much I can put one layer over another.), c) or just completely abandon it if it already feels stressful doing it. For me painting is one great form of stress relief so feeling stressed about it just kind of defeats the purpose

                                                    #825431
                                                    picassolite
                                                    Default

                                                        So – you’ve hit the wall … in cartoon-speak!

                                                        Unlike cartoon land … where the flattened hero just peels itself off the wall or pavement, takes a moment to swell back into form and … starts all over again ~

                                                        artists must find their own way to breathe life back into a painting.

                                                        I’ve hit that wall so many times I’m still surprised my nose isn’t sitting sideways on my face.

                                                        Fortunately for you Claude_J_Greengrass answered your dilemma in another post on the Wetcanvas Creativity Forum …

                                                        an armchair chat with Mike Bailey.

                                                        I’d love to take credit for this suggestion – but I have to offer my profs to Claude_J_Greengrass.

                                                        Best Regards,
                                                        Picassolite :thumbsup:

                                                        PS – regarding your comment ~ “The colors I think I’d like to use for the horse don’t seem like they’d work well with the background.

                                                        The color wheel is your friend.

                                                        #825430
                                                        DaveCrow
                                                        Default

                                                            I have one painting that sat for over two years because I couldn’t figure out how I wanted to treat the background. I just tucked it way and did other paintings.

                                                            A lot of paintings I will get frustrated in the ugly stage and walk away from them for a while. Some of them prove to have good bones when I come back to the and get further work. Others reveal themselves to be fundamentally flawed.

                                                            Usually when I hit a wall with one painting I will work on another for a while. Inspiration needs to find you working, but sometimes that working is on another project.

                                                            It might help you with the horse to do a couple of small studies. Rough in your chose background and try different possible core colors against it. They don’t need to be fully finished paintings. The goal is to see how the possible horse color choices work against the chosen background.

                                                            "Let the paint be paint" --John Marin

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