While working on this portrait, I realized it just wasn't where I'd wanted it to go. I kept trying different things, but I wasn't happy with the results. My mentor had once told me to keep the initial vision I'd had for the piece in my mind. Well, I didn't think I'd had a "vision" for the work. But then I remembered the poster study I'd done at the beginning. And I realized that IT was a thumbnail of my "vision"!. So I pulled it back out (don't know why I'd put it aside in the first place) and went back into the painting with a renewed enthusiasm. I am much happier with the results. I still need to work on the leather and spurs area...but I'm more optimistic. 
3 comments:
Have you finished the trees?
Hmmm. Why do you ask?
Honestly, nothing is done until I actually deliver the painting. I'm always touching up. I will probably refine them more.
Did you have some ideas for me?
Not sure if I have anything useful. I recently did a sketch of my surrounding landscape from a photo. It helped me to see the foliage the way Tony talks about beards: clumps of volume that have their owm shadow at the bottom, light on top, and terminator somewhere in between. It was sometimes very hard to see all this, and I almost had to invent. But it helped me, I think.
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