One thing is certain, I am not giving up as I have invested too much time and effort in this piece... I will force myself to finish this painting and then just move on to the next.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Frustrated with painting fern leaves
At some point some artists reach their limit and I am very close to having reached mine. I am referring to the fern leaves that are very predominating in this frog painting. After going back and reworking some of them, I think I might go back and change them again....we call that overworking a painting! Problem is, there is a limit as to the amount of layers of pastel the suede can hold and I may have reached the saturation point.
One thing is certain, I am not giving up as I have invested too much time and effort in this piece... I will force myself to finish this painting and then just move on to the next.
One thing is certain, I am not giving up as I have invested too much time and effort in this piece... I will force myself to finish this painting and then just move on to the next.
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I think it's looking fanstastic Colette. I do know what you mean though by being frustrated. We're our own worst critics, and when we envision something, that's what we want to see transpire. The good thing is that nobody knows what you're envisioning, so it's looking darned great! :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, Carole, that is so true...I have been looking at this one for too long! Thank you for your wonderful compliments!
ReplyDeleteIt looks good to me as well. I pulled out my old field guide to amphibians and reptiles. I guess that the only tree frog that occurs in your area is the Gray Tree Frog. It is way cool.
ReplyDeleteAround here our only herp is the small, Wood Frog. Even that is hard to find.
This is looking fabulous! Not sure where your frustration is?? BUT I've heard you can take a straight edged razor blade and lightly scrape across the paper and it will remove some of the pastel without removing any of the details. Then you can add more pastel. I don't know if you can do that on Suede though.
ReplyDeleteLike Carole said, I am my worst critic and when a painting isn't turning out like I envisioned, frustration sets in and I don't feel like continuing.With a self imposed deadline, I need to produce more work and that is not helping the frustration.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your encouragement. I need to figure out what went wrong and how I can improve on the next one.
I have about 8 more leaves to go and I'm calling it quits!
John, you guessed right! The great thing about the gray tree frog is the cryptic coloration...the high degree of coloration and pattern variance that occurs means that I have lots of play in painting him. However, I want to go back and tweak a few areas on his back....I feel something is just not right.
ReplyDeleteI, as well, understand how you can get frustrated with a painting. However, I love this one and I'm cheering you on, Colette ...you're almost there!!! Only a few more leaves left.....
ReplyDeleteThank you Hilda!
ReplyDeletePeggy, the problem with pastel is that it tends to compress into the nap of the suede when pressure is applied over it. On some areas, I apply lots of pressure to enhance the pastel pigment. Thanks for your suggestion, I will try it at some point.
ReplyDeleteI think it's looking good too.
ReplyDelete