The last post I wrote was about being inspired by some art I saw in a shop and how it had made me so excited in anticipation to sketch and paint. I literally had ants in my pants wanting to get stuck in to something on paper. But I didn't have any paper and that held me back and increased the anticipation by a factor of, like a million.
I budgeted to find some paper and while I thought about getting water colour paper, I didn't want to limit myself. The purchase ended up being an A3 book of 20 sheets of 200grms card for multiple media...just not watercolour. I decided I would go for it and not limit myself - the inspiration bug might bite in a different way later on and force me to push my own boundaries.
What to sketch? What to paint? Water colour? Yes, I wanted to mix colours and watch them merge into each other. I ended up deciding on an octopus. It was all about the curves. So I did a rough sketch and within a few hours I had started putting in some colour.
Then the weirdest thing happened. I painted the head and stepped back. I loved the tentacles and suckers, but the head just didn't look right. I didn't like it. Perhaps it was the pinky red and green, I don't know - but it just didn't feel right to me. So I cut it off.
Why keep the top if I know it will always bug me and I'll always be looking at the section I just don't like instead of the section I do. Nope, it had to go.
Just like with any other artistic creation process, I felt that it was perfectly OK to erase what I didn't like. Once I had done that, I was actually far happier with it as a whole. Maybe the whole isn't always worth more than the sum of it's parts. I absolutely know that some people would say "Why didn't you just keep working on it until you liked it?" but that's not how my artistic process works. If it isn't right, I'm not going to be able to miraculously improve it to a point of being merely OK. So just like I am happy to use an eraser to take out portions of pencil sketches that I don't think work, where the proportions aren't right or the angle or perspective... I will happily cut a section out of a painting too. I'm still learning and having the freedom to change the rules when it comes to art is part of my process. Isn't that the beautiful thing about not being restricted in art?
What would you have done in that instance? Would you have kept trying to improve it or would you have done the same as me? Let me know in the comments.
So wonderful to see your creativity flowing into beautiful curves and character dearest @emma-h2 - I love this octopus: it gives such a lovely feeling of lush active limbs circling around each other!!
YES to being 'absolute over-lord' in our Art. - it is such a vital aspect of discerning our unique path and inimitable visual language, being able to act fluently, as it were, and making big decisions like yes, cutting a painting in half or burning a painting completely!
I regularly did big clear-outs during my more active painting career: bonfires of paintings which were just not resonating as I wanted them too. Quite an important event when moving house/ country, and having limited space in my car. :-)
But also, just painting over, collaging or scraping off of an area of a painting, absolutely: this is such an important dynamic aspect of creation - being able to take out as well as add on. I like when a painting comes more into the 3 dimensional... And also, water colour being so notoriously hard to over-paint, eh - cutting the top off it seems quite appropriate.
Many blessings as you continue to create, dear friend!
Oh it is so refreshing to read that I'm not the only one that does this - I think it's important to express the freedom of choice we have with art. Bonfires? Gosh, I never thought of that. I think that releasing that back into the universe is a good send off.
I am not the kind of person that takes years to complete a piece. I think that's because I work with my moods and emotions and as they are so fluid, moving with life and all the various things that feed into that - I feel that when the mood hits, there's no way I can recreate that same energy later on. It's perhaps a strange thing but Art., to me has a very close connection to where I am as a being right now. I've looked at pieces that I've done years ago and realised I'm in a totally different place than I was then.
It feels so good to get into a flow of making something again, I've missed it.
😍
Ha funny I have heard my friend @jacey.boldart say as much about deleting or actually painting over some of her less favorite pieces. I get what you mean. When I was young and photography was only on paper, ever shot had a cost to it with the film and developing. Now we can all hit delete on any photo and it is nothing, which is very freeing to me.
Thanks for that reminder, I must actually swing round Jacey's blog again. It's very freeing indeed and I remember those days where every photo was worth gold...I used to get the negatives developed and then carefully scroll through them over a lightbox and choose out meticulously based on my printing budget. Those were the days. These newer generations don't even know what negatives are, we've come a long way in a very short space of time haven't we?
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Lol
I don't give up so fast so I always want to improve even though it feels like I may be tired
You did a great job
I actually like the look of that 🐙 head but what I like even more is how you cut it off, following your intuition. The worst we can do, as creatives, is to color inside/ between the lines and do what we think others would expect from us, follow the rules, do what we were 'taught' to do.
Love this!
I actually like the head, but then again, I could never get close to drawing anything like that. I can barely draw "stick people."
However, I know the artist has to be happy with their creation, so if that's what made you happy about it, then cutting it away was best.