The Awkward Stage

My paintings always seem to go through an awkward stage…sort of like adolescence. At this stage, things are not in balance yet, the painting’s full character has not yet been revealed. Will it fulfill the dreams I had for it or does the path I’ve set it on lead to disaster…? Only time will tell. This is when I ask, why did I get myself into this…?

I’ve learned that when I begin to feel the allure of the dust bin, it’s time to put a painting away for awhile. If I work on it while frustrated, then I am apt to make rash decisions which really will spell disaster! Out of frustration one time I sanded away a whole section of a painting (which you can do on Kelmscott vellum) because I thought I had got the shading wrong, just to repaint it exactly the same all over again when I realized it had been right after all! I removed a few weeks worth of work for nothing. I should have put it away until I could see it with fresh eyes again.

My drawing of a dried Acer macrophyllum leaf, which established the path the painting would take. I often use good quality tracing paper for my preliminary drawings.  You can see I’ve done some reworking on the stem to give it a little more curve–in fact I drew a whole new stem and taped it on.

Although I experimented with possible pigments and mixtures to use on a larger piece of paper, I recorded the results here for easy reference. I put a small star by the colors that seemed to fit my subject best.

The painting is in its infancy. The leaf drawing has been transferred to the vellum, and the light and dark areas roughly mapped out.

The painting is reaching what I think of as adolescence…even after several hours of painting it still seems bland and I am wondering if it will be worth the time. Why did I get myself into this? Better put it away for awhile…

I recently got out the painting again after working on something else for awhile and started to develop the veins and shadows further. Although the leaf itself is basically monochromatic leaning overall towards burnt umber, upon close examination I am finding other colors in there too. Where the light shines through the thin papery surface, it creates an orangey glow. I decided to use burnt umber to map out the texture and veins and a burnt umber + French ultramarine mix for the shadows.

The painting is coming out of the awkward stage. I am enjoying defining the details of texture and shading, although I still have a long ways to go.

My shadows were looking too blue and not dark enough so I tried a burnt umber + perylene green mix which is giving the painting some snap. (I love to use opposites on the color wheel mixed together to create interesting shadows.) In my earlier pigment experiments, I discovered that the unlikely mix of quinacridone violet + Daniel Smith quinacridone gold make an amazing glowing color that’s hard to describe…orangy gold I suppose.  I am looking forward to using this as a top layer to make some of the light areas richer.

Step by step, I am developing the character of the painting. I started it on a particular path when I chose the palette and worked out the drawing and composition early in the process. Slowly the painting is taking on a life of its own, for better or worse. If I haven’t mapped out a good path to follow, then nothing I can do later will salvage it except sanding it off and starting over. If the perspective is wrong or the composition off then even the best painting technique will not bring success.

My hope is that I can bring it to maturity, then send it off to live a life of its own, in someone’s home, office or gallery, to give pleasure to someone there.