Another Work!

The newest addition to this blog, "Saying Goodbye," has been in the works for nearly a year now. I have a few touch ups to make, but I am glad to say I feel really good about the finished product! This was perhaps the most challenging piece I have created. I drew the photo outlines on the canvas using the grid method. I did so good I was afraid to paint it. After the first day of painting it looked really good so I was afraid to continue for fear of messing it up. The next painting time I did mess it up, but the next time I fixed it. This is the path this painting took many times with weeks or months in between paintings for drying time and out of fear of continuing. To determine that a work of art is complete I ask myself one question, "If I continue, will I make it better or destroy it?" If the answer is the later I consider the work completed to the best of my ability and feel very good about my achievement. I enjoyed this painting because I learned a lot about how oils work, how to layer thinned pigments, and a lot on mixing amounts of black and white. I recommend adding black to the white in miniscule amounts and working toward the darks in order to save a lot of paint from being wasted.