So I recently finished the two paintings I was working on and planned to finish a third one by the end of August, but it didn’t quite happen. Luckily, I finished the third one within the first week of September, so I’d say I did a pretty good job at being productive in the month of August.
Honestly, one of them I don’t really like all that much. But that’s okay. we can’t like them all. And don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine painting, I just don’t particularly care that much about it. That’s okay, someone else might love it.
The one I most recently finished, I had put off for a while. It was a little daunting because there was a lot of information to include and my source images were not the best.
For the majority of my cattle paintings I take my source photos from my car or just outside my car. Well on this particular day, I can’t remember why I didn’t stop, but drove slowly while holding my phone in the general direction, clicking the photo button as much as I could. Now since I was driving and the sun was super bright, I could not see if I was actually taking pictures of anything. So as you can imagine they looked like pictures my kids took. Actually they would have been better if my kids had taken them.
Also, since I was I was moving while taking each photo, the scene I wanted to paint was more like a panoramic scene, which is not what I was going for. So I have collaged numerous photos and angles to try and make it a believable still image. Like I said, it’s a little daunting.
But once I was able to find my groove with it, things really came together. It came out great and was really fun to work on. It was one of those paintings that I feel made a big impact on my progression as an artist.
Anyway, I will be starting a new project that will take me to the end of the year. I will be doing 1 hour paintings twice a week. (An hour isn’t that long. I may decide to make them 2 hour paintings). I’m really excited for this because I won’t have time to really think about things too much or get too attached. I look forward to sharing my experience with you.