Art: A Little More Research

 

 

I was under the assumption that art was just painting pictures.  But, it seems I was a bit mistaken. There are quite a few things you have to do to prepare for the painting and also to finish the piece if you are the unconventional type.

Because of that erroneous assumption, you know thinking things were just cut and dried, sometimes I just dive into painting only to wish I had of done this or had of done that.  Now, I’m not saying those thoughts won’t come anyway, even if you are the most meticulous planner, but it might help cut down some of the time you spend having to make corrections on your creations.

When someone challenged me to paint a fish, I began my usual research for photos of my subject.  As I looked through the photos, I found a very clear picture of a fishe that I thought I could use and manage to get some detail.  I already knew that there would be water, sky and land and had decided pretty much on my color scheme.

I was really giving myself credit for actually sketching out the fish first before I started painting.  But, what I failed to do was to stand back and study it a moment.  I just started painting.  Needless to say the finished product was not appealing to me at all.  The more I looked at it, I knew that the fish and the splashes of water would have to go or I couldn’t give this away to anyone.  Here is what it looked like…….

                                                  

The fish was way to big, the colors weren’t right and the water splashes were really bad.  I was ashamed.  Then I realized that I can’t just look at one photo of a fish.  If I want to paint a large mouth bass, I should research them, make sure the colors are the same, find out what they really look like before diving in and just painting it.  I should plan out my paintings a little more carefully, putting more thought into the process.  If I knew my fish and painted fish everyday it might have been a bit easier.  When someone challenges you to do something that doesn’t come as easy as what you normally do, then we need to educate ourselves.  Put a bit of extra time into it.

So after much studying on water splashes and much time comparing photos of large mouth bass, after sanding out the first fish and regrouping, here’s what it turned out like………………

 

                                                 

There are still some problems, but overall it’s much better.  Now, if I had just planned a little more I would know what to put in this picture on the left, because it’s empty since I sanded boss bass out of the water.

Last week I sawed a painting down to size to fit the only frame I had for it.  This week I’m sanding 1/3rd of the picture away.  What’s next?

Painting notes:

I used Plaid Apple Barrel paint on old wood boards.  The boards are nailed together on the back side using wood slats.  The boards were sanded, then two coats of ProArt Premium Gesso canvas primer was applied and sanded just a bit more.

Spiritual notes:

Sometimes I feel like God is sanding and sawing things away on me that need to be corrected.  The more we study His Word and do our research, it’s possible we might “get it” before we let things get to messy.  Anyway it’s worth a try.  Some of us just have to mess up to learn it seems.  Is it because we haven’t done our research?  It might cut down on some of the time we spend trying to undo the messes we make.