Resolving a Painting

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It is nearly impossible for artist to see their own work objectively, but there are ways of making judgments that help resolve problems

Almost a moment you begin painting, you lose your objectivity and never really see your canvas clearly again – at least not until long after it has been completed. Even obvious mistakes in drawing, immediately apparent in someone else’s painting, are difficult to see in your own.

Seeing a Painting More Clearly.

There are several ways of overcoming this problem during the long and often frustrating period of resolving a painting. A mirror is extremely helpful. Try this In your studio, have two large mirrors, one that is stationary and one on an easel, with caster, which may be easily moved. also have a small hand mirror that you can use constantly. By loooking at the reversed image in the mirror, You can study your composition for balance, Mistakes in drawing, value or colour become magnified. Because the image in the mirror is double the distance from the easel to the mirror, without actually moving you can see the painting from far away. The image is reversed, and this also give you a fresh look at your painting.

Distancing yourself physically from a painting or turning it to the wall between sittings also help you to see it with fresh eye. Working on more than one painting at a time is helpful – moving from one painting to another, you get ideas. Turning the canvas on its side or upside down help you to see the shapes and relationships more clearly. Problems in drawing and composition are there more easely seen.

Wether or not you have a model, Take breaks frequently. This allows you to come back to the painting somewhat refreshed. Staying on top of a painting can be badly. The time you spend stepping back from a painting and studying it is very valuable. By squinting you can see the subject more simply, in term of overall pattern. By squinting and looking first at the subject and then at your painting, back and forth several times, that wich is not happening in the painting more clear.

Acrylic on Canvas

Because so many forces are at work, and because of the complexity of the relationships, it’s difficult to determine how a change will affect the unity of the whole painting. If there is a compositional problem, find that taking a black and white polaroid photograph help you see the painting in a different framework. Rather than make change on the painting, try sometimes paint on the photograph itself. Also try placing a piece of clear acetate over the area if you want to change and painting directly on the acetate. This give you a chance to try many  different solutions without destroying the surface of the canvas. Sometimes the only way to resolve a compositional problem is to change the dimensions of the canvas – to cut it down in size  - (adding is not so easy). Until you have actually make the change, it’s difficult to visualize the result, so this should be done cautiously.

Some painting almost paint themselves – they go easily – but most go through a crisis period. Sometimes we reach a point at wich we are not happy with the painting and we don’t have a clear idea of where to go with it. At that point, not only feel incapable of solving certain technical problem, but also begin to question  our ability to paint at all. So long as the problem is not a compositional, we generally able to work through this. Usually something just cliks. We seem to go through this with almost every painting and we find it very prustrating. Experience will taught us to trust that it’s just part of the process.

Some paintings  never get resolved and we destroyed so many canvases and when we are need of help to get the opinion of one or two friends who are close creatively – people whom you not only respect but trust to be totally honest. However, we must not allow friends to exert too much influence, we must be the final judge and follow only what you agree with. There are many possible resolutions for any painting. We must learn to be higly critical but also to trust ourself.

We find very difficult to decide that the painting is finished, it’s easy to lose the freshness, to overwork, or to rework an area that isn’t really problem. Often we find that the problem is not in the area we keep reworking but in some other area. Sometimes painting tend to finish themselves at least, if we allow them too.

Depending on the artist, there is a patient there is also a hurry, it all depends on our character and that's what makes a painting unique.

“Stay patient and resilient”

Asep Petir