Getting Better

We all tell everyone else that it's ok to fail, you are learning.."fail up", "it's the process"... So true right? And so hard to accept as you shoehorn your personal learning time into a weekend or couple of hours at night, in between kid care, work, exercise, house care etc... You (or at least I) want to have something "worthy" to show for it.

That desire for "good" results doesn't square with learning new things. Learning is messy, time consuming and uncomfortable. So we(I) have to accept that hours and hours may not result in a pretty painting. But I know that it will ultimately make me better.

So - to support the idea of sharing the entire process of art, I thought I'd show you where I've been the last few weeks(not posting obviously :)... I've been taking classes and getting better at portraiture while wading through many humbling & aha moments(thank you @steveforster). It's been a clear case of "once you learn more, you learn how much you need to learn"... Exhausting! And truly exhilarating...

My ego won't currently allow me to show the unsuccessful attempts without being able to share a somewhat triumphant "I got it"... This portrait was completed over three weeks, with many obsessive scrape offs & corrections and expert feedback. I learned about patience, losing shapes to find them again, edge control, glazing and correcting... And I am not fully done - but it's time to stop, at least for now..