Its all in the mind

Since Fitzy and I discussed the "living flame" style of picture I'm going to paint of him I've been itching to get started on it, and thought it would be easy enough since I've already done one, and done it only a few months ago, so the technique of it is still fresh in my head. I know I have to keep the colours fresh and alive and keep it all subtle. Easy enough, I would have thought, although there is always a lot to think about to produce a picture no matter what is involved in it. And this is the working painting, as the finished piece is going on a larger canvas, so I'm painting the working painting on board to make sure I'm happy with it, and then will transfer the finished piece onto the larger canvas. It means painting the picture twice, but I want to put the "thinking" into the first painting and the "doing" into the second, which means the finished piece will be better and not look overworked. It'll keep it fresh and alive.

So, to start work, I've drawn it out, and am happy that I've got a good likeness, so all I have to do now is colour it in. Ok. Easy enough you would think.............. and yet it isn't! I need to think where the light is coming from, I need to look at the tone, and I need to portray the form within the painting. And I've got the original "Living flame" image to look at to replicate the effect in Fitzys painting. Right, music on, and start..................................

............................... and I worked on it all day......... but, for some reason, it didn't flow................. that lovely time when the whole aspect of painting it F...L...O....O.....O....W......W........S. It just didn't happen. It might be due to the fact that it rained all day and the world looked grey and wet and miserable, maybe the ions weren't right in the air, maybe it was the fact that I had a few interruptions and couldn't fully concentrate on it, maybe I wasn't happy with the music I was playing, maybe I was out of kilter with my energies, or maybe I just needed to start with a working painting for the working painting! LOL

This has happened to me before, though. Not often, but enough for me to know how to deal with it.

I don't get uptight, depressed or annoyed over it. There's no point. I don't think that I've wasted all that time and not got a good picture at the end of it. I know it for what it is. It is the thought process at work. And I did the best I could with those thoughts and made a painting. Its an "ok" painting. But............. I know I CAN do better. A lot better. I can change the colours slightly, tighten up the tones and form, and move the colours to create better effect. So I'll do it again. And the next one will be better, because I've already had the initial thoughts for the painting, and the next time these will be extra thoughts, and they will be more positive, upbeat and forthright, and they will be more dynamic. And the choice of music will lift me, and then the painting ........................ should.............. Flooooooooooooooooooowwwww........................