09.20.2010

title: Female Nude, Seated In Semi-Profile With Her Legs Crossed, Her Right Hand On Her Left Shoulder
size: 9x12 in.
medium: watercolor, ball-point pen
price: $200.00

This painting started as one big disaster and continued to be so through out most of the pose. I can't tell you how many times I thought about throwing in the towel and going home. This was the last pose of the session. But just as doubt started to fill me I thought of the advice I got from Julie Bell, and reaffirmed again this weekend while talking to Greg Manchess; to press on past the ugly stage and trust in your abilities. There is a point in the painting process then a painting looks like utter crap and all you want to do is slash the canvas, snap your brushes in two, and take up a safe profession like accounting. But all the pros know that this is just a stage a painting has to go through (well, Greg skips that stage and goes strait to the finish) to lay the groundwork for the final polish. This painting is far from polished, but I pressed on, and used the green pen (the only color I had handy) to add some form to the senseless washes. As things started coming together, I went back in with the washes to add the details in the face and the shadow areas. And now I'm pretty happy with the results.