Treading Ruts

Occasionally I will go through dry spells where I don't feel motivated to paint or the paintings just don't turn out like I think they should. Usually they only last a couple of days but sometimes it will be closer to a week. Usually I decide to do something out of my normal habits to pick myself back up. With the painting above, I walked through the house and painted the first thing that caught my eye. Cristina likes to leave her shoes laying around and I see these all the time. The buckles fascinate me. They serve no purpose besides to look neat. This is just one example of how I get out of a rut. Other times I will get into my pile of doodles and do abstract paintings. Other times I will just take all of the paint on my palette and start making a design using only the colors available. Other times I will simply put my paints away for a day or two until I've gotten excited to paint.

For the past few days I've been in a rut. Today I will be doing some abstract paintings working on brushwork, color, and design. I found this bulk pack of little 4x4 canvases so I'm going to do a series of these abstracts until the rut is either so deep I can't get out or I work myself loose of it.  Until next time...

Red vs Blue

Today I was busy and didn't start painting until 10:15. This is the product of rushing through a painting in an hour and doing everything the wrong way. I think the composition of this painting is strong besides the road in the foreground. Now on to the bad parts. The painting looks sloppy and the brushwork is a mess. The brush strokes used for the grass were poorly executed and far to many were placed without proper planning before hand. After realizing the mistake, I tried to force in massive amounts of paint to cover it up which looks even more rushed and not thought out than before. I do think the values are decent and if I have time I will paint this again later. Next time I will start with the darks instead of trying to build up layers.