TAKE NOTE, CORRECTIONS!
I could not get the title to load, so I printed it in caps. My subject that I want you to hear is simple. We all make mistakes. If you are painting a portrait, part of your daily routine should be to scan your work and become aware of what you should modify, change, correct. If my painting is not too large, I carry it downstairs so that I can scan it repeatedly as I rest in the evening. In this image I became aware that as I worked and became tired, my mind became less effective in translating my image onto the canvas in the correct dimensional increase. To put it simply, I painted the part in her hair the width of the original image instead of the broader version of the larger canvas. At the end of the work session I recognized that I was having difficulty with this size reference when painting the shadows and folds in the blouse. At the time, I had not discovered the same problem with the hair part. That showed up as I scanned it in the evening. I am just trying to explain that as we paint on a portrait, our brain begins to homogenize everything. It sort of falls asleep, becoming less able to catch the tiny nuances of detail. It is essential that we understand and continually be on guard for this in order to keep ourselves more alert to this creeping into our work. It may seem that this is no big deal, but I am requesting that you place it high on your daily routine. The more you practice this discipline, the less you will need it. Keep in mind that a lot of our work looks great when we finish it and we are content to call it done. Then, after not observing it for hours on end, we see it and immediately we notice a glaring mistake. Have you heard of the artist in ancient times who finished a sculpture of a magnificent horse. Then he committed suicide because he had sculpted five legs.! So, hear my words and begin to adapt to this brain feature that may have you fooled! Happy painting, Diana
Diana Williams Portraits 