What do you do when you've worked really hard on a painting, but you're just not feeling the love?
Sometimes we have the experience to get creative...
Sometimes we have the experience, but forget what we already know...
Sometimes we are stuck. So we put away the painting, dust it off now and then, sigh, and hide it away again.
But these paintings can be the jump off point for some creative ideas. What have you got to lose?
So I've put together some of my favorites. (I will be referring back to some other posts too!)
#1 CROP IT.
Chances are you have a favorite part of the painting worth saving. Get some scraps of black mat board and white mat board. Or premade mat. Cut it in two corners as shown. Now you have a flexible mat that you can move around. The purpose of having a dark one and a white one is so you can see whether the picture needs a dark or light mat.
Premade mat--cut on these lines
Now you have two pieces....
Move them around on parts of your painting to see what you can save.
Cropped down, it looks better. Now it needs something else....
Here is where I left off on the abstract...
Some possible cropping solutions....
You can even make a diptick...two pictures from one.
Your camera is a great cropping tool you can carry around with you. Just photograph the painting;
then play with the editing section, cropping away. Just make sure you "save as" instead of "save" your changes, so you always have your original.
#2 MORE CUTTING IDEAS
Print a color picture of your painting on regular paper. Do your experimenting on prints before you risk cutting up your painting. Here I just starting cutting. My original intent was to move the pieces around like a disjointed puzzle. But I then decided that I would make it more like a mosaic.
There are several artists you do what you can call "Fracturing the plane." Or Shattering the Plane. It ends up looking a bit cubistic. Paul Wang is one who does this. His emphasis is on the design itself. He cuts up the piece to "shatter" the artwork. Then he plays with the pieces to reconstruct the design. Some he uses in new places; other pieces he omits. He uses washes and line patterns in between areas to connect that final design.
This is a method I don't personally have experience with yet.
But for a sample of his work blick here:
Please pay attention to the tools he uses to make new connections within the design: inks, crayon, paint sticks, rice paper, watercolor pencil, etc. Watching that video will give you a much better idea of his method than me trying to explain it. I love it and can't wait to try!!!!
#3 RECAPTURING WHITES
Sometimes...no, often...a picture seems to die because we've lost the sparkle, the whites and white patterns. There are many ways to retrieve those whites....never as good as actually saving them to begin with, but they can revive a painting.
This blog discusses masking correctly:
If the space you want to correct is small, you can use a white gel pen, gouache, or white ink, or even scraping out with an exacto. If you have a larger space, especially if the paper is damaged, you can try white gesso (or black gesso, if you want it black), or a medium called watercolor ground. It makes the paper have a finish that can take the watercolor again after the sizing has been ruined.
#4 MISC METHODS
This one discusses other interesting methods. It's a bit long, but comprehensive.
#5 INKTENSE STICKS OR PENCILS
These are great for covering large spaces, intensifying color, etc. You can even put a lighter color over a darker one. Inktense does not lift like watercolor, though. You have to be intentional when using, because it is permanent.
The picture below shows inktense pencil in the blue/green below and to the left of the yellow vase.
This blog below discusses not only the use of inktense blocks, but also using pastels and watercolor grounds (transparent, black, white, etc.)
Here are some questions to ask yourself before you "fix" anything:
1. What do I love about this? What is worth saving?
2. Are things feeling "disconnected"? Do I just need to connect things more?
3. Do I have a defined center of interest?
4. Do I have a path for the eye to follow? If not do I need to invent one?
5. Did I lose my important whites?
6. Do I need more contrast?
7. Are my shapes interesting?
When you have pinpointed the thing that is making you unhappy, then try some of these methods.
So here is a list of a "Few" things you can do to heal an ailing painting:
Crop.....cut up....restore white with gouache...gesso...medium...pastel....ink...inktense...watercolor pencil...collage...connect with black line (such as in the neurography tutorial)....add rice paper over the entire picture...calm down bossy sections with gouache...add areas of texture for interest...
HAVE FUN! EXPERIMENT!
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