Practice, practice, practice…

There are a lot of quotes about art out there, but two have always stuck with me. One is often attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci and is, “A work of art is never finished, merely abandoned.” The other is from a friend of mine in college. Sagely he suggested that, “The difference between you and Rembrandt is that Rembrandt would do it again.” I think he was trying to be glib, but it’s largely true for a lot of artists. Often we cling to a piece thinking we can save it when what we need to do is abandon it and start fresh. In short: we need to practice.

Sometimes I can’t think of something that I want to paint, so I’ll pull an idea out of the stack and try it again. Sometimes multiple times. Until I can get it as close to “done” as possible. There are many reasons I do this particular exercise, but the primary is to identify weaknesses in my process. (Or at least things that I perceive to be weaknesses.) With the first iteration of this character I realized I really do want to have a tighter drawing to work from, so for the middle iteration I tightened things up considerably before I even thought about touching the paints. This attempt wasn’t quite right for me, either. Something was missing even before I got to the drawing step — really good reference material. When I picked up the idea again I had much better reference at hand and came up with an even tighter drawing. This time, I think, I got it.

We must not ever become so precious about what we create that we let it trap us. For me there’s been a weird sort of freedom in finishing a painting, realizing it’s not right (or, sometimes, outright wrong) and immediately picking up a new canvas and trying it again. I typically find that I get the subsequent passes done much faster than the first and with a greater sense of confidence. I don’t always have the original to look back on to compare. Sometimes I paint over failed attempts or things are tossed into the bin. I think the important thing is putting in the time, doing the work, and making the art.

If I can do something once I can do it again — and probably much better the second (or fifth…) time around.