Watching the Radio

Radio
6x6
Oil on Panel

I struggled and struggled and struggled with the face of this radio until I wanted to toss a hammer at it. It is still wrong, but I am going to have to do this again and see if I can't get a better base drawing than what I started with this time. I don't have a clue how much actual time I spent on this. There were lots of interruptions. This painting failed at the drawing stage. I absolutely cannot draw and talk on the phone. Bad Anna!- for even trying!

I have been reading Art and Fear (again). On page 5 it says "Your job is to learn to work on your work." A little farther down, it says "The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your artwork that soars." I guess I get to chalk this one up to that effort.

Here is what I have figured out:

When working with a picture, I seem to do just fine. Working from life presents a challenge that I have yet to truly master. Rather than just give up and take a picture and move on, I am going to drill the life studies and improve.

I really like Raw umber. I like the way it mixes with other paints. I really like the difference between the Artists Grade paint vs the Student Grade. The student grade is a lot more stiff. I like the way you can build up darks with it and wipe out lights. I think I want to have a love affair with Raw Umber.

I like the results of a good drawing. I have felt horrible for not being able to whip these things out in an hour and come up with a pleasing result. I have pushed myself to get faster and more painterly. I love painterly. I don't do painterly well and I don't love what I have come up with. I feel so much more accomplished when I do a grisaille and layer paint over it than I do with direct painting. I haven't decided what I am going to do about that. David, from Wetcanvas, posted about Spatial frequency, composition, and likeness and it has my brain whizzing.

I wanted a lot more "pretty" from this painting than I got.