Thursday, October 6, 2011

Simple Portrait Paintings Are Less Stressful

"Nick #1"
6.5"x8.5" Oil on Canvas
2011


I had been painting a few portraits and I found myself wanting to shove thumbtacks in my eyes because I wanted the paintings to be perfect.  I decided to take a break and make a few paintings with a more stripped down and simplified technique.
I broke things down to their most simple forms.  I chose not to shade anything and just put some paint on the canvas.  I threw in some simple outlines of the facial features and came up with a few paintings that I was pretty happy with. 

These came with a lot less stress as well.  I’ll still keep trying to paint some lifelike portraits, but now I know when I feel the frustration set in, I can always simplify a few things and paint a few pieces that get me back in the right state of mind. 

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