Dare To Suck: Sodai Inari Painting.
I started this back in late January, and I've worked on it off an on as I could beat down the "OMG, this is horrid!" mental critic. I haven't painted anything I really cared about in a long while (flowers in matching color schemes for Mom's decorating's been about it).
But when I saw this picture
housedog had on her blog, and her description, it fell into the WANT TO PAINT pile.
Housedog: Sodai, posing as the Sacred Cave Guardian Inari.
I asked for a reference photo without his collar, and
housedog sent me this:
The line drawing, extra paper trimmed away:
I used an older canvas because I liked the undertones it would bring up, and the texture.
I used carbon paper to copy my line drawing onto the canvas, then used a large oil paintbrush to put on thick textures for the snow.
Layered on the blue/green/brown for the cave, tried a couple different styles of paint application for the tree branches, layered in base yellow for Sodai.
Highlighted some areas with white
Add in some peaches and orangish colors to see how it looks.
Double check reference photo, realize Sodai is a much lighter dog than I was painting, try to fix it.
And about here's where the "you suck, you screwed it up, why'd you even bother?" hit me, and I had to walk away before I white washed it and started over.
I gave myself a little space, reminded myself the point of this was being brave enough to do it even if it did not turn out perfectly, and let myself see what I liked, and forgive the parts I didn't. This was a learning experience, not something to beat myself up with.
So I lightened up the body a little, evened out the tonal change for chest and belly, intentionally left his face too serious/sharp, and did not spend months and months learning how to paint pine tree boughs with snow on them before I shipped it off to Housedog.
From her emails, Housedog loves it, and I'm proud of the way the little cave guardian Sodai looks. I have some better ideas of how to paint pine trees, but a strong conviction that I should do what I enjoy- painting animals- and skip the background as much as I can, because it takes something that should be fun, rips it away from my joy, and hands it over to my inner critic.
But when I saw this picture
housedog had on her blog, and her description, it fell into the WANT TO PAINT pile.
Housedog: Sodai, posing as the Sacred Cave Guardian Inari.
I asked for a reference photo without his collar, and
housedog sent me this:
The line drawing, extra paper trimmed away:
I used an older canvas because I liked the undertones it would bring up, and the texture.
I used carbon paper to copy my line drawing onto the canvas, then used a large oil paintbrush to put on thick textures for the snow.
Layered on the blue/green/brown for the cave, tried a couple different styles of paint application for the tree branches, layered in base yellow for Sodai.
Highlighted some areas with white
Add in some peaches and orangish colors to see how it looks.
Double check reference photo, realize Sodai is a much lighter dog than I was painting, try to fix it.
And about here's where the "you suck, you screwed it up, why'd you even bother?" hit me, and I had to walk away before I white washed it and started over.
I gave myself a little space, reminded myself the point of this was being brave enough to do it even if it did not turn out perfectly, and let myself see what I liked, and forgive the parts I didn't. This was a learning experience, not something to beat myself up with.
So I lightened up the body a little, evened out the tonal change for chest and belly, intentionally left his face too serious/sharp, and did not spend months and months learning how to paint pine tree boughs with snow on them before I shipped it off to Housedog.
From her emails, Housedog loves it, and I'm proud of the way the little cave guardian Sodai looks. I have some better ideas of how to paint pine trees, but a strong conviction that I should do what I enjoy- painting animals- and skip the background as much as I can, because it takes something that should be fun, rips it away from my joy, and hands it over to my inner critic.