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Revisiting an older painting
Posted on August 12, 2010 by Gulfsprite in Blog, Painting
This is my project for the rest of the day. I am revisiting an old painting. Originally painted with acrylics in June of 2009. Here is the before photo:
This was one of my first attempts at realism in portraiture.
I love this painting and listed it for sale several times. No one, it seemed, loved her as much as I did.
Recently I moved her from a little used room (the den) into my studio. My brother noticed her there, hanging on the wall where I place all of my recent works and works in progress.
He said something about how it looked like I was begining to improve on it. Of course it made me laugh since I had not touched the painting, only moved it.
But the seeds were planted. I started really looking and decided that I still loved this painting, but knew I could greatly improve upon it.
Since it was there and I am in between paintings I decided to give it a second go.
The photo at the top is the first layer of oils on her skin. I haven’t touched her eyes, lips, hair or shirt yet. But the shading in the skin is a huge improvement on it’s own.
I first added ground glass with indigo blue oils and cold wax to the background. And embedded a few things.
I am really enjoying reworking this painting and hope that this time when it is complete someone will fall in love with her sweet smile and take her home to live with them.
Here is a close up of the wax layer with the glass:
I have buffed the wax slightly so you can see a hint of the shine it has. I have more Dorland’s wax on order and should be able to add more layers and color in a few days. Until then I will finish altering her so that the oils will be dry enough when I start again on the background. Do you ever rework pieces? Do you feel it can be beneficial or detrimental to an artist to do so? I’d love to hear what you think.
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First off, I cannot believe that you only started with realism in portraiture last year! I find your studies to be very interesting as doing similar works is something that I don’t do with mosaic.
Working with glass and clay, it is difficult to tweak an artwork after it is completed. I have found myself wishing that I could change things here or there but for the most part whatever I have grouted is beyond reworking. Sometimes I’ll create another piece in a similar style taking what I’ve learned from the first piece and making the new work better.
Reworking art has got to be beneficial in the long run. Our mistakes are what cause us to grow!
Yes, I have been painting for about 3 years or so I guess. About a year ago I decided I really wanted to paint a realistic face and not just the faces I was making in my art journal. I spent 8 months drawing and drawing and drawing. It was not easy, and yet it was entirely worth all of the struggle and frustration.