Smack!

A tasty little drawing of a very cheeky lady having fun with a ruler. Color blends in pastel continue to be hard, but I like the results. Fabric folds I’m less happy about, but are at least serviceable.

Let’s talk about artistic vision. Many artists are adept at seeing the work well before it is on the paper or canvas. So far, I am not one of those. The clarity of images in my head is very low. That’s a lot of why I cling to references and work from imagination is such a challenge.

Shortly after beginning this painting, I had a vision of it as a monochrome drawing with hard ink lines and simplified block shading. I did a pass on it on that style and it was awful. The image in my head was not detailed enough to guide me. Without a concrete vision of what to strive for, I struggled to make improvements. As you can see, I abandoned that approach and returned to the painted version. I am happy with it, but I am haunted by the failure of my vision. That is something I will need to pursue.