1/21/2024 0 Comments Acrylic flamingo painting![]() Initially I began with a base coat and outlines of feathers in a downwards vertical direction, which was true to the reference image and looked accurate. It was a realistic timeframe but didn't allow for too many mistakes, and expecting zero errors would have been a bit idealistic! My biggest challenge turned out to be the body feathers in the bottom left corner, and the palaver they caused was something I hadn't envisioned at the start! ![]() 3 weeks ago my Gran and John visited the UK and I'd had it in my mind to finish the painting for their arrival - giving me 2 weeks to do the entire thing. My artist instinct told me to change, it allowed me to feel confident with my decision, and it showed me how to be excited and fall in love with my work all over again it essentially felt like a rebirth, and led to me sitting down to paint for 5-6 hours or more every single day for 2 weeks solid. It's too easy as a creative to be critical of your own work, but I realised when I love what I'm working on it allows me to fall in love with the piece, and to speak about it with nothing but adoration for it - something I couldn't do with the first painting. As it's an intended gift from John to his son (and son's family) I messaged them first, and what surprised me was how confident I was talking about the new piece and explaining the situation. With that in mind it was only after changing ideas, restarting, and deciding I was never going to touch the other piece again, that I emailed to explain things. The commissioner on this occasion is my Gran's partner (John) and fortunately I am trusted with all the important decisions for this piece and others i've done for him. ![]() By the evening I'd started painted the flamingo itself. I used tape to create wave effects in the background - something I love doing but have only used on two other pieces (the Monkey & Tiger, and the Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly) so far. I didn't sleep very well that night and something tells me excitement played it's part as I was up bright and early (7am) and cracked on with the background. It wasn't my best work and I refused to associate with it it was boring, and this revelation led me to think 'what could I do instead?' 5.5 weeks ago I searched for a collection of images portraying a close-up of a flamingo, I didn't mind which species but I wanted to be able to see lots of detail - I adore painting the details but wasn't able to achieve much with 2 small scale flamingos on a page! Looking back I can't even work out why I chose the layout I did, or what made me decide not to experiment with a close-up for a change, but if it's one thing I've learnt these past few months, it's to leap out of my comfort zone every one once in a while! I pulled about 9 images up onto my screen and asked my Dad which were his favourite composition wise and funnily enough, he didn't take long to work out why I was asking! After much discussion decisions were made (composition of one, colour palette of another) and I went to bed knowing the next day I would be creating something I could get - and already was - excited about. I'd almost accepted I 'should' finish it and move on but it dawned on me I wouldn't want to put my name on the painting at the end. I started it with very little mojo and I never felt any excitement toward it, the piece didn't resonate with me and I realised it never would. It took a few months to find my answers, but 6 weeks ago it hit me: this piece was a reflection of my exhausted, uninspired, unmotivated, deflated self. A piece of this nature wouldn't normally take me as long as it had been, and while I was thankful for the flexible 'there's no rush' attitude of the commissioners, a part of me was continuously questioning why I couldn't bring myself to focus on it properly. I've always tried to feature the whole animal in my work, and this one included 2 flamingos scaled down to fit on to A4. Things my end have been quiet for a little while here on the blog, so I thought I'd sit down and explain why I think it will provide useful insight to other inspiring artists and creatives alike! For 5-6 months I had been painting a commission with the simple request of 'flamingo' and all other decisions left in my hands.
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