My Problems, (Kinda my Personal statement)

I was working on this piece during the summer, suddenly I left it to die in the abyss of untouched folders. In this post I will talk about the process, why I dropped the piece and why I have started it again during Uni.

This painting started out as a test of my knowledge from watching Etyan Zana's Gumroad video on composition. I liked the comp and how it has a snippet of story.

  

At this stage I added a pillar to the right to lock the viewers eyes and give the feeling the viewer is peeking into the action taking place. I initially added a photo texture to give some grit to work with and by playing with layer modes I gained this deep saturated red. This is the point I stopped the piece,  it was going well and fun so far. However, the idea that I would have to come up with a wall carving which could have a story or purely looked interesting. Didn't appeal.

Why I came back? the idea that I could just make this simple looking wall carving entertained me. However what really pushed me to continue the piece is its strong comp but how I could deepen the story. I thought 'the wall carving will show or hint at the transformation of man to a creature.' in the reality of the painting I decided to show the remains of a creature and the women holding the creatures head that would be all.' This extra piece of story telling and the open interpretation of it gets my juices going. So maybe it's a one time thing or something I want in all my pieces. The mystery. 

Starting the piece again I've found, I waste alot of time if I start designing on the tablet, I will try to get the perfect position that perfect angle and just keep working on achieving that till 2 hours have gone. This presents my three bad habits, which is not having a good idea what I want, not creating variations and finally not setting up a time limit to do things. I use the stop watch tool for doing gesture drawings but I need to get into the habit of applying it to my paintings and when I study. This will make me more efficient and clear in my intents. Finally another of my problems is when I've started a painting and I come across something where I'm finding a problem of painting. Like in this piece I tried painting the wolf but couldn't seem to do it. Then I asked myself do I know how to paint fur. Nope. Never studied it. Stubbornness makes me determined I can do it without the knowledge. However it makes the painting bad. This presents the my two problems. Treat each painting like a learning curve. If I have a problem studying something, study it. Till its become a religion to, or good enough.