My Painting Process: Stage Four

To complete stage four I followed my rules detailed in stages one to four to finish my piece and to the right is the resultant oil painting.

At the end of the stage (as often happens when an artist attempts to pull a picture together) I felt it was not finished, I can see clear faults with the painting, but at I decide to lay down my brushes. I have been working for a number of hours now and need a break in order to be able to visualise where I go from here with the piece.

I know that I am happy with the figure to the left in the painting, however the child on the right just isn't up to a suitable standard in my eyes.

When this happens my method is to clear away, take the painting down and lean it against the wall; so that I don't have to look at it and be constantly trying to find where I have gone wrong.

After a couple of nights sleep, having not looked upon the painting for a period, you gain a fresh perspective when coming back to your painting and the solution becomes clear almost every time. Indeed you often come back and realise the problem wasn't as bad as you initially thought.

The final stage will feature in my next post and I will take you through what I realised and how I brought the painting to a conclusion.