I used to get discouraged when someone would bring out technical errors on any of my paintings. I remember going back to it and attempt making corrections without taking the time to think about it because I wanted to get it done and impress that person. As a consequence, I spent countless hours working on numerous paintings, which felt like hitting one dead-end after another. So beware; doing something to please someone else is a straight path to self-destruction!
I wouldn’t go as far as to say that these experiences killed my passion for painting, in fact, I crave painting a lot, and deep in my heart, I feel that eventually, sooner than later I will refresh my pallet and begin new paintings. But, I do blame myself for not making a better effort to think things through before understanding what I needed to learn for the next canvas.
One clear difference that visual arts have compared to other forms of creative expression is that it’s more challenging to cover things up. For instance, musicians and dancers spend many hours doing one repetitive action after another, so what we perceive is the result of physical strain that builds muscle memory. Their mistakes become subdued by many rehearsals, and in most cases, they are only perceptible by others with similar or superior training. I’m well aware that sketching, drawing and knowing the exposure triangle are the equivalent to those rehearsals; however, the work of visual communicators often times is more vulnerable and subjective, because our mistakes are easier to see. At least in my case, when dealing with image-making, I always run with the chance of something not looking quite right, and I’ve chosen to make my peace with it and not get stuck by it.
I don’t intend to devalue the important role of having discipline. I think training discipline is essential because it gives your working process a sense of direction, but I don’t see it necessary to burden myself with the pursuit of perfection on every single piece. Instead, applying new knowledge to every new opportunity is what keeps me motivated to get good results.
And that’s what leads me to the pictures on this post. I know they’re not sharp and the compositions are off, but they help me understand what I did wrong, so next time I intend to use a smaller aperture to increase my depth of field and also adjust the ISO on my camera so I can compensate for the loss of light.