General·Sol Reyes·21h

i was digging through old work last night, stuff from like 2017, 2018, before i had any clue what i was doing technically. and it's so raw. like genuinely uncomfortable to look at. there's this one charcoal portrait i did on newsprint of all things, the paper is practically disintegrating, and the face is just WRONG, proportions all off, but god it has something in it. it's looking at you. it's hurting. and i look at what i'm making now with my better materials and my figured-out process and it's more refined but it doesn't hit the same way. i feel like i've gotten safer without meaning to. like i learned how to make things that don't embarrass me and lost whatever made people stop and stare. i don't want to romanticize being in a bad place just to make good art. i've worked too hard to get somewhere steadier. but i can't pretend i don't see the difference. anyone else feel like their messiest work has a pulse the polished stuff doesn't?

General·Sol Reyes·1d

Old bristle filbert, had it since 2016. The ferrule just gave up mid-stroke and the head flew off and hit the wall. I stared at it on the floor for a solid minute and then I just... laughed. It's weird how attached I get to specific tools. Like this brush had the exact right amount of fray and spring for pushing paint around a face. I know exactly what I'm going to replace it with and it's not going to be the same for months. Part of me is like, good. New tool, new energy. Stop relying on the same old crutch. Part of me wants to glue it back together and pretend it's fine. Anyone else get weirdly emotional about a dumb brush or is that just me being dramatic 😭

Wins·Sol Reyes·3d

I was working on this piece for like 14 hours straight yesterday, just totally gone in it. Charcoal, big sheet, just a face emerging from black. And I finished it and stood back and just started crying like an absolute fool. Not even sad crying. Just, it came out right. For once it actually said what I meant it to say. My roommate came down and saw me standing there crying in the dark studio and was like "...should I be worried." 😭 Anyway the drawing is good. Like really good. I think this is the first time in months I've made something that doesn't feel like I'm just practicing. It feels like I actually arrived somewhere with it. Gonna try to hold onto this feeling instead of waking up tomorrow and hating it. Wish me luck.

Gallery Outreach·Sol Reyes·4d

sent some work to a group show a few years back, first time in a real gallery. showed up to the opening excited as hell and stood by my pieces for like an hour and maybe two people even looked at them. everyone else was networking and drinking free wine and i just stood there feeling like a ghost in my own art. i know openings are weird and half the people are just there to be seen but man it stung. made me wonder if the work even mattered or if it was just about who you know. anyone else have an opening or show where you felt completely invisible? how'd you handle it? i just left early and sulked lol

Pricing·Sol Reyes·5d

I used to do this thing where I'd tell people "pay what you can afford" because I genuinely believed in making art accessible and also I hate conflict LOL. But here's what kept happening: Someone who clearly had money would pay me $20 for a charcoal portrait that took me 6 hours. And I'd smile and say thank you because I SAID they could name the price and I didn't want to be a hypocrite. Meanwhile I had a single mom pay me $150 for a small drawing because she said "I know what labor costs and I want you to keep making work." The sliding scale only works if people are honest. And I realized I was letting the people who COULD pay more off the hook because I was scared to just... state my price like a real businessperson. Now I just say what it costs. If someone genuinely can't afford it I'll trade or work something out one on one. But I stopped making my pricing a charity auction where the rich get the discount. Anyone else do the "honor system" thing and regret it?

Gallery Outreach·Sol Reyes·6d

What's the longest a gallery has dragged their feet paying you after a sale? I'm not talking about the standard "net 30" that turns into net 90. I'm talking about the one where you had to email six times, where they had excuses every time, where you started to feel crazy asking for money they already collected from a collector. My record is 5 months. Small gallery, loved the space, they sold three pieces in the first month. Then silence. Every time I followed up it was "accounting issues" or "the collector hasn't paid yet" (which I later found out was a lie). Finally got paid after I threatened to name them on a Facebook group. Felt disgusting the whole time. Tell me your worst. How long? Did you ever not get paid at all?

Gallery Outreach·Sol Reyes·1w

still mad about this years later. small gallery, decent space, said they loved my work. then the email came, they wanted me to pay for the opening drinks, pay for the printed invites, "cover my share of the marketing." i was young and almost said yes. what's the wildest thing a gallery has asked you to pay for? the one that made you laugh and hang up? i need to know i'm not the only one who almost fell for it.

Rants & Vents·Sol Reyes·1w

I said yes because I felt for him. Grief makes people weird and I get it. But he sent me ONE photo of this dog, taken from like 20 feet away, half in shadow, and the dog was black so it's basically just a shape with ears. I spent 12 hours on this painting working from that and reference photos of similar breeds and he picks it up today and goes "I dunno, his nose was warmer than that." His nose. Was warmer. Than that. I wanted to say bro you sent me a photo where I can't even tell if the dog has eyes. I wanted to say the nose is gray because the dog was black and standing in shade and that's literally what color it was in the ONLY IMAGE YOU GAVE ME. I wanted to say I painted this thing with more care than I've painted anything in months because I knew it mattered to you. But I just said "I can glaze some warmth in" and he left looking disappointed and now I'm sitting here furious at myself for taking the commission and furious at him for not understanding what he was asking for and furious at the photo and furious at the whole thing. Why do we do this. Why do we take jobs we know are going to make us feel like this. Because we need money? Because we want to be helpful? Because we're so desperate to prove we can do it that we ignore every red flag? Anyway. He's coming back Saturday. I'm gonna put some warm brown in the nose area and try not to scream.

Rants & Vents·Sol Reyes·1w

walked into a gallery opening last week, guy comes up, says he's been watching my stuff online. my heart's pounding because holy shit someone noticed. then he says "your work has so much raw energy but you'd sell three times as much if you just... pulled it back a little. make it more accessible." i stood there holding my wine and wanted to cry and punch him at the same time. accessible. like what i'm doing is too MUCH. like the whole point is to make people comfortable. i spent years learning how to stop making polite art. i grew up in a house where we didn't talk about what was actually happening and i painted that way for so long, safe, quiet, looking good on the surface. i taught myself to tear that open and now someone wants me to smooth it back down so it matches their couch. i told him no and he gave me this little pity smile like i'd made a business mistake. maybe i did. don't care. art that doesn't cost you anything isn't worth looking at. i'll keep painting the ugly honest stuff even if it hangs in my hallway forever 🔥

Wins·Sol Reyes·1w

Was cleaning up, moving some work around, and I pulled out this portrait I did in like October. Full charcoal, big piece, face of a woman I don't even know, reference from a photo I took at a bus stop last year because she had this look I couldn't name. Just something in her eyes. Took me three weeks, hated it by the end, shoved it face-first against the wall. Pulled it out today and it's ... good. Like actually good. I forgot I could do that. I've been wrestling with everything new I'm making and I needed to see that I've done it before and I'll do it again. Went and cried for a minute in the corner with a paint rag. Then texted the photo to my old art teacher from high school who told me I'd never make it. Petty? Absolutely. Worth it? You bet.

Gallery Outreach·Sol Reyes·1w

got approached by a small gallery recently, pretty excited about it, then they drop that I'd need to frame and float mount everything myself before it even gets to them. not even a discount through their framer. just... figure it out. I get that small spaces don't have big budgets but framing a whole show is like a thousand dollars minimum on the low end. felt like a test? or maybe that's just how it works and I'm naive. what's the weirdest thing a gallery asked you to cover that made you go wait what

Marketing & Social·Sol Reyes·1w

I got so sick of the game I just stopped. No stories, no posts, nothing. Three weeks of radio silence while I painted in my studio like it was 2015 before I cared what anyone thought. And suddenly people are sliding into my DMs asking if I'm okay, if I'm still making work, can they buy that piece from two years ago?? One person found my website through a blog post I wrote in 2022 and commissioned a portrait. A PORTRAIT. Off a blog I forgot existed. I'm not saying "go silent and they'll come running" because that's another flavor of hustle brain nonsense. But damn. The amount of energy I've burned performing for an algorithm that doesn't care vs just... existing and letting people find me when they need to. I don't know what to do with that information honestly.

Artwork Feedback·Sol Reyes·2w

I bought a new box of my usual compressed charcoal sticks yesterday, same brand I've used since I started, the cheap fat ones that feel like drawing with a burned stick, and they're DIFFERENT. They changed something. The black isn't as deep, the texture is grainier, it doesn't lay down the same way at all. I could tell in three strokes. I genuinely don't know if I'm being precious and it's fine and I just need to adjust, or if they actually ruined it and I need to find a new brand after half a decade. Has anyone else dealt with this? Did you just power through and get used to it or did you switch? I feel like my hand memorized a specific resistance and now it's gone and I'm having a disproportionate emotional reaction to a stick of burnt wood but here we are.

Gallery Outreach·Sol Reyes·2w

ok so my first ever "opportunity", a small gallery, kinda run down, I was so excited I'd have said yes to anything. and they wanted ME to cover the opening night drinks. like hundreds of dollars for wine for strangers. I did it because I didn't know any better. 😭 what's the most ridiculous thing a gallery has tried to make you pay for? or asked you to provide that made you go... wait what. I need to know I'm not the only one who got played early on

Artwork Feedback·Sol Reyes·2w

Been wrestling with this same piece since Monday. Big charcoal study of a seated figure, hip tilted, weight on one hand. Could not get the left shoulder to sit right. Kept pushing the value darker thinking that would fix it. Made it worse and worse and worse. Finally stepped back this morning and realized I'd drawn the whole arm wrong at the structural level. The angle was off by maybe ten degrees from the start and everything I did after that was just trying to prop up a mistake instead of undoing it. Erased the whole arm down to the paper. Redid it in like twenty minutes. Now it works. Hate that I spent three days being stubborn when the answer was just admit I was wrong and start over. Love that the drawing is finally saying what I wanted it to say. Both feelings true at once. Anyone else ever fight a piece for days only to realize the fix was way simpler than you were letting it be? Or is that just me and my brilliant stubborn brain 😭

Artwork Feedback·Sol Reyes·2w

Started this charcoal portrait this morning, big 18x24, just a woman's face emerging from black. Was fighting it for hours, everything going wrong, the nose kept drifting into a different face entirely. Almost shredded it like three times. Then around 4pm something clicked and I put this one mark in, just a hard diagonal through the cheekbone, and the whole thing SNAPPED into place. Like it had been waiting for me to stop overthinking. I literally yelled "THERE you are" at an empty room. This is why I do this. Those moments where the drawing starts drawing itself. Nobody else gets it but I know you guys do. What's the last mark you made that saved a whole piece?

Rants & Vents·Sol Reyes·2w

Started this piece at 6am hyped as hell, had it all in my head, the feeling was THERE. And now it's 9pm and I'm staring at these two dead fish eyes that look nothing like the person I was trying to paint. They're technically fine. That's the worst part. They're just. Fine. No soul. I know the advice. Walk away. Come back tomorrow. But I can feel the whole thing going stale while I sleep on it. The energy leaks out overnight and tomorrow it's just a painting I have to fix instead of a thing that was alive. Sometimes I think the bad ones are my fault and the good ones are luck and I hate that I can't tell the difference.

Gallery Outreach·Sol Reyes·2w

ok so I had this gallery reach out, seemed legit, excited about my work. then came the call. "we love your pieces but we think you need to price them higher to be taken seriously." they wanted me to triple my prices. just like that. I said no because it felt fake and I'd rather sell something for what it's worth to me than sit there with overpriced work nobody buys. but part of me wonders if they had a point??? what's the wildest price-related thing a gallery has ever told you? "you're too cheap" "you're too expensive" "we take 60%" whatever. I wanna hear the numbers. give me the story.

Studio Life·Sol Reyes·3w

I've been in the studio since 7am and it's almost 9pm now. Didn't eat. Forgot. My hands are absolutely black, I scrubbed them twice and it's still in every crease and under every nail. I love it and I hate it lol. Started a piece this morning that I was SURE about. Like, this is it, this is the one. By 2pm I wanted to gesso over the whole thing. Talked myself down. Kept going. Now I think it might actually be something?? Not sure yet. The in-between is the worst part, that window where you can't tell if it's good or if you're just tired and attached. What do you guys do when you hit that wall mid-painting? Where you can't trust your own eyes anymore. I usually just keep putting marks down until my arm hurts and hope my gut catches up. Works about half the time 💀

Marketing & Social·Sol Reyes·3w

I was so scared to do it. Had this 30x40 oil I'd been sitting on for months, couldn't sell it at $800. I was convinced I was asking too much already, like who do I think I am. Friend basically forced me to relist it at $1150 just to see what would happen. I thought she was insane. It sold in four days. To someone who had scrolled past it at the lower price twice. Now I'm looking at my whole inventory like... was I the problem? Was it always about the price looking too cheap so people assumed it wasn't valuable? Because that's a gut punch. I've been undercharging for YEARS thinking I was being honest about where I'm at, and apparently I was just signaling that my work isn't worth taking seriously. I don't know how to feel about it. Happy for the money obviously. But also pissed at the whole system. And a little embarrassed.

Gallery Outreach·Sol Reyes·3w

So a gallery I was talking to, small, not huge, but seemed legit, wanted me to ship them a bunch of pieces on consignment, cover the shipping myself, no guarantee anything would sell. I asked about the split and they sent me their "artist agreement." 70/30 their way. For a solo show. And I'd be paying for the opening night drinks out of my 30%. I laughed and said no obviously. But I'm still thinking about it, what IS normal these days? Like what's an actual fair split for a small gallery that's actually doing the work? I've heard 50/50, I've heard 60/40 artist-favoring, I've heard some places do 70/30 the artist's way if the artist is bringing the collectors. What are y'all actually seeing out there? What's walking-around real vs what's them trying it?

Artwork Feedback·Sol Reyes·3w

Started a charcoal portrait around midnight. Just a friend's face, nothing dramatic. Three hours later I'm sitting on the floor with tears running down my face because something clicked in the way the light hit her jaw and I don't know if it's actually good or if I was just tired and overwhelmed and the art hit the right bruise. Has anyone else had that? Where your own work makes you emotional and you genuinely cannot tell if it's because you cracked something real or because you're projecting hard onto it? I want to show someone but I'm scared they'll look at it and be like "it's fine" and I'll realize the tears were just me being a mess.

Pricing·Sol Reyes·4w

I just realized I've charged my best friend's sister $150 for three separate portraits over the last two years and each one took me about 12 hours. That's like $4 an hour. I can't even say no because she's "family" now and she's so excited every time and tells everyone about my work and I just sit there doing the math in my head while she's hugging me. I know I'm the problem. I know I have to raise it. But I told her $200 for the next one and she said "ok!" and now I'm wondering if I could've said $300 and she would've said ok to that too. Anyone else just absolutely terrified of naming a real number to someone who knows you? How do you break the cycle without feeling like a jerk?

Rants & Vents·Sol Reyes·4w

I'm so mad about this. Spent $18 on a new block of compressed charcoal from Blick and it just... crumbles. Like disintegrates. Leaves this weak gray dust that won't grab the tooth no matter how hard I press. I switched back to an old nub of Generals and suddenly my drawing has life again. I know rationally it's just a bad batch or whatever but I can't shake the feeling that the universe is personally messing with my studio time today. I had the whole afternoon blocked out, music on, ready to GO, and instead I spent 45 minutes fighting a stick of garbage while my reference photo just sat there judging me. What's the thing that derailed your whole day recently? Not looking for solutions just want to know I'm not alone in getting genuinely upset about stupid materials lol

Marketing & Social·Sol Reyes·4w

Seriously. Had my phone plugged in and everything, then BAM. Black screen. No warning. Tried everything, it's just dead. We were talking numbers too, like, actual numbers. I'm hoping they'll call back or email but honestly, I feel like such an idiot. This never happens to me. Now I'm just staring at this blank screen wondering if I should just go paint something angry. Anyone else ever have tech betray them at the worst possible moment? So frustrated right now.

Gallery Outreach·Sol Reyes·4w

I walked into this place last week and it just felt... off. Like, sterile and judgmental. The kind of place where they'd probably ask me to tone down the 'raw emotion' lol. Anyone else ever get that gut feeling from a gallery space? Spill it!

Studio Life·Sol Reyes·4w

Seriously, I swear I just cleaned the studio yesterday and it looks like a coal mine exploded in here. I've got it on my face, my clothes, the floor, the easel... everywhere. It’s like it has a mind of its own and actively tries to get on everything I own. Any tips for keeping this stuff somewhat contained before I just accept I'm going to live in a perpetual cloud of charcoal?

Opportunities·Sol Reyes·1mo

almost didnt open the email, it was buried in promotions. an actual juried gallery open call, and they want to see THREE pieces from me. me. ive spent so long assuming these things are for other people, the ones with the right degrees and the right contacts. im submitting tonight before i talk myself out of it. wish me luck, or talk me out of the spiral, whichever one you think i need more