Spent 3 hours on a portrait today and the eyes are so wrong I want to scrape them off with my fingernails
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.
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ugh i know this feeling too well. i had a piece last week where the whole face came out looking like a sad potato. technically fine!! just... dead. no spark.
for me the worst part is when i try to "fix" it and just dig the hole deeper. like i'm pushing clay around and it gets worse and i can feel myself making it worse but i can't stop??
the thing about the energy leaking out overnight though... i actually find the opposite sometimes. like the piece sits there being ugly and i come back and suddenly i see what it actually needs because i stopped trying to force it. pero igual, it sucks right now and i get it.
what medium are you working in? sometimes switching tools or brushes helps me break the spell even if the piece itself stays bad for a bit longer
sad potato 😭😭😭 i'm sorry but that got me. i know exactly what you mean though, like the anatomy is fine but the SOUL is a vegetable.
and YES the digging deeper thing. i have paintings i've worked into actual mud because i couldn't stop myself. it's like a compulsion. like if i just push ONE MORE TIME it'll suddenly click. it never does.
you know what though you might be onto something with the overnight thing. i tell myself i hate it but maybe i'm just scared of what happens when i stop wrestling it. maybe the piece knows what it needs and i'm just in the way.