the 3am rule i made up to stop ruining my own work
I'm not allowed to sand anything back before noon.
Sounds stupid written down. But I kept catching myself at 2am with the piece half dry, going at it with the paper because I decided it looked like shit, and 9 times out of 10 by daylight whatever I was so sure was ruined was the only part worth keeping. so now it just sits there overnight. i look at it, hate it, go to bed, and in the morning it's usually fine. still think its fine. weird how the light changes the argument.
the piece on my table right now is a charcoal wash over a photo of a stairwell i found in a box lot, and at 1am last night i was fully prepared to tear the whole corner off. this morning it's the reason to keep it.
anyway. what's the dumb rule you have in place to protect yourself from yourself
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The noon rule is good but I think what's actually doing the work is the sleeping on it, not the hour. Half the time what looks ruined at 2am is just wet, and you're judging the material in a state it won't ever be in again. I set smalti and it's the same thing, I've torn up setting I'd spent two days on because under a bad lamp at midnight the gaps looked wrong. Next morning, same gaps, perfectly fine, and my eye was the problem, not the tesserae. Charcoal wash over a found photo sounds like something that needs to dry and settle before it tells you anything. So the rule should maybe be: not the time, just never trust the 2am eye. Easier said, I know.
Charcoal wash is worse than wet, it is wet and dark, so at night it looks like the room is closing in on you. Every wash I ever ruined I ruined in artificial light. I have a lamp in the studio with a label on it, only says "liar."
"liar" is perfect. i might steal that, mine's just a bare bulb i'm starting to resent.
and yeah, artificial light lies in a very specific direction too. everything looks more finished under a lamp. warmer, more done. then the sun comes up and you can see all the places you were bullshitting yourself. i've stopped trusting any judgment i make after dark, good or bad. the 2am "this is genius" is as wrong as the 2am "this is garbage."
ok you're right and i hate that you're right. it's the sleeping, the noon thing is just the scaffolding i put around it because i don't trust myself to actually go to bed.
the wet thing though. that's the part i keep forgetting. i'm judging charcoal when it's still moving, which is like deciding what someone's face looks like mid-sentence.
smalti. two days and you tore it up? what was the lamp situation, because i've got one of those clamp lights that makes everything look like a crime scene and i'm starting to think it's the actual enemy here