“I’m Good Enough!”

One of the key facets of my philosophy regarding art and continuous learning is that one really must believe in the mantra that all your work is at least ‘good enough’. Paint Nites recite the general concept that you’re there to have fun and that you aren’t going to criticize your or anyone else’s work. It’s one of the tougher things for humans to do though… to let go of their pride and expectations and self-doubt when they look at the work of others around them.

So, after attending that interesting paint nite that included a live model for life drawing in black and white acrylic – I told myself that I had to start making some attempts at the human figure with colour – A giant leap, to be sure… but a fun challenge when you have some time. Now, where does one find a model to pose nude for you?

Okay, no live models volunteered… so of course it’s off to the dangerous zone of the internet looking for images that were artistic and paint worthy. There are certainly tons of nude photographs, but searching for “art poses nude” and later some variations that included “action or active or life drawing models” to get something that wasn’t – well… a person standing without any sign of real personality. I think art needs personality or it will end up feeling like the figure is a store mannequin and the painting will lack the human element of the figure.

Luckily, there are a number of very good collections of actual artistic poses out there and some that aren’t quite as artistic but at least provide some personality that you might actually consider including some aspect of in a painting (i.e. don’t rule out an entire image too quickly). I downloaded a bunch of body shapes that included males and females, singles and groups and a wide range of ages. I’m sure my browser history and ‘nudeartposes’ folder could easily be misconstrued. Nonetheless, I then had to go through those pics again and try to imagine a scene to wrap the pose in. Some of them came with their own backgrounds, having been taken out doors or in a studio complete with background images – but the one I ended up choosing for my first attempt caught my interest because it was quite a unique pose compared to all the others.

I imagined a tower, like say the tower of Pisa starting to fall toward the subject and thought it would make for a more interesting story. While working away at the figure, in the back of my mind was that constant complaint that it wasn’t good enough – “If I just fix this arm, or work on the hair a bit, re-position the knee or the angle of the foot…” etc. Finally, I laughed out loud at myself and what I saw in front of me…

The painting came to life as the subject was clearly telling me “I’m Good Enough – stop trying to fix me to your liking!”

That’s when I went back to the internet to find a drawing of a hand holding a paint-brush. I only found a black and white sketch that I felt would show the right perspective so I printed it up, cut around the edges and lightly painted the outline of where the hand and brush would go.

Then  I had to experiment with colour and filling in features in the hand without the added bonus of having a detailed image to work with – but I did have two hands so I worked something out. After a few hours of playing around with the painting I once again listened to the subject in my painting – “I’m good enough”.

I signed it and am quite pleased with the result. (Oh, and I bought myself some new brushes because the old ones were falling apart and I needed a few for details… one of which I used for a ‘normal sized’ signature for a change).

I remember in art class in high school back in the 70’s, people always talked about what the artist must have been thinking or why do you think the artist used bold strokes, or… well – I was never good at putting my words into someone else’s view of the world. I remember one painting that I honestly believed was called “Black on White” that was a huge painting of black and white swirls that looked like finger painting to me and being asked what I thought it represented… others had imaginations that could answer – I couldn’t. For this painting though, I’ll offer this – not only is the painting itself “Good Enough”, but the subject is telling the artist (and anyone else, I think) that she’s okay with the way she is – and would really like people to stop trying to make her ‘better’ by their view of her. [Deep and philosophical, right?]

I may be talking to myself in my blogs – but I’m also okay with that.