Thursday, June 26, 2008

A Good Trade - Almost quit again on this piece

OK, had another wave of doubt come over me on this piece. It happened as I got towards the end of the day today. I'd been struggling with this piece all day. Something bothered me, and I couldn't figure it out. Well I'll explain how it turned out later.
Started today working on the robe on the mountain man today. I'm adding flaps of material (shown in the first photo on the left) and developing other folds in the robe.
Then I start to put whiskers on his face. It's about now I'm feeling uncomfortable with the piece. Not because of the beard, just somethings bothering me.



I change the headgear now. I was feeling the floppy hat was just to much. I start to put a fox fur head covering on him. I'm liking it now. Still, there's something bothering me.


OK, this is where I'm ready to set this piece aside forever. I talk it over with a friend, Jeff, and when I'm off the phone with him. I'm looking at it. Then it dawns on me. I have to much dark wax. That's whats bothering me, so I start to apply clay to the wax robe. I'm feeling better now. So it was something that simple. I'm back at it.


That's the struggle. You struggle with yourself. If you don't, your not being critical enough with your own work. That's all part of the creation process.
Well that's it till next week. Check back in on Tuesday night. If I've got a Internet connection, I'll update you then.