I present a portrait of Ryan Ashley. It is a portrait, which I never ever do. It is done in oil pastels, a medium that is new and foreign to me! Does it look exactly how I pictured in my head? No. Does it kind of resemble the person it's meant to be? Sorta....Am I going to try again? Absolutely. Trying new stuff is hard. It is hard work. It is hard to feel good about beginning something that may not look the way you pictured in your head. It is really hard to shake the feeling that you are not good at art, because you aren't immediately great at every artistic medium. My challenge is doing it anyway. Shake off your preconceptions of how things ought to be. Shake off the feelings of doubt and fears of inadequacy. You have to take the leap to trying new things, or run the risk of stagnating.
I think the best part of trying something new, is finding the joy in the process. First, to find a reference (or a sketch if you can work like that, what!?). Then, the rough drawing. Then the color, the blending, the tweaking to get it looking just so. The last, and most important step, is the stepping back. Finding all the things you like about a piece you've done. What works about this art? What got lost in translation? What techniques will you bring with you to the next work, and what will you let go?
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