This entry was originally posted on Friday, April 27, 2012
Yellowstone
7.5 x11″
Up until a couple of years ago, I hardly ever worked smaller than a half sheet of watercolor paper (15×22″).
I had always loved working big.
But that was before I met my match in a commission portrait.
A very large commission portrait.
So it sat on my easel for weeks.
Staring at me. Taunting me.
I turned it upside down.
I turned it around.
I even put it in another room.
Didn’t work.
It had stopped my creative flow.
I was frustrated and I felt guilty if I worked on anything else.
So I didn’t.
I went weeks without picking up my brush.
Then one day during a torrential rain storm, I had enough.
The lack of painting was depressing me (and the rain didn’t help)
I had kept a stack of photos a mile high on my side table that I wanted to paint someday.
Today was that day.
However I still felt guilty about working on a large piece. I felt like I didn’t have a right to do so until my commission was done.
But a small piece is okay, right?
Just a little bit won’t hurt.
I grabbed a scrap piece of paper and went to work.
And you know what?
My flow returned.
I was back in the game.
After I completed the first one, I painted another and another.
It was so satisfying to feel successful at these small pieces, that I was able to return to the commission with fresh eyes.
It was completed the very next day.
