The Nose

Last night in Jennifer Balkan's class we did more value studies with a model and I was much better, to my delight. Initially I was having trouble getting the figure down on an 8x6" panel, now I am pretty much getting everything to the knees. Lucky for me I have been watching the DVD on figure proportions by Peggi Kroll Roberts and she gives lots of tips for getting it down quickly, so those tricks plus practice helped. We also discussed the importance of editing visual info and how difficult it is. Sometimes it's just helpful knowing it's a problem for everybody. I mean -- how do you know what should go? It's like a whole other philosophical problem right in the middle of all the skills that have to be coordinated to make the painting, it just stops me in my tracks and destroys my momentum. Another important element to me is the vigorous use of paint, the laying down of paint in a direct, decisive manner without second guessing or fussing. I tried to keep this in mind in today's post of...my nose.