A long day glazing When This Is All Over, some of the most meticulous and detailed glazing work of my art-life so far.
Beginner artists draw what they think should be there. Once you learn how to draw, you draw what your eyes can see. The next level uses parts of both because the details you can see are always limited, you must add more. All copying involves the rules of entropy and thermodynamic; you must add more energy, more information, to make a good copy, ideally a 'better' copy than the original. Here is the skull I had to copy:
This is the final and best resolution and a lot of detail is absent. I needed to add a lot more detail, and this needs actual knowledge of the object, what bone looks and acts like, how to add details that are simply not there.
This made me think that there is a strange madness in art; painting what is imaginary with complete confidence and certainty.
The work was always difficult, each break felt like the pause between rounds in a boxing match, but the results are good enough. I made more use of ultramarine violet than normal, and used this in the flesh of the hand to darken the red rather than my usual blue.
More painting tomorrow, perhaps.
