A busy day but not as efficient as I'd like. Am moving towards painting mode.
Started the day by gilding the inner edge of two frames with imitation gold leaf. Horrible stuff, too shiny, too yellow, too creased and sharp edged, crackly. I'll bin this and try to find transfer leaf (vowing never to use loose leaf) and a better tone. Ordered £75 of new canvas boards.
Then photographed and printed the new underdrawing to 'The Empty House', which I worked on with occasional changes until late last night. These little tweaks can really help, but there's always a moment when we must let go. It's impossible to say if a painting will work, be good or bad, until it's painted, even then, it's impossible to know, it might take years before the realisation of mastery, or lack thereof, hits. So, the best course is not worry too much, not waste too much time thinking like Leonardo da Vinci; just do, and move on, hoping and aiming to improve over time.
Completed a tone study. I now prefer to make two studies for each painting, a tone study in pencil (most useful) and a colour study in oil on cardboard. Both together help eliminate uncertainty.
There are downsides though. This can eliminate spontaneity, some of my best paintings were painted in one go without planning (eg. the Toad) and there is the 'first look effect'. In music I find that the first time I hear a piece of classical music, eg. my Beethoven symphonies, that first recording is my favourite, the archetype, all others inferior. If I listen to an album that's been remastered, the first version I hear is, again, the best. This can be true in painting. These studies can, sadly, sometimes be a best version that the actual painting fails to live up to. For these reasons, a study must deliberately be unfinished in some way.
Prepared the canvas for this, and printed the drawing for 'Don't Talk To Me About Love', which I now intend to be 22cm wide, small.
My audiobook How to Organise Your Computer Files was also approved today.
The official start of summer tomorrow as the clock go forwards. Time is short. Life is short. I must remember this and paint as much as I can while I can. Owards we charge.
