How To Easily Overcome The Ugly Stage Of Painting
This entire painting was an assignment for the Mastery Program at Milan Art Institute. In this assignment we learned about fat over lean for oil painting and all of the supplies I used for this painting are linked in the description of the video below if you’d like to check them out.
Watch the video below to learn more!
For the first layer I use spray paint and acrylics, and then oils for the next layer.
When I began this painting I had high hopes and was very excited about it. But soon after I entered that ugly stage, a stage that, we, artists are very familiar with I became less confident and my ambition faded.
What made this painting hard to paint and get past that ugly stage where its proportions. From the very beginning, the proportions of the tiger were off and this made the ugly stage even harder to overcome.
So one of the things I learned was to make sure that the proportions of your painting are correct before adding lots of layers and paint. I like to check the proportions with a scale tool or by looking at my painting in a mirror or upside down and even taking photos of my painting helps me look at it with fresh eyes.
During the ugly stage, it was a real struggle for me most of the time I could only paint in 20 minutes or so increments due to my baby so it took quite a while to get past that ugly stage and finish this painting.
There were times when I told myself that it won’t turn out and that’s okay and that I should try my best and not expect anything amazing. There were also times when I just wanted to tear my canvas paper into pieces or gesso it all and start over but I kept chipping away week after week.
Once I got the proportion correct, adding more layers and more details and colors, I overcame that ugly stage. I think that’s the key to getting past that ugly stage. The more details, layers, and colors you add, the more beautiful and finished your painting becomes.
I also found that making the focal point of my painting which are the eyes of my tiger, the most realistic, and everything else fine and abstract-like, the more fun it is to paint.
It’s nice to not have to be photorealistic with your painting to keep your brush strokes to add unrealistic color and to have fun with marks. This makes creating art more enjoyable and free.
In the end, I’m very happy with this painting. I haven’t felt this way about painting my mind for a long time.
I hope that you enjoyed seeing the process of this painting and found my words helpful and inspiring. If you’d like more inspiration for your art, feel free to join my blooming artist newsletter down below where I share my best artist tips with you every other week.
https://allisonlyonart.live/artisttips
Thank you so much and I’ll see you in the next blog post!
