cupid

When I started this piece I was so high on enthusiasm. It's like that strange addiction people can have to nostalgia.. breathing in those toxic oil paint fumes.. its heaven. It turned out just as I was hoping it would. I've had horrible experiences trying to work with colour before because I just don't yet have that familiarity of how it works yet.. but it's getting better.

Like the first time I painted the ocean. Ocean's blue right? My mind instantly categorized colours instead of actually looking at it on it's own. You can't look at what you're drawing or painting as if it is what it is.. because then you'll have pre-conceivced notions of what it should look like and not draw what it actually looks like. Therefore my ocean was the most synthetic primary blue imaginable. When my grade 12 teacher pointed out my mistake it was like a really begrudging light bulb turned on.. and after some grumbling and muttering about stupid paint I accepted my mistake.

Constructive criticism... I'd be no where without it. Thank you to all the people who have torn a tiny piece of my heart out and stepped on it. It's a difficult lesson to learn, to not cherish your work too deeply. You put so much time and thought and effort into a piece, and then if someone comes along and doesn't like it... it's like walking up to a mother and saying "Your child is ugly". It may be true but it hurts when they criticize your baby like that. You have to learn to not get too attached so that you can leave room to grow and change.

....but this piece is much too precious to me, so don't you dare criticize it. 

Oil on wood, 12 x 12

Portrait of my beau. :)