Joshua Fountain
April 6th, 2007, 02:00 PM
Hey guys I have a quick question.
I have alot of work leftover from the last year I was in college that I didn't finish. They are rather large canvas and board oil paintings that I started (including a huge master study from Caravaggio). Most of them are about 25% to 65% done.
However, when I was looking at them and deciding whether I wanted to finish them or just use the canvases/boards for other work (I do want to finish them now) I had a horrifying truth come into my mind.
The thing is, I was in a certain creative "space" when working on alot of these paintings and in some cases the original references I went by are gone. How do I recover the original spirit of a piece? How do I get back into that creative space? I know it won't ever be the same as if I would have finished the piece in the first place.
Another thing that is bothering me is the piece I most want to finish (the Caravaggio study) I had developed a new technique for achieving the old dark style of Caravaggio so that I didn't have to go about using the long processes and materials that artists used back then. But I didn't keep any notes on the process (I was actually expecting to finish this one until life threw an illness at me that debilitated my working abilities for a year) and now for the life of me I can't remember how I was working on it. I almost feel S.O.L. but I was wondering if anyone went through anything similar?
Thanks peoples
I have alot of work leftover from the last year I was in college that I didn't finish. They are rather large canvas and board oil paintings that I started (including a huge master study from Caravaggio). Most of them are about 25% to 65% done.
However, when I was looking at them and deciding whether I wanted to finish them or just use the canvases/boards for other work (I do want to finish them now) I had a horrifying truth come into my mind.
The thing is, I was in a certain creative "space" when working on alot of these paintings and in some cases the original references I went by are gone. How do I recover the original spirit of a piece? How do I get back into that creative space? I know it won't ever be the same as if I would have finished the piece in the first place.
Another thing that is bothering me is the piece I most want to finish (the Caravaggio study) I had developed a new technique for achieving the old dark style of Caravaggio so that I didn't have to go about using the long processes and materials that artists used back then. But I didn't keep any notes on the process (I was actually expecting to finish this one until life threw an illness at me that debilitated my working abilities for a year) and now for the life of me I can't remember how I was working on it. I almost feel S.O.L. but I was wondering if anyone went through anything similar?
Thanks peoples