04 August 2013

Quit while you're ahead

I got done with the drawing of this one and I knew I should start over. But I liked more than half of it, so I deluded myself that I could save it by painting it. I forged ahead and spent another 90 minutes watercoloring, and...I should have started over.



I began the drawing at the top left of the flour bag, which makes some sense, but then when I got to the vanilla bottle, I drew that and it wasn't quite where it should have been, and then I drew the cinnamon (which looks tipsy) before I drew what it was sitting on, leaving the butter until last, and something that is perfectly geometric came out too big and flattened weirdly and not at all shaped like a stick of butter. I should have started with the foreground (the butter) and moved backwards. And I will, the next time I draw it. (Also, the shadows were weird.)

I'm putting it up as an object lesson in how not to become so enamored with one part of the work that you ignore all the problems! Too bad--I don't have much time for do-overs if I'm going to finish this project! I thought about removing the shadow on the left, and then redrawing just the butter and cinnamon and dropping them in via Photoshop, but...probably less work just to start again.

4 comments:

  1. I can see why you pushed on. The flour and vanilla are lovely and if you crop it so that all of the flour and to the bottom of the vanilla bottle are included, you get a very nice image with enough of the cinnamon and butter included to be recognizable.

    Overall this is really a lovely image,

    xoxo

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Vicki. This is the one problem with drawing in pen--you flub, you're done. I don't know that there's a way to crop this for the use it's being put to, though. Will probably just try again. Maybe I'll leave the butter out this time! :-)

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  2. This is such a great project. I've really enjoyed seeing your daily ingredients. I, too, love to draw food, especially fruits and veggies. I think this is a charming drawing. I love that the cinnamon is "tipsy".

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