Excessive compulsive
 

What is the greatest number of times you have repainted a face?

Sargent was reported to have done it as many as a dozen times.

I have had my model sitting here in the same pose for a month and for the life of me I can't seem to get the head right.

When is it just good art judgement or just plain nuts?

Bye the by, I am on my third attempt.

Six or seven times, I don't remember. But my client was the main reason, the family wanted a plastic surgery on the girl's face, so the problem was not with my paintbrush.

I believe that every new painting is an attempt to increase the quality of one

Sharon,

Could it be that there is a sort of menage a trois of comparison going on? You have the image on the canvas, the actual model, and, the idealized image in your minds eye. Comparisons can get complex. What is real, what is true for your purpose?

Just a thought, what the heck do I know?

Menage a trois!
It is, it's true, what an intuition!
Sharon, I don't know if it happens to you, but I realized many times that often what is wrong is not what I think is wrong, but something just very close to it. And when the head looks "wrong", if I forget about it and start reworking around it, maybe in the background, or the neck, suddenly I find the head is not that wrong, and a couple of changes are enough.

I am sure Sargent was keeping all the surface of the painting always alive, so if he repainted the head he ended up repainting almost everything!

Any better at the third try?
Ilaria (I am off for my fifth tomorrow anyway)

[QUOTE=Allan Rahbek]I believe that every new painting is an attempt to increase the quality of one

Three tries is not an uncommon number for me.When it really gets difficult is that I have a tendency to turn my paintings to the wall for a few months and then look at them with fresh eyes. I can't tell you how many paintings I have reworked the faces on, but it has been a number. i am redoing one now. Better to have sold the lot as soon as the paint was dry, but the fanatic in me won't let me do that. We are our own worst critic.

It's interesting Sharon mentioned this, 'cos an article i'm reading actually talked about this. I'm attaching this excerpt from the article:

"When he was dissatisfied he never hesitated to destroy what he had done. He spent three weeks, for instance, painting Lady D

Sharon,
I'll rework an area until I feel good about it as long as there is a little inspiration somewhere ddep inside of me.
Ilaria was right in saying that sometimes it is an area near by. I was reaching my point of frustration today and then I took a little break. When I cam back to my easel I decided to rework the background and all of a sudden the face looked better. My background values were all wrong. Now I am reinspired and am looking forward to going to my studio in the morning.
Mary