Bringing a painting to a finish

[Michele Rushworth]

If I did all the little tweaks that I think "might help" make a painting better I'd never get it out the door and I'd be still tweaking it a month after I promised to deliver it. So I ask myself if there are any things that "have to" be done to fix certain areas, anything that's really bugging me. Once I've done all of those, I call it done.

[Debra Norton]

Thanks, Michele. I can relate to the continual tweaking.

I have another question you (or someone else) may be able to answer; we've moved and I need to update my public profile, but can't figure out how to do it.

[Steven Sweeney]

Debra,

Upper left corner of the page is "Your Controls." Click, and then follow up with "Edit Profile." That will take you to an editable profile page. (Have to be logged in.)

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Debra, this post came at a perfect time. I am working on a portrait and I have covered the entire canvas. I had some drawing errors in the head so I scraped that off and started again. Now I'm redoing the whole head and I can't stop 'tweaking' things to get it "better and better" (in my mind anyway). There seems to ALWAYS be something that needs to be moved 1/16" or so. And I'm just working on the tones, this isn't even color! Help!

I walk by the canvas and SEE something that needs just a quick adjustment, an hour later I'm putting the brush down. I am definately a "detail" person, so this part is actually fun, but enough already! I know I need to move on to the next step, which is color. Probably I'm stuck in this stage because the next step is the scary stage.

Michele, your answer to this question was great. I hope we'll hear more about when to stop. I do plan to have some brush strokes visible, my vision is not to end up with a highly refined portrait, just a nice portrait that looks like my model.

Thanks,

Joan

[Michele Rushworth]

I guess my only exception to what I said above is that I will keep tweaking anything that bothers me, even in the slightest, when it comes to the face or head. These are portraits, after all, and an attractive, precise likeness is by far THE most important thing to my clients.