What Do You Do When Your Image For A Piece Of Artwork Turns Out Bad

i don't have physical works but digital ones, they are easier to hide when unfinished. i have a huge folder of unfinished pieces that no one will ever see until i am convinced they are done. what i have never understood is why and how the time comes for a particular image to be completed, suddenly it just all comes together.

Believe it or not we photographers struggle with this at times too.

I hide the file and look at it again after a few months.

I've adapted the "turn lemons into lemonade" approach lately.

I'm all digital now so I don't have to deal with materials anymore which is kind of nice. I guess it is one of the perks of going digital. That said I still have to deal with work that didn't come out as expected. I could delete it but there is still time invested, so I started to recycle all my work. Most of my paintings that don't turn out as expected are now cropped and made into my Motivational Art where I slap one of my quotes or some text over the cropped image and make something useful from it. I actually found that I liked making these more than my real art at times because I can make them really quick, and I have a ton of lemons...haha

This is just *my* process - and everyone around me makes sure I know it's just me - I have no unfinished works. I only have completely edited photos on my harddrive and finished paintings on my drying rack - always. If it isn't working I cut my loses and toss it or hit the delete button right away
I do have some unfinished drawings in my sketch book, but that's 'cause I was throw-up-my-hands not happy with the progress and will never, ever return to them. They are just part of the drawing-a-day process I implemented where I won't rip a page out, but won't continue on a lost cause...
Additionally... I'll never draw the same thing again. I've tried again and again but if I draw even just a study, I'll never draw the real thing. It's once then never again for me and that's a block I simply cannot get past...

If I am struggling that hard. I set it aside then come back to it when I run out of canvas and am to lazy or broke to go purchase more. What I have found is that biggest struggle usually turns out as one of your best. Don't give up!

that's what i do Phyllis , :)

if the image is good enough and the outsiders don't know its not done, use it. more images you have the better. if you can tweak it, do so, but don't spend a ton of time on it. don't scrape anything that would be a waste of time. if anything just try to reincorporate that mess up into something new.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

it depends how bad it is

i don't like erasing hard work. a long while back i started a self portrait with me and these weird fish monster alien things in victorian top hats. problem was i didn't know how to really finish it. i was hoping inspiration would take control and it never did. i became distracted when i figured out a new way to create art when i made the floor, and from there i had a chain reaction and created new art from each piece. meanwhile my freak thing was never made. until one day i found a use for them



and made this thing. the fish on the sides and me were all for that project. i didn't erase it, and in fact its still there, along with other things that were too ambitious for the time. and i've been remaking those things i couldn't make erasing the old. i can only stare at a project for so long. if i can't get it done in a few days i cast to to the side. or i set a time limit. ever since i started sketching what i want, before i make it, i've been able to become far more efficient. and if i sketch and i can't draw what i'm imagining it doesn't start. i've learned that the hard way.

i also have to ask myself is it worth it? that fish thing would probably have never sold. the X has a chance. so if i'm messing with things for too long and it won't sell, then i skip over it. or get back to it. only when its really bad or if it already looks like another piece i made do i erase it.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I've been painting watercolors for about 60 years now, and although it's not easy, I have rejected only a handfull of pieces. I probably spend more "Planning Time" on them as I keep painting. As a novice I worked much faster than I do now. As you get older maybe you reach for the things that attract you and feel a need to get it on paper. I try not to judge every piece by my "standards". I have framed several pieces I thought were failures, only to have collectors fall in love with them and purchase it with gusto. Don't be too hard on yourself.
We're only here for a short time anyway. Make the most of it.

I reject 2 out of 5 images I make. I am all digital. My early works took anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours,
so the rejection process was easy.

I am working on a new aesthetic. I have had to study a lot of Photoshop techniques I had not used yet.
My first work is taking weeks. I think it will be finished Sunday or on Saturday. I think in some
ways is will be great, but as the first of a new series I admit it is flawed. The viewer may not
see it, but I do know how it is not perfect. I am working it out and finalizing it soon.

The next similar work will be less than 2 weeks. And the third work might be less than a week to
do.

I wont have to throw out these works. At least I seriously doubt it.

I save all works whether good enough or not. The not good enough file has been used once
anyway. My The Generations Mural IV was at one time not good enough. I changed my mind to make
a statement.

Dave

it's easy to recycle when you're digital ;)

I have just finished a small pencil of a dog...the first one didn't work out and though I had put maybe 10 hours or so into it, I ripped it up. If I get to a point in a painting where I know it's not working, I'll paint over the whole thing and start again. If I'm getting towards the end of a painting, and I can't seem to 'close' it, I'll leave it for a few months and go back to it...I have a lot of paintings in that position! But as some have said, it's only you that says it's not finished, because only you have the idea in your mind of how it's supposed to look..."it looks finished to me" is a sentence often heard in my house from my family when I'm procrastinating towards the end!

You know those days when you feel like everything you do is awesome? When you feel on top of the world?

Those are the days I go back through my unfinished/abandoned/wth folder or box, usually successfully. I never delete or throw away any artwork, as I know I'll see the piece differently, someday.

Don't struggle so, Rhonda; going with the creative flow works better, and is less stressful! :-)

Hi Rhonda, Everyone already said it all but I was reminded of a great book on this theme...Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier...I enjoyed it, a good read, of coarse fiction, but the struggle with knowing when a piece is finished was great!

sometimes there's only one thing you can do.... set fire to the computer and start over.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I rarely scrap projects because of the time I take to think about what I want to draw and my capability to draw it. It's good to know your limitations before starting a project. For instance I would love to paint a Barn Owl, or a Falcon, Eagle, etc... but I know in my heart I will not want to paint all the variations in the patterns of the feathers. Way to intricate to pull off in the computer, or should I say, it's not something I want to do even though the computer program could handle it.

To answer your question, if something doesn't start to come together after about 12 hours of work, I will not hesitate one second to toss it and never ever look back.

Stop thinking of only the end product and enjoy the process....you will have good painting days and bad ones...what's left at day's end can always be gessoed over.
If you don't know whether it should be saved, then I'd suggest learning how to critique your own work.
You can gesso over the product, but the day's creative process is not lost.
Above all, don't agonize..artist angst is highly overrated.

Mike...LOL
Val--I love to read so will definitely look for that book.
Marlene--That is a good way to look at it "The days creative process is not lost." Because that is what concerns me most. If a have lost time because I decide to scrap project or gesso over it. I have a ton of unfinished canvases. I rarely manage to go back to them and sometimes wonder why I keep holding on to them.

Rhonda, they make great underpainting! I'd rather start the day on a used canvas than a new one!!

I just keep painting until I get it right.

A number of years ago I was doing a painting of sisters from an old photo when they were very young. One of the sisters is close to me so I knew as an adult. I could not get her face right I kept painting and painting and suddenly there she was. Sometimes it is like magic.