Wednesday, April 29, 2020

'Do you ever get frustrated?'

Miztrali says: "Have you ever had to deal with you being frustrated at your work? I’m struggling to create gouache art but I always seemed like failing. Do you have any advice?"



Yes, if you look closely at the beginning stages of this painting (left image) you can see from abandoned starts that I tried twice to paint Greg—wearing a hat—at his workstation. But had to rub out both of those starts because he didn't stay there long enough.

By that point I was definitely getting frustrated. I face these kinds of frustrations in the course of doing most paintings. I feel unequal to the task, out of my depth, off-balance and slightly out of control.

Sometimes these frustrations come from things I can't control, such as when a sleeping dog that I'm sketching wakes up and walks off. All I can do is prepare for those frustrations, and adapt to them when they happen.

Other times I get frustrated because of my own technical failing, where something I should be able to control doesn't work the way I wanted. Avoiding technical failings is the reason for doing technical experiments in the studio first. If you do that, you can eliminate those potential challenges. Many times my experiments don't work the way I want them to, and I have to go back and try again. By experimenting you can get used to your materials and know what your paints will do in different circumstances.

Whether they're caused by things you can control or not, frustrating setbacks are just part of the creative process, something to embrace and even enjoy in a weird way. You have to be like a squirrel trying to get to a bird feeder.
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Watch the YouTube video of the painting of Greg at his workstation. The full tutorial "Color in Practice" is available at Gumroad as an HD download or lifetime streaming 


13 comments:

Bob said...

"You have to be like a squirrel trying to get to a bird feeder." Great way to illustrate the point! Whether art or engineering, we need to work at it till it makes sense. Then go back and see if there's even a better way.

Carl Wendt said...

I find that when painting anything there is always frustration...people always say....Oh painting must be so relaxing for you....there is nothing relaxing about it. It is work and hard work at that. But through all the pain and frustration emerges a piece of work that I am happy with...amazingly enough. There is a measure of “faith” if you will....faith that pushing past the feelings of inadequacy and uncertainty, there will be something good that comes from it, whether a finished piece to be proud of or a learning experience to draw from later on. The accidentals that come from persevering often make for beautiful and unique results that would be hard to achieve if planned. Thanks James for your instructional videos and this blog....been following you for many, many years.

Ollie said...

Hello James thanks so much for these insightful answers. I hope you have time for one more. What would you recommend to try and paint for a beginner? I find painting something on its own like an individual plant or animal ok but struggle when doing a complete scene. Thanks for you incredible work!

James Gurney said...

Ollie, I agree with Asher B. Durand's advice to a young art student in 1855: pick a simple rock, stump, plant or still life object in fairly constant light and paint that before attempting a big complex scene.

GeraldS said...

Hi James that reminds me, I've noticed in your Sketch Books many of the Casein underpaintings you will start a new sketch on. Would those be paintings that failed and you covered? That's my go to! Lol I do realize you do this for the aesthetic effect, but in the spirit of lifting up a frustrated Artist I thought to ask?
btw.. Thanks! Gerald

James Gurney said...

Gerald, sometimes I paint over a failed start, and sometimes I just paint an underpainting on a blank page.

tombo said...

Is it just available as a digital download right now or can I buy it as a DVD? I'm really more interested in buying the DVD. Thanks.

Joe P said...

"I feel unequal to the task, out of my depth, off-balance and slightly out of control."

This sentence should be read, and appreciated by every art student on earth. The fact that someone who has been doing this, at the highest level, for decades... still feels this way sometimes during a painting is truly telling of the nature of painting. Too often we are crippled by fear, and think that if we can only find the magic bullet.. we will be able to create perfect paintings effortlessly. Clearly, that time will never come. I think we need to embrace the struggle rather, and accept that we are performing a difficult task. The times when things are executed effortlessly are extremely rare, and we should get comfortable with discomfort instead.

Lynnwood said...

Wonderful,James!My comment relates to Sunday's post as well as this one.(Yay! to Chris Beaven,I love and love to quote Henri,Sloan and Nicolaide as well!)I've been pretty happy with my watercolors lately and decided to try a much larger one, a scene from a book,set in India in the 1930's.Did some research and WS really excited about the drama and movement to my initial sketch,as well as all the preliminary drawings for the various figures and central action. About halfway through u realized that I had all these vague areas on the larger paper that I just couldn't fill convincingly esp with color! (This was an ambitious complex scene lol)These two blog entries have inspired me to give it another go!In retrospect the advice seems obvious, but obviously not!!"I try to fail as often as possible " Thanks for that one too,James!!

Lynnwood said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Luca said...

Once i read (i don't remember who said this phrase) that in part our frustration is due to the fact that we compare our efforts and failures to the masters achievements and best works, but we don't see all their "behind the scenes", their efforts and failures. Even if it's frustrating, i think it's a way to improve and learn: "i like what this person is doing but i can't obtain the same result, what am i doing wrong? where is the problem? how can i improve?" : so, from the artist point of view, when i compare my poor painting failures with the beautiful sketches you do on the spot i feel frustrated but i also try to understand what i'm doing wrong, hoping to improve one day. I can't learn your technique but i can try to understand how you think, that's enough! But i have to say that, from the human point of view, it's a bit reassuring and conforting to know that even great artists like you and others sometimes find some little problems with a painting . I was watching a video of a traditional illustrator i love and - while the painting was amazing - it was a bit funny to see how many times he had to paint and re-paint and repaint again the face of his character. And Frazetta wrote that the Egyptian Queen's face turned almost in a nightmare, there was no way to make that face work (maybe the only case in his life). So, thanks for sharing this behind the scenes with us!

Joe P said...

I think this is made even worse with social media. Every one of course only shows their best efforts, and everyone seems like a genius. You never see the years and years of failures, studies, etc. It gives people a false sense of reality. I think that's why so many people look for the magic get good quick solution. It seems as though so many others have found it... When in reality it just doesn't exist

Unknown said...

JoeP - I couldn't agree more about James' writing about the emotions of the process.

James Gurney, thank you so much for writing that. It's one of the most enlightening things I've read from you and I read your blog every day as it's so generally enlightening about painting and art.