I find that
the more I work on a picture, the less I am able to see it. No, I
don't mean that my eyes become blurry. Rather, I mean that I am less
able to see the picture objectively.
This can lead to three problems.
First, I can't see the mistakes that I
have made. The eyes in a portrait can be positioned at different
levels making the subject the look like something from a horror
movie. Yet, what I see is something that Leonardo Da Vinci would
envy.
Second, I go on working even though
the picture is finished. A picture can easily be ruined by
overworking it.
Third, I go on working on a picture
even though it will never be anything worthwhile. Some pictures are
just failures. There is a tendency to think, if I just make a few
more changes it will be a masterpiece. However, in reality, you're
just wasting your time. Better to start something new.
The inability to see a work
objectively occurs because the mind has a tendency to see what it
wants to see. Therefore, what is needed is a fresh view of the
picture.
My mother, the artist Valda, used to
recommend holding the picture up to a mirror. This breaks the spell
and in the mirror image,you can see the work much more objectively.
A technique more suited to the digital
age that I often use is to take a photo of the picture with the
camera in my smart phone. The objective is not to get an image that
you would want to share with friends and family but rather to look at
your picture in a different way.
My smart phone is well-suited to this
task. It takes a serviceable image in almost any light. In
addition, I can see the image immediately on the phone's display
screen.
I often end up taking several pictures
as I work. Having used the smart hone to detect a problem, I
endeavor to correct the problem on the original picture. Another
photo tells me whether I really have solved the problem and whether
there are other problems that need correcting.
The only problem that I have found
with this technique is that it can use up the storage on the smart
phone. Therefore, it is best to delete the images as you go along.
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