#koitea

I wish I could tell you that I knew when my drawings are "done" But often I completely over work things, I get obsessed with details that no one else will ever even notice, I have this urge to cover the whole page. It honestly takes someone sitting by me who knows me saying, Stop, it's done! However I feel at that point, I just let it go and call it a day. But more often than not no one is around to do that.

It's really hard to tell yourself something is done. So it really is helpful to know other artists who you can ask those kinds of questions. It's the one thing people will actually be honest about.

Random, but I remember my oil painting teacher in college would always do these beautiful paintings, of still lives and models, but they always looked so... finished. They were pretty, but that was about it. They didn't say anything about him, or how he viewed anything. It was just such a shame because I think he has so much incredible talent and he's just stuck in this process of making making done, making making done, and he can't break out of it. When he starts paintings he'll always start in the oddest place, like a toe, and just bring a whole figure out of that toe. His paintings were amazing to look at when they were in process. I even once told him to stop painting and that it was done, and he laughed at me and shook his head like this couldn't possibly be a finished piece of art. BUT IT WAS SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING TO LOOK AT.

So I guess the moral of that story is to let yourself stop. And leave it, and come back to it, and if you feel like it needs more then add more. But be willing to take that break for a few days or a week or however long until you know what has to be done.