Finding Her Face

Several days ago I took to my easle just with a handful of color. All my favorites pastels which now include 2 new sets of Mount Vision Pastels called Chromatic and Tropical. These colors burn with intensity. They jump out of the box for your eyes to devour! I can't even explain how incredible these brilliant shades are which run the spectrum from yellow to purple. I thought I would set the background for this portrait of a woman. This is the reverse of what I normally do, but I was just going with the impulse. The background became a blur of shades greens and blues. It felt like early morning spring air. From there, I sketched in the face, with very soft willow charcoal. It  was just  a matter  a few lines and a few moments. I stepped back and thought this was good. Since it was almost 3 a.m., I decided to leave well enough alone till the next evening. 

 

About 18 hours later, I return to my easle. I am the same person, with the same hands, with the same creative idea, with the same gifts from the night before but something was drastically different. I was stiff. My hands didn't  move with confidence. Now every stroke was like a calculated risk. Unfortunately, I began with the face, even worse the eyes and within a few minutes, I realized that  what was good last night, was awful right then. I stood there trying to understand what had happened to the lovely  expression and gentle face. It now looked hard, imbalanced, and austere. Now it seemed as if I was missing something and so was the face on the canvas.

 

 This artistic muse and her gift called flow were not anywhere to be found. It was going to be a long night, with alot of work ahead of me. (Pardon the pun!) I softened and removed more pastel dust that night than I ever had on any piece of work.  I decided I was going to dig in and see this session through no matter what. I was not going to walk away. Well, maybe not. After, one last effort to find her face, I became so irritated; I knew the muse had the upper hand. I walked away, hoping for a better tomorrow.

 

It has been two tomorrows later and for the life of me, this face just will not be found.  The eyes, the nose, the lips and jawline were wrong  so I took a 2" wide soft brush used for laying down a wash and just removed her entire face from hairline to neck!  What does an artist do at this point? Should I put her away for a few weeks until I can approach her fresh? Should I place her in a circular file? Maybe it is a cursed canvas! I had hoped this journey in blog #2 would be more enjoyable than this. Anyone up for the next journey with me?