The Hero's Battle

At the start of a new year sometimes it's really hard to get back into your groove. For me this was such a year. I started off with gusto, cleaning out my studio space, getting everything organized and ready to paint and work, but then...nothing. I didn't know what to do, my drive to work on personal projects fizzled and I couldn't get myself to sit down and paint.
Not only was I battling to create art but I was battling to do anything. I am fortunate to have a job that I love, and performing my duties at work as an Art Director was going fine, but when I left work I would come home, have dinner and just watch T.V or browse Facebook. I was feeling drained and deeply unmotivated. Long story short I reached a point where I had to just look at myself and ask what are my goals? Do I have any? What am I aiming at? Why am I wasting time?
Who do I want to be?
Whoa! Existential crisis much lol. I am so thankful for people in my life who gave me advice and also for this amazing platform called the internet. There are so many motivational, inspiring ,successful people out there who willingly share their knowledge and experience with others through platforms like YouTube.

Life is a battle, you need to get up every day, put on your armor, and move forward towards your goals, even if you just take one step a day. So this year I'm going to push forward on all fronts.

Pushing forward artistically had to start somewhere, so I started with an unfinished painting. This painting was abandoned last year. This is how I started the painting mid last year as a rough greyscale sketch in Photoshop.

I wanted a dynamic painting so I worked loosely trying to get expressive brush strokes into the piece and blocking in some dramatic lighting. This phase is where I left the painting last year.

The first thing I did when I picked it up again this year was self-art-direct. I scribbled over the first things that bugged me about the image. Nothing like a gap of a couple months to allow you to look at a piece with fresh eyes.

I then proceeded to address my own notes. I find that being critical about your own work is really helpful. Not in the negative 'I hate my work' kind of way that leaves you demotivated, but in the analyzing it, finding its weaknesses and then fixing it even if it means undoing hours of work you spent going in the wrong direction.

The final image.
It may have been the easy route taking an unfinished painting through to completion but I will take it because it's a step forward and now the creative wheel is turning! My dreams and goals are a little closer now. So be like Beowulf here, aim to win, even if you die in the process... at least he went out a hero.
If you got this far, thanks for reading!

Cheers for now,
Lynton