so you have finished your masterwork. you are happy and satisfied. rightly so.
well sort of.
you should never be to happy with what you have created - you should always be critical of what you do because you want to learn from what you have done so the next time you improve.
i am not talking about editing here.
i am not talking about touching up an image or refining what you have done.
i am talking about looking at what you have done critically.
you are doing this for two reasons.
firstly you are looking at where you can improve - do you need to tighten it up, let it flow more? more colour? less colour? the lessons learnt here will always benefit you when you start your next piece of work.
secondly you need to look at your work and ask yourself could i have done this differently? would it have been better if i had..?
what do i mean?
if you have done a series of portraits where you have painted/ photographed your subject face on, would you have been better to approach the from the side in order to get a profile or a three quarter view? maybe you need to just have part of the face in the finished image - a close up on the eyes.
if you have painted a landscape - maybe you should have gone with acrylic rather than watercolour. maybe abstract instead of figurative.
it is all about viewpoint.
look at what you have created and think about how you might have approached it differently. it may be that the method you used was the right one - so it means that the next time you try to do the same sort of thing you'll know what you need to do. it might also be that in looking for a new way to do the job you are struck by inspiration and have something new to work on.
you improve by looking, critically, at what you have done.
you improve by looking for new ways of working.
be pleased with your finished work. every completed act of creation is something to be proud of.
but use that piece as a way to improve your next piece.
remember everything is a work in progress.
