Regret

I've been told that sometimes when I do a sketch off of a reference photo or image, I'm too derivative. It's too obviously a copy. I've been told that I need to take the ref image as a starting point and do my own thing with it, tweak it and add more of myself into it. But usually if I pick a ref image there is something about it that speaks to me, an emotion, lighting, color that moves me to enjoy looking at it. And it is that that makes me want to replicate it. I want to capture for myself that which inspired me in the first place. So here it was her back. The long line if spine curving into the blackness of her dress. But I moved her. Twisted the shoulders, rotated the head, gave her an emotion that wasn't part of the original photograph. The emotion that I felt was best for her was regret. Sadness. A loss of something we as a viewer don't know, but can hopefully feel from her...

Maybe it works and maybe it doesn't. But I need to move on with my art, and though mimicry can help, it only helps to a point. I need to go beyond that. I need to find that well of unstopable images I had as a younger artist but with the skills the years have given me. Here's to hoping that that is what I am doing.

Enjoy.