There is so much freedom and happy accidents when painting fast using oil colors. It can be 1000 times more exciting when you have a live model in front you, and you only give yourself one sitting to finish the portrait in that given amount of time. I have done many of these in my days, and here is a little secret that I found when engaged in such dangerous activity:
Time moves differently.
So Maybe that’s just it. Is that why I am hooked on painting people? The adrenaline rush really hits you when you got all your paints out, paint brush strokes flying on and off the canvas, and you see the portrait real itself to you one stroke at a time. It is a movie–or a battle–that nobody can really see but you. I suppose such painting fight is similar to a gladiator in a colosseum–killing or getting killed. Okay. Okay. Maybe not that dramatic, but you get the idea.
Anyways, after the rush of painting fast fades, I really enjoy slow pace of a long pose that goes on day after day, marching to the last day of painting like all of us marching to the end of our days.
Happy Sunday!
PS: I made this silly reel for my Instagram Post earlier this week.