Day-Old Failed Donuts

 

 Day-Old Donuts

5x7" Oil on canvas panel

Unlike my Dailypaintworks sale gallery or my Instagram, I post my failures here. I do it because I think that

A) It's important to learn from your mistakes.

B) It's equally important for other artists to see that everyone makes mistakes.

 

I used to beat myself up over each failure, but nowadays I'm pretty good at moving on. I keep a failed painting around for a few days until I'm sure I've found every flaw in it, and then I put it away in a box.

 

For this one:

- The lighting is flat.

- The colors stink. The sprinkles should pop, but instead most of the saturation is in the dough. And oh my god I mixed black into those browns to darken them, what was I thinking?!

- The brushwork shows that I kept fiddling with it, trying to rescue it. Didn't work.

For next time I've learned:

- Lighting should serve to accentuate shapes.

- Pick a focal point.