Back Up 10 Yards and Punt - er Paint

Back Up 10 Yards and Punt

or do I mean paint?

That football term is often used

 when you don't know what to do.

A similar motion is seen in basketball

when a player drives to the basket and an entire team of opponents collapses in the lane and the player has to re-think his approach.  Kick it out and restart the play.

We often have to back up 10 yards and punt in life.

There is a similar situation in art.

A painting is meant to be viewed from a minimum of 6 feet,

but when you're painting it you're usually not more than a foot away so it's really hard to see an error when you're so close to the work.

Sort of like, "not being able to see the forest for the trees".

In painting you have to continually take a few steps back to view your work to see if it "views" correctly.

Is it too warm
Is it too cool

Is the perspective off

Are the values off

(This is a painting I used to teach perspective in my online course.  The light is coming from the right on the trees, but when I painted it originally, I had the light coming from the right on the trees and the left on the barn.  I knew there was a problem in it because my eye kept going to the front of the barn immediately and it should have gotten there, but not immediately.  When I took a few steps back and walked away for a few minutes I realized what the problem was, so I made the front of the barn darker and the side lighter.  I don't think I would have seen it so quickly if I hadn't walked away.)

I've been told by several teachers that if a painting looks off,

it is usually that the values are wrong.

But you might not be able to see that if you're a foot away from the painting.  That's one of the reasons artists brushes are so long.  It not only forces you to loosen up,

it also forces you back further from the painting.

Life is like that.

Sometimes we have to back up from a problem

in order to really see or make corrections to the problem.

This is where another art skill comes in handy.

Learning to see.

When I am facing a problem I often brainstorm with myself.

I write out the problem and then I write as quickly as possible  any and all solutions to that problem, regardless of how crazy they may initially sound.  You don't want to overthink this.

You just want to let your brain go and spit out as many solutions as possible.  Then, and only when I can't think of one more crazy solution, I look over my list of possibilities.

I don't eliminate anything right away.

I usually take a walk and mull things over.

It's amazing what a 10-15 minute walk can do for your brain.

Now, I'm ready to really look over my list and see what viable solutions are on it.

Instead of crossing off what I don't think will work,

I mark or highlight or make a new list of good possibilities.

Then I ponder on that list and usually a few more will become less appealing.  I keep paring down until I have 2 or 3 great possibilities.  Then I begin to formulate ideas how to achieve each one.  

Yes it takes time to back up 10 yards and for a while you're technically going in the opposite direction, but what is actually happening is you're getting a better look at all the options on the field and are better able to figure out what to do next.  

Just because the lane of life collapsed on you,

doesn't mean you should give up on your dream or idea.

But you may have to go at it from a different direction or

call a new play.

I love Edisons quote about inventing the light bulb.

"I didn't fail, I just figured out 10,000 ways not to make a light bulb".

If you enjoyed this post, you can read more Motivation Monday posts below.

On getting things done.

5 posts for motivation.

Self Worth 

Click HERE to visit my website for art classes.  I'm updating it so there will be new classes on there very soon and if you're a beginning artist or a home school family, this is an excellent place for you to get the art instruction you're looking for.

Have a great day and leave me a comment about you're own battle with backing up 10 yards and punting.