Art is a Journey

I am trying to get out of my comfort zone to push myself.  Workshops & challenges have really helped.  I decided to experiment with these 2 musicians.  They were sitting on overturned crates between stalls at a Saturday morning farmer's market.  

I don't know about you, but I don't let myself "play" with paint often enough anymore.  For me that means like most painters I want every painting to be successful.  I know I won't loosen up if I don't use larger brushes at least to start out.  That's harder than one would think & I haven't been entirely successful as I keep reaching for the small detail brushes!  So I decided I wouldn't even sketch out the painting but dive right onto a blank canvas without even toning it!!  Doesn't sound like much of an adventure, but it was for me.

This has become one of those paintings my husband teases me I should sell by the pound given how much paint ends up on the canvas as I make my changes.   I've been working on it off and on for a few months.  Paint some, set aside for a few weeks, pick up and paint some more.  It still wasn't "there", so I decided it was a good painting to summit to my on-line critique group. As always, they made great suggestions and as I was implementing their suggestions I saw additional things. 

Fiddling Around, 16x20" oil on canvas

Changes I've made following the suggestions of my fellow artists:

• Guy on the right: enlarged his head
• brought down his right shoulder  
• toned down the yellow jacket
• Guy on the right: the white shirt was too cool so added some warm tones
• made the brim of his hat (right) a little smaller... still might take off a little more
• raised his leg so the guitar fell back more
• added a touch of red in the middle background to balance the reds throughout the picture.  

First "draft"