The "Ugly Stage"

"Phoenix" 9 x12 Pastel on Board

One thing all artist struggle through is the dreaded "Ugly Stage". It is the stage when you feel like your drawing, or painting, is worthless and not worth the time and effort to finish it. This is how I felt most of the time with this painting. The key is to grit your teeth, and keep working forward. For an example, here is the Ugly Stage of this painting:

When I got to this stage of my painting I was so frustrated. The horse is a rose-grey color and I was having a terrible time finding the perfect mixture of colors. Here it's too blue, and the red wouldn't blend right. I almost gave up several times, but I'm very glad I didn't. The end result was worth the frustration. I had to learn to step away first, then to think, and finally to use my imaginaton to visulize my final painting. Once I was able to see past the Ugly Stage, it made everything else fall into place.