The weather has finally aligned with the season and it is getting colder all the time.Yesterday and today it’s totally grey and it is about to rain so, I decided it is a good time to continue my exploration of this portrait I have started of my girlfriend Esther. It is a pencil drawing that gives me a feel for the tonal scheme I would like to use. In her last visit here I have worked out this composition which was partly accidental, as all good compositions usually happen. I usually do not make my studies so elaborate and prefer to jump right into the painting after some sketches that allow me to have a feel of the general direction I would like to go. But here I felt compelled to make a study that would simplify later my choice of colors.I think it is a good idea to work out the tonal scheme and see if there is enough substance to a composition without the colors. Of course, sometimes there is a lot of strength in just jumping into a work straight with the feelings of the colors and the general mood and allow the work to guide you as you go, wherever it takes you. Other times, like in this case I feel it is a good idea to approach the whole theme with some preliminary sketch and study.I know that many old schools of art laid great emphasis on making a study in order to build a carefully thought out composition and I think in the times of the Renaissance and before, in case of a commissioned work, it would be unthinkable to make a composition without some sort of a preliminary study.Today, after Postmodernism, I think it is quite the opposite and it is rare to find artists that do many studies or preliminary sketches in order to learn a subject and develop a rounded out theme. I think in case of an abstract work it makes sense to follow the guidance of the senses and just flow with the subconscious impulses but many times I see a work that uses the excuse of being abstract to justify pointless wondering that is lacking any presence and artistic value.In our age of extreme relativism, everything can pass as art with sad results of too little inspirational value.
