The Gallery of Failure

Boudicca

THE ROAD TO SUCCESS IS DECORATED WITH FAILURE.

I thought I would start this thread after reading the 'how to be miserable as an artist' thread.
I am going through a rough patch with my painting, and I know many of us do at some point.
So, let's celebrate our failures!

The painting below was to be an entry in one of the DMP challenges. I obviously didn't make the deadline LOL
The colours strings are now dried hard. 
My high hopes nothing but a shame stained canvas.

I may yet resurrect this work but the lessons for me-
do not attempt a big new painting after you have completely reconfigured your studio without checking you lighting first!
know when to stop trying to paint when it just isn't working and instead adjust 'the conditions' instead of 'adjusting the painting'

jswartzart

Love and appreciate the new thread! Thank you!
I won't regurgitate my recent flop ( under how to be miserable as an artist) I will definitely post anything else under this one (of which there are many lately-just to lazy at the moment to go downstairs and snap a pic of them).

BOB73

You have a half finished (really good) painting not a shame stained one. I think there's too much canvas on the left unless there is subject matter I can't see. The hat looks great. I love HATS. The shadows and colors in and around the skull are looking good. I don't see anything that constitutes a failure here. I have to be in the right mood to paint so if I loose the mood while the palette is loaded I put away ZZ Top and Led Zeppelin and get the vinyl out with Beethoven symphonies (2,3,4,6,8). Then I pick up the paint brush and ponder about why there were ten years between Beethoven's eighth and the ninth. Mozart is good too but avoid Barry Manilow. It looks like you have everything you need to get your lighting right. Maybe it is just a matter of shading your still life from the studio light a little more. There have been some good threads on lighting in the forum this year. Good Luck

PaulB

Sigh.  I have a stack of these.  Here are the two that got the furthest along before reality set in.  Things learned:

• A comber brush is not a good way to paint fur/grass/leaves.
• Try to use colors that appear in nature.
• If the photo cuts off, don't try to improvise the missing part.  I wonder what rabbit feet look like?
• Composition is important.

Learned:

• Trees, when painted poorly, resemble rotting broccoli.
• Don't paint all trees with the same leaves.
• Not all trees are neat balls of greenery.
• There is such a thing as an overly-complex foreground (could not rally the enthusiasm to paint it).

I painted a tree that looked like a green toilet brush.  Another that looks like one of those camouflaged cell towers.  Are there worse ones? Oh yes.  I even hid those so the cat wouldn't have to look at them.

Boudicca

@PaulB your descriptions are so funny. I'm crying with laughter.

BOB73

Try a fan brush, Rabbits feet look like grass. Trees need branches and trunks and light gaps. These don't look like failures to me.

Boudicca

BOB73 said:

You have a half finished (really good) painting not a shame stained one. I think there's too much canvas on the left unless there is subject matter I can't see. The hat looks great. I love HATS. The shadows and colors in and around the skull are looking good. I don't see anything that constitutes a failure here. I have to be in the right mood to paint so if I loose the mood while the palette is loaded I put away ZZ Top and Led Zeppelin and get the vinyl out with Beethoven symphonies (2,3,4,6,8). Then I pick up the paint brush and ponder about why there were ten years between Beethoven's eighth and the ninth. Mozart is good too but avoid Barry Manilow. It looks like you have everything you need to get your lighting right. Maybe it is just a matter of shading your still life from the studio light a little more. There have been some good threads on lighting in the forum this year. Good Luck

Thanks @BOB73, there are roses on either side which have now crumbled to dust. That cow was alive when I started the painting.

The lighting/glare has been a huge problem since I moved my studio around so I will be changing it around a bit and possibly get some black cloth to hang to reduce the glare.

Roxy

I can see this is going to be an enjoyable thread - I hope, In a strange and twisted sort of way, that this re-inspires you @jswartzart . Your portrait is coming along so nicely. Step back, take time to re-assess (like you did when checking those values with your clever camera trick) and I'm sure it will work out.  

@Boudicca, I think you have the makings of a cracker there. You can always go buy some new roses once you sort out the lighting. Are you channeling Andrew Tischler with that skull?  

In the spirit of @PaulB here is my horror. Actually its the only remnant of when I tried painting nearly 20yrs ago, so it is the best of a very bad bunch. Here is what I have learnt.

- Just because the Australian sky is Tasman blue in the poems, does not mean it has to be painted solely from a tube labelled 'Tasman blue'

- Just because the Australian outback is red, does not mean it has to be painted solely from a tube labelled 'Australian outback red'. And that includes the grass.

- You are allowed to mix your own greens (Sap green, I'm looking at you)

- That rule about 'fat over lean'. Some rules are not meant to be broken.

Kaustav

This painting gave me a huge inferiority complex about me as a painter. What a way to ruin a 12X18 with three additional coats of gesso and chunks of paint. I can now use only the streatchers if I buy canvas roll in future.

I didn't name it earlier as I was so depressed. Now I know:

'FIT FOR GARBAGE CAN' 12X18 slime on canvas

PaulB

@Roxy is that my legless rabbit on the left?

tassieguy

@Kaustav, I don't think the above painting is really a failure. There are some good things about it. For example, the horizon is great - the mauve colour there gives a real feeling of depth.  And the impressionistic way you've done the figures under the tree is very pleasing. One thing that might have improved it would have been to paint the sky more thinly so that it's texture didn't compete with the focus of interest which, to me, would be the figures under the tree.

I've had two failures in the last couple of months. One small  landscape and a small still life. I didn't take photos of them because I thought no one would be interested in my failures.  I don't know why but when I try to paint small pictures I  don't succeed as well as when I paint a large picture. I still have these two failures so I'll post them tomorrow when I take some photos of them.

What a great thread. Picking apart one's failures is a great way to learn so I hope people will tell me what they think is wrong with them and how the faults could be fixed or avoided in future.

Rob 

tassieguy

@Boudicca, your painting is definitely not a failure! It's just unfinished. That hat looks great! Keep at it.
 
@PaulB and @Roxy I don't think your paintings are complete failures, either. @PaulB's rabbit is too incomplete to draw any real conclusions but the drawing looks good.  The composition of the second one (the  landscape) is really good to my eyes and the colours and texture are great. It just needs finishing.

There is a certain interesting tension in @Roxy's poised rock and I think the colour and values are basically good. The only fault, as I see it, is a little too much blending but that's just down to personal taste and not really a fault.

BOB73

Try and remember Mark Carder's warning/advice that at the middle stages of a project there is very often a point where you think the painting is too ugly to try and finish.

anwesha

so  here's my entry... this was my first oil painting, painted 6 years ago. It made me give up oil painting, till i came across the DMP videos. (photo removed to avoid copyright issues   )

JeffAllen

I wouldn't dwell on the failures.  Analyze them (as to why you think they are bad) and then move on.  Most attempts will not be complete successes.  I'm sure even master painters have/had lots of failures.  The secret is not to show them to everyone.  That way people think everything you do is good. 

Kaustav

@tassieguy I failed every time I picked up the brush to correct it. I painted the sky five times.  This painting pushed me into painting outdoors to collect data and enhance my understanding of values and atmosphere. I don't have a landscape here, in a city with traffic. There is no perfect photo for a landscape with me. Imagination is bound to fail when there is no knowledge.  

BOB73

I FAILED MY CT SCAN FOR LUNG CANCER YESTERDAY. YIPEEE!!!!!! I guess it's hard for me to think of paintings as failures even though I've had lots of my creativity  go into the trash. All attempts at paintings are studies. And it's hard for me to get too discouraged about a project's fate when you're waiting for medical test results.

Forgiveness

Many very successful people suffer many failures in order to win and learn to manage themselves, in agreement with JeffAllen above, they just don't dwell on their failures as failures at all and move on, etc. Real failures teach us something new and it's best to just move on. Of course, laughter is the best medicine too! My worst scenario, as a young adult artist, thought I failed so badly, in despair I threw out most of everything I created and worked so hard for up until this point into the trash. Never again, that lesson taught me "never again", I did not know this prior. Never again. Today, I find myself here!, this is great news! and this is moving on. LOL !

Forgiveness

Two of my greatest enemies in painting in realism are, boredom and apathy. I must fight these and be on the watch, always. 

Ronna

You guys are hilarious 

jswartzart

This was one of the fails I was to lazy to post the other night. Believe it or not this was a sea turtle  not once but TWICE  I would paint it hate it wipe it completely off try again even worse finally I gave up and went after my canvas with all my leftover paint with as much smearing gusto I could manage lol, now what to do with my ruined picture ... let it dry and paint a branch going across haha, not realism, not fit for anything but the garbage can ( and you guys wonder why I'm freaking out about my moms recent text lol )

WIKEN

I've seen paintings like that in galleries and museums everywhere.  Call it Loggerhead Frustration #1, and slap a hefty price tag on it.  I see a red curtain blown by the breeze enough to let some afternoon sunshine illuminate the frame of the window.  It's not realism but it is real nice, and I don't get modern art.  

jswartzart

@WIKEN that is exactly what I am going to call this one! Loggerhead frustration! Love it thx!

WIKEN

People will look at it and the title, and they will postulate all sorts of theories as to why you named it that. You can listen to them and laugh.  

Boudicca

Title-  At Loggerheads No. 2 - in the intercise between the vision and reality , the artist explores the existential angst we all experience in our day to day endeavours. The viewer is invited into the spacial tension created by a bold and masterful use of the artist's chosen medium. It begs the question - is this a vision splendid, or a #%*+# up sea turtle?  

WIKEN

You nailed it.

BOB73

Loggerhead or leatherlung? That's what a firefighter sees when he opens the door to a room with most of the contents on fire but only for an instant before the smoke comes his way.

jswartzart

Current epic fail, couldn't get out to print reference photos today so thought I would set up little still life and paint from life... I call this mess "stick to what you know when planning a show"
tossing it - I got bored and impatient trying to tediously paint shell number one so blocked it in, then with shell number two said why bother so just cleaned my brush on it   my husband gave me some sound  advice "paint because you want to not because you have to"

Forgiveness

Probably one of the most difficult decisions to make and practice, "paint because you want to not because you have to", this is best. "Just be yourself, just be you!"

Kaustav

@jswartzart don't throw it away, there is work to be done on this. Put yellow onto top left corner and also put it lightly from lower middle to the right in lesser quantity and blend with other colors the way you have done and then sign it below. This is exhibition stuff (not joking here). This is a good abstract painting.

tassieguy

Love this thread!

Here are two atrocities of mine that I committed a few months back. They both ended up boring me and I couldn't summon up the will to try to finish them. They are small for me - about 10" X 16 and 14" X 16". The still life was painted from life and the landscape from a photo I took of our garden. I think the composition in the still life is part of the problem. It seems staid and uninteresting,  And the brushwork is boring - it needs to be bolder.



I think maybe the landscape has too much happening in too small an area and everything is too blue.  Perhaps the shadows need more warm colour in them.

I'd be interested to know why others think these two fail.

Kaustav

@tassieguy yeah. I agree with the landscape, if the shadows and bright ares are cool then it will become chalky. If both are warm then the painting will look muddy. This is what is happening here. But I guess it is not finished and corrections can be made.

Still life: I would only soften the right edge of the bottle and correct its shape of the both the bottle and the shadow a little.
I am sorry to say but both the paintings are not fit for this gallery!

Forgiveness

These have a lot going for them. You can still make the changes you want with new suggestions and get a very good end result. It's not too late or the end for these, if you want. 

WIKEN

@tassieguy you should just throw them away.  A long way away.  Put them in a shipping box, I will send my address,  and you can be rid of them.  They will live out their days in Montana.

Boudicca

Just my 2 cents worth @tassieguy, I think the still life has a lot going for it, I especially like the cloth and the spoon, and the bowl- very well rendered, but there is something a bit bland about the set up, I think if you made the background very dark it would add some drama. The shadow of the bottle seems too large as well.
i would agree with you about the landscape.

Roxy

@tassieguy, do you have a table saw? I reckon if you took about 10% off the left hand side of your still life that would fix the composition woes - the rest looks good to me. A bit more contrast on the LHS foreground might help out the landscape. But I agree with others, these are far from atrocities 

PaulB

@tassieguy I see the shadow of the spoon is at a different angle to the bottle and bowl, perhaps this still life had a light source quite close to it.  Something about the base of the bowl looks incomplete.  The bottle and it's shadow are just lovely.

The landscape horizon/waterline doesn't look level and the plants on the left foreground appear too de-saturated.  I like this one though.

anwesha

@tassieguy : I wish you would you didn't stop working on them... take it as a challenge and give it your best....they are already 80% there... just a little more to go..... its sad to let such good work go unfinished (as you said)

anwesha

@jswartzart :  I agree with others... you can make something really fun out of it... right now the composition has a 'satin-y' (luxurious) feel .....

MikeDerby

@tassieguy , i wish i could fail so well as your first one.  I have too many to offer, and most are in the trash already, but for your humorous pleasure, i offer you my first painting of Josh, my first drawing of @Kaustav , which even I laugh out loud at when I see it, and finally, my most recent crazy goofiness, a certain Mad Horse.
Oh and @jswartzart , i have sold paintings worse than that.  Genius i say!

BOB73

As failures go... I think you have all failed to meet the definition.

Boudicca

BOB73 said:

As failures go... I think you have all failed to meet the definition.

Interesting Bob. That makes me ponder the definition of failure and I expect that different people will have varying points of view on that. It reminds me of the story of Sargent visiting a young artist and praising a picture that the artist was working on. The young artist was desolate and thought the work was terrible. Sargent explained to the artist that this was the first time he had seen the painting, was viewing it with fresh eyes, and had no preconception of how it "should" look, whereas the artist had the mental baggage of the vision in his head of how he wanted it to be and the reality of how it had turned out. I guess in modern terms this created a kind of cognitive dissonance the meant the young artist couldn't really see his own painting the way that anyone else coming across it for the first time would see it. 

Forgiveness

I just learned of similar extending to self portraiture.

tassieguy

You guys are so funny!

Thanks everyone for your comments on my two failures. At some time in the future I may try to rescue them with your comments in mind.

Cheers
Rob 


(BTW ,this is a great thread for learning. So often I know something is wrong with a picture but I can't see what it is and need others to see it - which they often can because they are looking at it with new eyes. I would encourage folks to post more of their perceived failures in this thread.)

Boudicca

tassieguy said:

You guys are so funny!

Thanks everyone for your comments on my two failures. At some time in the future I may try to rescue them with your comments in mind.

Cheers
Rob 


(BTW ,this is a great thread for learning. So often I know something is wrong with a picture but I can't see what it is and need others to see it - which they often can because they are looking at it with new eyes. I would encourage folks to post more of their perceived failures in this thread.)

Yes! I think when someone presents something as a failure(in their eyes) it's somehow easier to give a realistic critique. I.E they are about to throw it in the bin, there's nothing I can say that's going to make them feel worse.

tassieguy

Yup, that's it, @Boudicca. 

Forgiveness

"You guys are so funny!", "You guys are Hilarious!", that's "realism" too!

Boudicca

Well, Mark's latest video says it all. Back to the easel to finish my painting then.

BOB73

Thanks @Boudicca for posting the vid. If I was listening right, what I got from Mark's comments is after we've been working on a project a time (probably as you start to get into details) we stop looking at the overall image that we wanted and are now looking individual spots and groupings that are correct for that stage but don't seem like they will contribute to the whole in the way we envisioned. I think that's when he started talking about being a craftsman and working through the tedium on each element.

Forgiveness

To further add to what @BOB73 ,I also understood Mark to say; the work we do may not turn out as what we first envisioned in our mind, but to make what we have done already, work for us (in our favour) rather than strive for the perfection/ideal in our initial vision. This is where we have to be the craftsman and simply do our best with what we have done already, which may not be the ideal/perfection we were hoping for or striving for, but yet produce quite a beautiful or magnificent painting in view of all of this. This gives a lot of freedom to continue and complete any painting and avoid disappointment/complete discouragement. This is great!

Ronna

OK, here's mine for the Gallery of Failures.  I don't mind the vase and fabric but why, why, why did I paint those flowers.  They're Walking Dead hideous!