Comments on: Corey Pitkin – Portraiture In The Time Of COVID

By: Gail Sibley

Gail Sibley — Sat, 05 Sep 2020 20:33:47 +0000

Hi Andrea, thank you for your very exuberant response!!!
As to your question regarding perfectionism stopping you from even starting, I’ll give my thoughts first 🙂
What you might try is working small and setting a timer so you are restricted by time. If you usually take two hours to do a piece, set the timer for one hour. And then get gradually less. And actually STOP when the timer goes off and move on to another piece or walk away. Don’t be tempted to fiddle fade with it!! Try and it and see what happens 🙂

By: Gail Sibley

Gail Sibley — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 20:28:55 +0000

In reply to Neil Sherry. Oh you are so welcome Neil!! What a treat it is to introduce you to such an accomplished artist!

By: Gail Sibley

Gail Sibley — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:39:10 +0000

In reply to Liz Spona.

Liz, so happy to know you are excited about this new piece you are working on! To answer your question, I’d say put it aside as is and put it somewhere you can’t see it (face it to the wall for instance). Then in awe or so, come back to it and see how you feel in that instance of seeing it again.
I’ll look forward to hearing Corey’s thoughts!

By: Liz Spona

Liz Spona — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 04:01:26 +0000

Catching up!
Corey, thanks so much for sharing your work and process.
I’ve just recently been working on a painting that I felt ‘meh’ about from the start. It was started with my plein aire group, and I wasn’t feeling the site or my subject. I never got it up on plane.
Today I started a painting that I loved from the start – a quiet sitting place in an overgrown garden. The 2nd layer is kind of wild with color and structure, but I’m really liking it’s looseness and movement. I often get lost in the detail. Do I dare allow myself to let the untamed go unleashed? Could it be finished – or not? How do I know? Do I get down to the detail? Is this abstract realism, or is it just unfinished? So difficult to know.

By: Neil Sherry

Neil Sherry — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 08:25:01 +0000

Gail, Thank you so much for introducing Corey to us. Such accomplished artwork and so painterly. Neil

By: Andrea Jerabek

Andrea Jerabek — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 01:29:33 +0000

Thank you so much Gail, for sharing Corey’s blog with us! I have had a love affair with pastels over the last 5 years, that really gained depth and new perspective when I started learning from a local artist, as a student! Most of my work tends to be very detail oriented and I have the biggest self sabotage skill of being too critical of my own work. Because of my OCD tendencies, I have a very difficult time looking at a subject and not focusing on the details! Still being fairly new to pastels, I have a hard time transitioning from more linear work I’ve become accustomed to, such as pen and ink. My teacher, Susan Glendenning, taught me that there is a difference between drawing and painting. She has tried to get me to use different strokes and techniques, and get away from line drawing. I love your paintings, Corey, that either try to blend the subject into the background, or leave a lot to the imagination as far as the rest of the subject is concerned, like in your painting, Marie Antoinette Wig! I noticed that you use a lot of Blue Earth’s pastels. Some time back I purchased their portraiture sample pack, but it has mostly remained in its box because of my intimidation of actually making a portrait or figurative work and being satisfied with it! I’m sorry for going on so long. Can you offer some advice in regards to my fear of lack of perfection in my work, so I don’t even attempt something that I am not comfortable with? I really want to excel in my skills but don’t know where to start. Thank you so much!

By: Gail Sibley

Gail Sibley — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 18:40:47 +0000

In reply to Jean H Sullivan. Whoop whoop!!

By: Jean H Sullivan

Jean H Sullivan — Sun, 23 Aug 2020 23:55:13 +0000

In reply to Gail Sibley. You just may see a self-portrait one of these days. And this blog and demo changed my mind about that answer on the IGNITE! membership survey.

By: Gail Sibley

Gail Sibley — Sun, 23 Aug 2020 20:17:52 +0000

In reply to Corey C. Pitkin. Such an honour to have you as part of the HowToPastel blog Corey. And thank you so much for taking the time to respond so wonderfully to all the comments!!

By: Corey C. Pitkin

Corey C. Pitkin — Sun, 23 Aug 2020 19:14:42 +0000

I want to give a HUGE thanks to Gail for inviting me to write for How to Pastel. I thoroughly enjoyed writing this and I loved reading everyone’s thoughtful responses. Thank you all!