I’ll just do a little more…

On that last Mondoodle. Which leads me to a question. When is a picture finished? How do you know when to stop? Sometimes I know I go on too far with a picture – there are often lots of points when you think - that’s pretty good now, I should stop… I’ll just do a little more.

And then you think, no, the picture was definitely better before I did that! But you don’t know until you’ve gone on. The worst thing is if you use computers enough you find yourself thinking… I’ll just undo.

It’s funny doing the video drawings and actually noticing how I work around a picture. I don’t ever really just do one bit and leave it. Part of that is because I’m not planning the picture fully. This means that the balances of detail and space, lights and darks are constantly shifting, and changing one area often necessitates some work elsewhere to balance  the image. Which means needing to do more work somewhere else, and somewhere else. And so it goes on until the page is often quite fully filled. But as I draw partly for the effect and partly for the pleasure of drawing, it’s not so bad.

Look how much space is still on the left! I’m kind of proud of that… And that little dark patch in the lower right corner was an important last bit. Making the stripes darker on the dress was an improvement too.