I Finally fixed my Biggest Art Weakness

Yesterday this painting here was actually finished and today I woke up with the idea that I have to make some changes to it. I don't know why. Doesn't make any sense whatsoever. I don't even know what. I just have the feeling that I should make something to finish the painting off in a way where I can still sleep at night. No idea what but we'll see. Maybe I can come up with a solution to my dilemma. But first I would say let's check out how I got to this point actually not the first time that I'm painting this image. Or this subject. Or this motif. Technically. Sort of. Kind of. But before I explain why let me back off for a second and start from the very beginning. So this painting here is a direct result of me sitting down and quite frankly confronting some of my biggest weaknesses as a painter and as a professional artist. And although it's kind of annoying because let's be real who likes to sit down and think of their shortcomings, I think it was super important. I think I learned something and I also was reminded that even after all these years of doing this I still have areas where I can improve, where I'm maybe a bit stuck in my ways and where I can be a bit more open-minded. But before we get into any of that, after watching this video you can head over to Patreon where you can find a real-time version of this video that shows you the entire process from beginning to end. You can watch it, you can analyze it, you can follow along and you can see essentially every brush stroke that I made. I'm also once again using the Modern Portrait Painter set for this painting. So my very own color palette and the limited edition set that came out last year with Rembrandt Artist Paints. If you're interested in trying them out you can still head over to my website. Full disclosure though, it's a limited edition, it won't be around forever, so grab one while you still can. It's a cool collector's item, it's a cool gift and it's also exactly the colors that I used to make this painting here. So as I mentioned this is not the first time that I'm painting this image here. I mean it kind of is but it also kind of isn't. Last year I was invited to the IFA, one of the biggest consumer electronics expos in the world in Berlin, Germany, and I did a medium-sized painting there. It was a live painting, I started it live at the expo, I finished it in the studio. By the way, painting live in front of thousands of people is a wild experience, let me tell you that. It's a wild experience, period, but also it was a wild experience because the moment I turned my back to the painting, for whatever reason people started coming up to it, they started picking up the brushes, painting into the painting, stuff like that, and that was very annoying but also very challenging. I still have no idea why someone would do that, like the psychology behind it, but maybe some of you can explain that kind of behavior. Still boggles my mind. But the point is at that expo I painted a very similar image, similar colors, similar composition, the same subject. It's similar, it's almost the same, but not exactly the same. And that's sort of the point of this video. You know, in the past I would almost never allow myself to do something like this. It was always, I painted something, I had a great idea, and I spent a lot of time and energy into bringing that idea to life. But once I did that, it was essentially done. I did it. I brought it to life, case closed, it's in the books, let's move on to the next. I mean, having a mindset like this is great in the sense that it keeps you curious, it keeps you from getting stuck in your way, it lets you explore new things rather than just do what's comfortable, just do what you're used to doing. And those are all great things. But the flip side of that is that it can also be like a burden. It can be like handcuffs. And you can end up limiting yourself unnecessarily. And I would say for me, the majority of the time, the majority of my artistic journey, it's been like that. I've always moved from one project to the next. And sometimes even in an extreme way, where I would have a great idea, an interest in a subject, and I would just create one painting, and then I would move on to the next. But I've thought about this exact topic many, many times in the past. And whenever I do, it honestly doesn't make too much sense to me. It doesn't make sense creatively, but it also doesn't make sense economically. And it doesn't make sense economically at all. I mean, I would argue that actually most successful artists that ever existed fall into the exact opposite category. So they essentially only really create one work of art, and they just make variations of that. I mean, most of my peers, when I exhibit in galleries, that's exactly what they do. And they've been doing it for years, and some can do it for an entire career, while others can do it for a certain period of time, and then they have to reinvent themselves. But that is how commercial art works. Now, back in the day when I was creating much more realistic images, I had galleries reach out to me because they were interested in the kind of realism that I was able to create. Because there are not many people who can do that on this planet. But they essentially wanted me to repaint the exact same image over and over again. And even back then, I knew that if I ever got sucked into this world, there was no coming back from that. I would be stuck painting the exact same image over and over and over again. And I didn't want that. It's not my personality. I don't work like that. If that's what it means to be an artist, then it's not for me. I mean, I know myself quite well by now. And I know I will never stop painting things that I probably shouldn't paint. I will always find a reason why I need to paint a giant robot, or something from a movie, or a video game, something incredibly silly, unnecessary, and or incredibly irrational in every way, also from a business perspective. But I'm still gonna do it because that's just how I roll. But there is also another side to this. You can fall into the trap of always feeling the need or the pressure of reinventing yourself. Not every few years, but rather with every work of art you create. And that other extreme, that other side of the spectrum that I used to fall into, also doesn't make any sense to me. And it makes less and less sense to me the older I get and the more years pass by. Because you can still be a great artist, a curious artist, an artist that pushes boundaries, that reinvents themselves, that comes up with new ideas and challenges. And you can still work on subjects, image compositions that you've already created, and create multiple versions of that. It makes sense creatively, it makes sense psychologically, and not least makes sense economically. In the past I would always make a series of paintings and I would try to make it a point that every single painting in the series is very different. It's 100% unique in every way and sufficiently different from all the others to make it different. But why? Why does it need to be? Why does it need to be so different? Why can't it be almost the same? And I genuinely thought about this a long time. I mean it sounds like a weirdly trivial non-question, but if you think about it, why can't you create multiple versions of a painting? Or, I mean obviously you can, many artists do, but what keeps us or keeps me from doing that? I mean, does it lessen the other paintings that look similar? Are they not as unique? Yes, in a way that is true. I mean they are still unique, they are unique paintings that only exist once physically, but there are obviously in that case similar other paintings. Does that cheapen, you know, the value of the painting or the perceived value? Not really. I mean maybe it does, but then again these paintings are not worth millions and millions, so why should they be so unique? I mean it's a philosophical question and maybe a non-question for most artists, but if you think about it, if you are an aspiring artist and you are faced with this problem, with this dilemma, like how much do I need to explore? How much do I need to reinvent? Or how much can I write, you know, the wave of an idea that you come up with, so to speak? It is a quite important question, I would say. And after thinking about this for a long time, I would say over the past couple of years, I more and more came to the realization that you're actually harming yourself more than anything else if you're too stuck in your ways. And what it now comes down to for me is, as long as I am still curious, as long as I still explore, try new things, test stuff out, reinvent myself, but from now on I will also give myself the permission to recreate some of the compositions that have worked in the past, because I genuinely, honestly can't find a good reason for why I should limit myself more than necessary. In the past I always found reasons why, but now I just don't see it anymore. I mean, if I continued with that kind of mindset that I had maybe 10 years ago, I would never ever paint another Diablo painting. Never ever paint another God of War painting. Anything that I paint is a one-of-one, not only the painting itself, but also the idea and the concept and the composition. And honestly, that is a very silly mindset. A silly mindset that I had for many, many years. This is not like a realization that I'm having today. I changed my mind on this over the past few years. But now, you know, it's something that I thought of, especially with this painting, because this image and composition of Ophelia in the water, or Ophelia from Shakespeare's Hamlet, it's got something to it that just speaks to me in many ways. The concept, the composition, the colors. So why should there only be one of them? Of course, it's not always going to be the exact same composition, the exact same colors, the exact same size or aspect ratio. But yeah, again, why should there only be one version of the image? But speaking of the image, this was going to be the point where I come back to it, re-evaluate, and think about what works, what doesn't work, and what I want to change. But this will have to wait for another time, because there is another project that I'm working on right now, which is completely new and something I have never painted before, that I cannot wait to work on. I want to, I have to, and I will. So I'm going to start that project, I'm going to start it in the next video, it's going to be amazing, and I'm also going to finish this one. So it's going to be an unfolding story over the next videos, and you will see how I finish some major projects. So stay tight, let me know in the comments down below what you think about this specific topic, how you like the painting, and yeah, I'll see you in the next video.