Weeks ago, at the beginning of the year, I was ready and
eager to start work on the Mackintosh figure. I decided to
paint the face first .....and almost immediately found myself
sinking deeper and deeper into the 'you-know-what'. It's
taken me all this time to dig my way out.
When I first began painting figures,1/30th scale was par
for the course - Historex stuff of that size used to roll off
the brushes at the rate of knots. Now, half a century on
and not surprisingly having to rely on hefty magnification,
it's all rather different. Whether it was a simple failure of
concentration, or some kind of self induced pressure,
or that I was just plain scared of it, I have no idea - but
I could not for the life of me paint this face ! No fewer than
eight attempts were made and each time the results were
so bad that the only thing to do was clean off the mess
and start over. Time after time it not only stalled momentum
but insidiously created a crisis of confidence which made
me believe that working at this scale was no longer possible
for an old fart like me. The frustration of trying to overcome
this seemingly insurmountable problem and knowing full
well that I was perfectly capable but just unable to find a
way through, was too much and for a long time I was lost.
I wish I could boast that the calm and patient persistence
that is supposed to come to us with age saved the day,
but in the end it took nine attempts and a completely
immature world class temper tantrum before I finally
pulled my
bloody finger out and got the
bloody thing
done !!!! The notion of a 73 year old throwing his toys
out of the pram is absurd I know, but it did the trick and
with a return of confidence I was able at last to get on.
So...more in a few days
Mike
