Picture of the Day - Big Ben Sketch

This sketch of Big Ben with Westminster Abbey in the foreground took four years to get right. After taking the photograph in London, I knew I wanted to turn it into one of my paintings.

I painted it over and over again, never being satisfied with the outcome. Every time I would learn a new technique or get a new software painting program, I would try a new version....never getting it right to my eye. The tree on the left continued to cause problems, but it was an element I wanted to keep in the picture.

I did another painting of it a year ago, using Corel's Painter software and I sort of liked it, but decided to sit on it and look at it occasionally to see if I would like it better over time. I do this a great deal with all my work. In this case, I forgot about it for almost a year.

A month ago I pulled it up again and after staring at it for a little while, then doing a test print, I thought it was the best it was ever going to get, but I still didn't want to exhibit it. Then I thought about taking it as it was and turning it into a black a white sketch.

Now, I love doing digital black and white sketches of some of my work, but, to be honest, they are not good sellers. Sketches are just never as popular as paintings. But, for this work, I thought the latest version of this painting would be more interesting if turned into a b&w sketch. So, I took the painting and worked it and worked it until I had good sketch.

Personally, I like it a great deal, although I have no hopes of it ever being a best seller. Frankly, I don't much care as I am happy with it now and I can finally put this problem to bed, so to speak. An artist who wants to make a living selling his pictures almost always has to balance what the public wants to spend its money on versus what makes him or her happy.

I will let you in on another secret...I have works that I just hate that sell fairly well and others that I love that almost never sell. Then, there is the happy medium where a work I like does sell well.