When we look at a finished painting, we rarely imagine everything that happened before: the hesitation, the corrections, the moments when something suddenly stops working.
In this video, I show you a painting while it is still being built, and especially that moment when the drawing loses its balance… and how I correct it.
When a Drawing Stops Working
It often happens that a drawing suddenly stops working.
You can feel it quite quickly: something is wrong.
The proportions feel strange, the image loses its balance, and the drawing no longer feels coherent.
In the painting I show in this video, that’s exactly what happened.
As the work progressed, I realized that the proportions were no longer right: the head had become too large and the body too small. The drawing had lost its balance.
In moments like this, the most important thing is to stop and observe.
Not to continue automatically.
Learning to See the Errors in a Drawing
Many people think that artists simply get their drawings right from the beginning.
In reality, a large part of the work consists of seeing what doesn’t work.
This ability develops over time:
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observing proportions
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sensing when the image loses its balance
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understanding what needs to be corrected
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rebuilding the drawing step by step
This kind of observation is what allows a fragile drawing to become a stronger image.
A Painting in Progress
In the video below, I show you this precise moment in the process.
You will see how I go back into the drawing to correct the proportions, redefine certain lines and rebuild a stronger structure.
The Fragile Moment in a Painting
There is always a delicate moment in the construction of an image.
It’s the point where the drawing begins to appear, but where everything can still change.
If we add too much information, the image can lose its strength.
If we add too little, it remains fragile.
Finding this balance is part of the work.
And it is also what makes drawing and painting such a fascinating process.
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Developing Your Eye
Learning to draw is not only about making lines on paper.
It is also about learning to:
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observe more carefully
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understand proportions
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analyze what you see
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experiment with different approaches
This is also the spirit behind Expressive Horse Art, the course I created for artists who want to deepen their understanding of drawing horses and develop a more confident artistic process.