When I started to paint fish magnets again I thought this would be a super cinch. I’ve painted thousands of them in the past and it all worked. What I didn’t factor in was that I had changed artistically over the years, and as I started to recreate the same patterns and colors from the past in my studio last week, something wasn’t working for me. I was scratching my head. These all worked before and now I feel like something was not quite right. What changed?
I bought new paints, new colors, and tried new things. With a complex shape like my fish skeletons, there is only so much one can do with a design concept before is starts looking too busy and unfocused and the design takes away from the shape.
Going through my catalog of fish styles, I came to the conclusion: that I didn’t like a lot of them. I think I pushed it too far at times back then and that was when I realized it is not necessary to continue coming up with new design ideas—although it is tempting to go there and feel the need to continue inventing. Sometimes, sticking with the tried and true, but swapping out an element like a new color scheme, is all it takes.
And that was it! New colors breathed new life into what I felt needed a refresh.
Then there were the paints. There was so much I took for granted when I was creating the magnets before and now, starting up again, I was discovering I had to re-understand the behavior of the paints I was using: tempura, acrylic, house paints from Home Depot. They are all somewhat different depending on the color due to the pigment used and type of paint. This was critical.
In addition, I had transitioned from brushes to squeeze bottles at one point, a wonderful change that that sped up production immensely and allowed me to churn out more fish more quickly using the bottles vs. a paint brush.
However, paint coming out of squeeze bottles could, be temperamental and crack when it dried, so I needed to test each color to see how it performed by creating “dots” and “lines” of paint squeezed out onto the fish and then mark the bottles to remember.
Paint, design, colors, I didn’t expect a learning process at this point, but creation is always filled with surprises. I’ve learned to always expect the unexpected with my art and go with it.
My fish magnets are evolving, a happy surprise! And now I think it is all working.
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