Painting at the Museum

Last Sunday, our local urban sketchers group went to the Neanderthal Museum Mettmann. It is the site, where the human fossil of the same was found in 1856. Several of us were able to show off an unbelievable amount of creative output, whereas I only worked on this watercolor painting.

Lately, I am concentrating on nailing overall forms and proportions first. I still catch myself diving straight into interesting details. But what is the use of a well-drawn nose when it sits too high and so does not resemble the model. For more than two hours I studied the tent and the Neanderthalian preparing his prey. Having ten minutes left on the clock, working on last details of the hide above the entrance, it struck me! I already did feel, that the structured forms and placed shadows were somehow strange for what I thought it was. And only because of an unintentional visual zoom-out, I realized: Man, this is the head of a bison!

See, even if it is your deliberate intention to follow a thought-through plan, sometimes habits are hard to break. It is practice that will help you leaving those old, wrong-proved paths.