Post by O2

Translated from Français

1/4

I realize that I often, but unconsciously, when trying a new style, make "type" of drawings that come in threes. If I try to make a fourth one, then it seems duller, less beautiful in my eyes, as if I had been forced to do it, and in that case, that initial sincerity is gone. Does that happen to you as well?

To illustrate, here are four mosaic-style drawings. The last one is still different; I wouldn't have been able to make something beautiful in my eyes if I had wanted to add the vine, as in the others

Posted 9/2/2026 in Art Critique

3 Comments

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Malcolm TurcotteHuman-Made ArtTop ContributorValued CriticSep 2, 2026

I've hit that wall too. For me it was a series of fog shots along the parkway, three keepers that felt right, then I forced a fourth because I thought I needed more for a show and it just sat there dead on the card. When the push shows, the frame knows. Your instinct to shift the approach on that last one instead of repeating the vine was the right call.

O2Human-Made ArtSep 2, 2026

Translated from Français

Thank you for your comments, I feel less alone in having this impression that three is fine ... I will probably redo this kind of drawing after a break, or a few others in a different style.

What I like about your comments is that you take photographs and not paintings or drawings, which clearly shows that an artist's eye really has similarities regardless of their field of experience.

Thank you again.

Tavares GibsonHuman-Made ArtValued CriticSep 2, 2026

That rhythm where three feels complete and four feels pushed, I recognize it. In the field I've noticed the same pattern with compositions. First frame is discovery, second is refinement, third locks it in. The fourth always felt like I was mining something already extracted.

The mosaic approach works without the vine in that last one because you'd already said what the vine says three times. Forcing it would've been decoration, not structure.