PROCESS: the goodest boy // nsfw

the process pack of this image - download the attached .zip below, containing 14 pngs and 1 gif! 

this painting comes with a story about trying to stop being a perfectionist. close to being finished with it i realised that parts of layla's anatomy looks a bit wonky - primarily that the angles of her torso and lower body don't quite match up. i managed to make it look a bit better (steps 11 --> 12), but it still looks kind of off to me. the thing is, fully fixing the anatomy issues would take a lot of time and work. i would have to re-draw stuff, essentially "wasting" a bunch of hours re-doing parts of the painting that i have already spent so much time working on. i decided that i didn't want to get stuck obsessing about it, that i'd rather move on to other projects, and that it's good enough as it is, despite its flaws.

being able to 'let go' of an imperfect painting is actually a huge step for me. every artist is their own worst critic, and on top of that i have OCD. i easily spend a lot of time obsessing about things, which sometimes results in me getting less stuff done than if i could content myself with "good enough". but lately i've kept a few cheesy motivational sayings in mind, mainly 'better done than perfect.' i still strive to do my best with every painting, but i'm also learning that sometimes you gotta just cut your losses and move on with your life. being able to accept that 'good enough *is* good enough' feels a lot better than getting obsessive/anxious about it. (and shoutout to kubi for supporting me in learning to adopt this mindset. <3) 

and besides, even with the anatomy issues, i'm happy with the piece in general. the bright, playful colour scheme is kind of unusual for me so it was great fun to experiment with. i originally intended to colour it in a much more simplistic style, but then it somehow turned out more painterly and i kind of just went with it. i'm also really fond of the odd juxtaposition of some very stylised parts (such as layla's fluff) on the one hand, and some more realistically rendered parts (especially harsha's skin) on the other. i don't know why, but i like contrasts like that, and often do them on purpose.

i feel like i learned a lot from doing this painting, and i hope you'll find the process steps useful as well!

// art + layla © me; harsha © kubi.