The Little People

I posted earlier about my "Stick" figures. Since I have been recovering from a small incident, I have more time (than I can ever remember) to paint. I always pay attention to comments, both positive and not, folks make about my pieces. Lately, my small paintings of people have been very popular.  Some of these are  stick people and others not. The characters just come to me.  However one thing I have learned is, generally, if I have a specific idea, it never works out. But like Violet, the Dowager Countess said, Life is getting past the unexpected. But, then she also said Machiavelli is overrated, but I digress.

Take the painting of a gentlemen, "The Dandy" . When I sat down to paint, the colors did not turn out as I first imagined. I finished the little man and walked away.  Then I thought "How will anyone realize that is a man?" So I added the hat.  Hours later, I added the bow tie. The next morning I thought there was something else missing, so I added a boutonniere. That did not work, the attempt looked like a messy dot.  It was removed.

Sitting back, I realized the little man looked like a dandy.  But he needed something else. The bare arms looked stupid on a man with a bowler hat and bow tie, so I added sleeves.  Now I needed to photograph the piece. Looking at the image, it still needed something. A pocket square did the trick.  (Which probably goes unseen by most.) 

So a little man with a blank face and bare arms ended up as "The Dandy".  Talk about a work in progress. However, he was the lucky one.  Many attempts end up painted over or tossed.