Painting what you see...and what you don't!

   I started drawing by copying pictures out of my favorite books when I was little and that was all I drew for many years to come. I always put myself down when I was in high school saying that I wasn't a 'real' artist because I didn't draw from my mind. In my head I was just a glorified photocopier. 
   Mostly because of all that I stuck rigidly to realism (after all, if it wasn't in front of me I couldn't paint it!!). Now imagine my surprise when a few weeks ago my art teacher told me nonchalantly after my fake grapes and been knocked out of place that I wasn't going to paint them like that anyway. I was pretty scared to tell you the truth! But here they are (not one done exactly from life) and lookin' pretty good!!

   Tonight while I was working on my portrait of Thunder I realized I had made things up on her too! Her owner only had two photographs for me to work from because Thunder had already passed away and in both of them her eyes were flashed out.

This is the picture of Thunder I'm working from.

And here are her made-up eyes!

   It's funny how I thought I'd escaped improvisation. The more I thought about it though the more it makes sense. Painting from life is not merely taking a snapshot of whatever's in front of you, that's what makes every artist's work different. When you're using your eyes and your brain it's however you perceive what you're looking at so it can be interpreted millions of ways!