When Do You Know A Work Is Finished? The Struggle, Perfectionism, And Interest

When I still did digital photography, I was never 100% sure when something was finished.

Now I do analog/hybrid photography and it is easy. I do everything “in camera” and during developing, scan the negatives, clean them up a little bit, some dodging and burning ( like in the darkroom), and after printing “as is”, I am done.

Btw, I don’t point and shoot. Sometimes is takes me a long time before I release the shutter.

When i'm tired looking at it. If my mind drifts to the next thing, its time to wrap it up. If the issues are glaring i'll fix it, and tweak it here and there but you can't over do it and most people won't notice the issue anyway. I want perfection but the -- its good enough -- clause will kick in and that's that.


---Mike Savad

It is okay Stephen, if you would like images, that is okay

This morning at the Life Drawing group, it was decided to have, instead of the three 20 minute separate pose periods, the same pose for all those three periods

In order to have one 60 minute piece.

Since I was working with Watercolor, my work turned to mud

Oh how I wished it was oil paint


By the way, this is one time I Won't be showing what I'm talking about

I make an effort not to overwork my pastels. Colors can get muddy if you do that. I generally decide I'm finished when I don't see anything that I feel strongly compelled to change. Sometimes you just have to call it done unless you want to be picking at it forever. I know it's difficult because I'm a perfectionist. I try very hard to allow some imperfections to linger. As for turning it into digital form, I try to get my scans as close to the original as possible. The only thing I really edit besides tweaking color to match what I see, is that I will go over it at about 2X magnification a couple of times and clone out lint or a spot that shows on the scan but isn't so noticeable on the original. I also scan my work at a higher resolution than the original so it can be printed larger.

I believe great quotations teach us a lot with few words . These are some of my favs as l apply to my art.

“I will not change an error if it feels right. For an error is more human than perfection.” David Smith sculptor

“Perfection is a flawed concept.” - unknown.

To keep from overworking a piece…
“Stop painting when you think you’re 80% done.” - again Unkown

And last but not least…..”TRUST THE PROCESSS!” Which applies to many things in life as well as life itself. Imho. 😉

When you know, you know.

And then years later I will come back to an image and see something I hadn't noticed before and make changes. I do that a lot and replace many images here.

It takes two to paint. One to paint, the other to stand by with an axe to kill him before he spoils it.

--- William Merritt Chase

sometimes it is good to let it just sit there, give it a week or so and then you look at it again with fresh eyes

I agree with Nina about putting it away sometimes and looking at it with “fresh eyes”.

This is a painting I just had a hard time figuring how to finish it. I put it away for about 6 months and when I came across it, while cleaning out my studio,I immediately “saw the light” and finished it.

Thanks, Abbie!

Participants, I do ask that if you post images that they be accompanied by relevant discussion, like Bill's.

As for me, my answer is similar to Mike's - when I'm tired of taking yet another look at it and fixing things. But I really should let it rest for a while instead of uploading right away, as I do tend to find stuff that bother's me later.

A follow up question: Do you ever completely abandon a work? Like Bill, I've had things that I've left sitting for a long time before I return to finish them. But I've also had things that I decided just weren't working at all, at which point I either brainstorm ideas to turn them into something else, or just delete them (a perk of being all-digital.)

Also, my thanks to everyone who has contributed to the discussion so far.

I never know until it's ruined.

I think it was Michelangelo who said, “Hey, they can’t all be masterpieces! “

No, just kidding. It could have been Yogi Berra.

But it is true, nay?

I've done what Jessica mentioned, that is finishing a painting several years after I'd already finished it, or at least thought I had. I think the biggest gap between my first finished version and my final finished version was around four years, with my painting The Hawk and the Ravine. The only thing I changed for the final finished version was to add more trees to the line of trees in the middle ground, on the left hand side of the painting. That wasn't much, but I thought it helped balance the thing out, even if it wasn't completely topographically and botanically accurate:



But that's nothing compared to Charles Burchfield, with his painting Autumnal Fantasy, which he initially "finished" in 1916, when he was in his 20's, only - after putting it away, thinking it actually was finished - to finish it a second (and final) time, in 1944, almost 30 years later, when he was in his 50's. It's a painting I've been fortunate enough to see in person, so to speak, many years ago. And my local art museum, Munson, in Utica, NY, will be having a Burchfield exhibition in May of the upcoming year, so maybe I'll get to see it again. I sure hope so, because it really is a wonderful painting.

Wish I could have seen the 1916 version, just for curiosity's sake.

I never fully know what some work will lead to.
For example, this

And this

And this

And this

Became this

And this will most likely appear in future films and games.

For me it really depends on what I am working on but I seem to have the most trouble when I am doing minimalist stuff.

I usually save it in stages so if I go too far I can back up and undo it.

Examples here which I did post all of them but I think I should have stopped with the third one. But I created them for a 4 day challenge so I needed the 4th one. it is my least favorite though, I think the window frame was just too much.

Then I have miraculous times when it is no struggle at all. The piece just comes together and I look at it and say... that's it!

I have completely abandoned many works. They still live on my hard drive and sometimes I consider giving them another try but usually I will just sit there and stare at it wondering what I was thinking in the first place. LOL

(I should explain for anyone who doesn't know me... I am a digital artist and use only my computer and software ((mostly GIMP)) to create my artwork) My computer is my studio and my hard drive is where I store my bits and pieces. )

Sometimes it's hard to know. I was busy painting in all the spaces with a dark color when the phone rang and dinner was ready. So I stopped.

I'm glad I did.

I agree with Lisa - when it's ruined.

But, I usually take a 'work in process' and hang it at the bottom of stairs so I can see it. Often, I know there is something that 'needs to be fixed' and staring at it over a couple of days/weeks I can figure it out (or ruin it and wash it off).

Sometimes a second opinion is needed.

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