Boredom is the number one reason artists get distracted.
Subjects that are very repetitive can be boring when you figure out how to paint them.
I think of this as the “and then you do it again, and then you do it again, and then you do it again”
… you get the point!
Pretty soon you just want to get it over with and this can lead to sloppiness.
Your boredom will show in the painting and people may deem you a “bad artist”
This is where Concentration and Focus come into play
Concentration is the act of giving your attention to a single object or activity
AND
Focus is a main purpose or interest.
To keep yourself from getting distracted you need to create an interesting rhythm of the repeated subject.
Ask yourself: How can I do this differently and where would I change back and use my initial way of treating the subject.
In college they gave us the classic corn on the cob painting assignment.
You had to use creativity, because if you didn’t it would drive you mad painting every kernel. So instead of painting every kernel, you had to decide which specific kernels you were going to paint and how you were going to make them different.
This really makes the idea of creativity very simple.
You are just arranging a cohesive whole of variations and making an interesting rhythm.
This painting is also a great example of maintaining focus and concentration to create an interesting rhythm in a painting.
I realized quickly with Day Review, the featured image above, that I needed to simplify the background. I used various sizes and shape of building like shapes to create a rhythmic background that kept me interested.
