Do a picture, then destroy it

Lucian Freud by Frank Auerbach

Chuck Close by Jim Dine

“The more courageous that I am in destroying partial success, the more likely it is that I will get something alive and true.”

Frank Auerbach

"I do a picture-then I destroy it. In the end, though, nothing is lost: the red I took from one place turns up somewhere else."

"A picture is not thought out and settled beforehand. While it is being done it changes as one's thoughts change. And when it is finished, it still goes on changing, according to the state of mind of whoever is looking at it. A picture lives a life like a living creature, undergoing changes imposed on us by our life from day to day. This is natural enough, as the picture lives only through the man who is looking at it..."

"When you begin a picture, you often make some marvelous incidental effects. You must be on your guard against these. Destroy them, and do the passage over several times. Each time he destroys an incidental effect, the artist does not really suppress it, but rather transforms it, condenses it, and makes it more substantial.”

Pablo Picasso

“I find that often students who struggle with an assignment are inclined to abandon the struggle and begin again. This practice unnerves me…Important learning occurs when a struggle is examined and analyzed, diagnosed, and a prescription offered. Make it work.”

Tim Gunn