Reviewing artwork you think might be finished is just as important to the drawing process as any other part. At least, that’s been my experience. In today’s post, I’m going to describe my review process, and then explain why it’s so important.
Reviewing Artwork You Think Might be Finished
It is, of course, important to review your progress as you work on a piece. Whether you do that every day, once a week, or only when you encounter a problem, it is important to step back and evaluate your work.
No matter what the subject or how long it takes to finish, the last thing I do is a review.
The Final Review
I display my works-in-progress in a way that allows me to look at them periodically when I’m not working on them. They hang on a wall where I see them when I pass through the room. If I’m sitting at my computer thinking, my gaze often goes to those pieces, as well. So I’m seeing them in contexts other than as drawing projects. That is a major help in recognizing problem areas. It’s also helpful in deciding what to do next if I’m not certain.
When I think a drawing is finished, I set it aside for a few days, then look at it again. The reason for the delay is so that I can see the artwork the same way a visitor to a gallery might see it: For the first time.
Obviously, I’m not seeing it for the first time, but I have had time away from it. If I’ve worked on another piece during the delay, all the better.
That was the case with this portrait. I put it away on a Friday and moved it to another room where it was almost completely out of sight. When I finally took a good look at this portrait again, it had been two full days since I last saw it and nearly three days since I last worked on it.
How a Review Works
When I review artwork this way, I ask myself two basic questions.
Does the artwork look the way I want it to look?
If not, what do I need to do to make it look the way I want it to look?
There are other questions for more general artwork, but they didn’t really apply to this portrait.
The short answer to the first question was no. This portrait didn’t look the way I really wanted it to look. I knew what was needed and was fairly certain I could do the work. But before I went any further, I had to ask one more question specific to this portrait.
Is there enough information in the reference photo to make corrections or adjustments?
You see, the original photo showed the horse in shade and with long winter hair. Some of the details I like to put into horse portraits apply only to sleek, shiny hair. I didn’t have that.
I could have guessed about where the highlights should be, but there was a risk of turning this particular horse into a generic horse. To my way of thinking, tinkering just wasn’t worth the risk.
But the biggest shortcoming was the silver on the halter. The buckles and rings looked good, but the adornments on the cheek strap and nose band didn’t. I found another well-lighted photo of a horse wearing the same halter, but the lighting was different and the light source was in a different place.
Once again, I had to decide whether or not to do a little more tinkering. This time, the tinkering would be on a subject that I wasn’t all that familiar with. So it all came down to this:
Was the risk of ruining the portrait worth the chance of improving it?
That was an easy decision. The answer was no.
This is the finished portrait.
Reviewing Artwork You Think Might be Finished
In the end, my final review revealed that the portrait was as accurate as I could make it. I could have made small adjustments to the areas I pointed out above, but the amount of time and effort it would take outweighed the improvements. When I added the risk of damaging or ruining the portrait, my decision was easy to make.
The final review doesn’t always turn out this way. There have been times when I found areas that needed improvement. In those situations, I worked on the artwork a little longer, then reviewed it again.
This is the point I want to make. I’ve found it very helpful to do a final review on a drawing that looks finished. Sometimes, that extra hour or two of review and reworking makes all the difference in the world.
This post is the final installment on a series of posts published in 2025. All the previous links are below if you missed any of them or would like to read them again in sequence. It’s a good way to get an in-depth look at my working process one post at a time.
Previous Posts in This Series
Drawing a Digital Grid on a Reference Photo
Drawing a Horse with an Umber Underdrawing
Drawing a Horse with Verithin Glazing
Drawing Leather with Colored Pencils
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