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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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I’m in a quandary as to what to do with the attached watercolour and would welcome advice and views. I’m pleased with the ship and the docks, what has gone wrong is the water, the setting is in London dock in 1962. What the b&w photo shows is the ship reflected in the water, as it had taken me so long I became inpatient and tried to rush the lower half. I tried to correct it and overworked it, so that to me it looks like it’s sat on the mud. Question do I leave it or try overpainting with a darker colour.  All advice, apart from tearing it up, would be welcome 
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Lewis Cooper

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A lot of good work has gone into this, Dixie.  Tearing it up is a definite NO NO!  That's the trouble with working from photos, you can get seduced into putting in stuff better left out or, at least, simplified.  As an experienced fiddler with watercolor I'm often trying to fix stuff that's gone wrong.  Some you win some you lose.  (I suspect this is a walk in the park with oils and acrylic.) It looks a bit like the ship's in dry dock.  My first attempt would be a glaze over with water with a dirty blue.  Very thin, laid on gently, avoid fiddling.  (I expect you do glazing, anyway).  It will pick up some of the underlying color, but sometimes that can help.  I think if that seawater was a dirty blue, even dirty green, it would help. What I sometimes do with my gaffes is to get an idea how it 'MIGHT' look using photoshop.   You may not be able to do that, so I've knocked one out for you....this is just a five minute job, I've laid a transparent layer over the water area (which is what you're trying to do with a glaze).  It's much too smooth and maybe the wrong blue.  You may have to do two glazes, when the first is dry.  I'd forget about a reflection...maybe a nod in that direction would be to stroke some ship colors into the wet glaze.  But 'thin' colors, not attempting to 'draw' the ship's reflection, just hints of color.  Here's the pic...hope you don't mind my fiddling with your painting. (Obviously I've altered the file name.) Better still, wait until a proper watercolorist offers a reply. Good luck anyway, a good painting.
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Lew thanks for your input, it looks better with the blue.  I had thought of using indigo as it would hide a lot but only thin.  Sometimes you just need another set of eye to look at it. I must look at getting photoshop.your a gent sir.

Alan Morris

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Hi Paul.  Apologies but I just couldn’t resist having a go at playing with your fantastic picture!  I have done this quickly in Procreate software and set it to replicate watercolour on top of your existing painting but it might be difficult to replicate it in real life.  
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Like it Alan, as you say it could be difficult to reproduce as you have managed to get some light in there. I will wait and see what other if any come up with, probably end up with a combination of ideas. All good fun and it’s great that people are taking an interest. Thanks for your input.

Sylvia Evans

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Suggest water movement with dry brush and white gouache . 

Alan Bickley

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Paul, whatever direction you take here, avoid a hard edge or line where the hull meets the water, that’s so unnatural. Some good suggestions already, but try and blend in that hard edge, introducing some of the local hull colours into the water, but keeping these fairly dark in general - but no hard edges!
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Thank you Alan I agree that hard edges don’t look good, I tend to try a mix of the water colour and the hull. As you can see from the painting I didn’t manage it at all. Thank Sylvia I’ve never used gouache before, how does it work with watercolour?.  The idea of water movement is good idea as well

Alan Bickley

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Gouache is basically opaque watercolour Paul. Useful for adding body colour where necessary. White gouache in-particular is good for adding small highlights such as say a distant yacht sail or mast.
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Thanks Alan, sound like the white is a useful thing to have around. I have heard of it before but never thought of using it.
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Well at last I have taken the plunge and finished it off. I have avoided doing so as I was fearful of ruining the painting. I used Indigo and put two thin coats of wash over the area I had originally overworked. Not perfect but I’m happy with the outcome, once again thank you all for your advice.