Good advice, I think

Putting this under this heading because there are good contributions on other more obvious threads which I don't want to disrupt. Alan Bickley - now; we all know, or should know, that he's one of the finest painters on this site, and that his advice is backed up by years of practice and sound experience.  I think a point he made a while ago is very worth emphasizing.  He said, in so many words, work all over the painting; don't finish bits, and then move on to other bits - because if you do, your painting could resemble either painting by numbers or a jigsaw (I paraphrase fairly heavily). This came to me today as I looked at a painting and realized it wasn't finished - so I went back in and repainted part of it (I won't say which part, because I want to show it soon and don't want you to be looking at one part of it).   I THINK I might have begun to get it right, but at this point I simply can't tell: I look at the painting, and all I can see is the repainted part (more added to than repainted, in truth - but it wasn't done at the same time as the rest of the painting in that it wasn't developed at the same pace).  Alan will know as soon as he sees it, drat  him!   But maybe others won't be able to tell the new parts of the picture from the older bits. If I'd brought the whole thing together as a unified whole (and is there anyone out there who doesn't understand how hard that is to do?) I could see the picture in its entirety without being distracted by one bit.  I shall leave it for a day or two, determinedly refuse to look at it, and (as usually happens) will be able to see if it's worked or not,  or whether a bit more work is required.   And that's the advice I'd like to leave with you - charge in too soon to change things, or at any rate make a big change and then feel forced to make others, and you're likely to go wrong - let the hotpot stew for a bit before coming back to it; in this case, I've started on a small painting, with a somewhat different palette, to turn my mind elsewhere until I can go back for a dispassionate look.  

Yers well - I've more or less finished the smaller painting, but damned if I can see as yet what's wrong with the bigger one; so, so much for THAT theory, eh?  More time required, I think!  Tell you what, though (What? what?  Don't tease us!  Patience.....)  I used Manganese Blue (Hue) in my second, much smaller, painting = now: that's a version of Pthalo Blue, because you can't get genuine Manganese any more; but it's an interesting blue (in this case from Winsor and Newton); tending to green, but nowhere near so strongly as Pthalo Blue) - it makes great greens, with a bit of yellow.  And - I offer this guidance entirely for free, it works very well with Michael Harding's Yellow Lake.    I've never used or believe in using just one paint-maker's colours: for the moment, I combine W & N, Daler-Rowney Artists' oils, and Michael Harding, supplemented by the clear and clean colours of the Michael Wilcox School of Colour.  I've never used Old Holland, Rublev, Williamsburg, and I'm running out of years!  I'll get there; if I have to live to 100, I'll use the lot eventually.....

That was two years ago - since then I've used Rublev, Wallace Seymour, but still not Old Holland and Williamsburg - not so much a matter of choice for not using those two, or even of price:  I just haven't yet wandered in that direction.  

Two brands I still haven't used (Williamsburg and Old Holland): a friend of mine, now tragically deceased, used Old Holland among other paints - I remember a Golden Barok Red, and thought - I've got to get some of that!.  But as yet I haven't.  I have a feeling that Williamsburg is owned by the Golden Paint Co; it's certainly a US brand, and Golden make fine acrylics;   Martin - do let us know how you get on with the whites.   I have used the Wallace Seymour, which Alan mentions, on which he's writing a report - it is indeed excellent; and I've used Rembrandt, another Dutch brand (from the Royal Talens company - they also make the slightly less top of the range Van Gogh paints).  And I agree it IS good - as is their watercolour range - the blues, in particular, have such a heavy pigment load they make other brands look grey.   I feel a very strong urge to go shopping....