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Airing my mistake
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Message
Posted
I decided to post this as a demonstration that sometimes a painting can be recovered from what I can only call stupidity for not planing .
I recently post a painting on the gallery call London Docks 1950s , based on a few online photos with my own ideas added this is the initial sketch and one with some base colours.
I then started to build up the painting
And at this stage I just added more colour.
Suddenly woke up to the fact it wasn’t going to work , simply because I had not planned what the sky would look like, made it up as I went along .
Panic sets in and you can’t see anything but the horrible mess that’s the sky .
Sketch a friend who said too much purple , right on plus I don’t normally work in such bright colours anyway .
Bin it and start again or go for a very dark sky , simple wet the whole sky are and dab off the most of the colour, so I did just that
Then I use a wet mop brush and gently wipe across the area with clean water and dried it off with a tissue. I then drew in the ig crane on the right as was intended, the darkened it with black paint and a rigger .
I was still of the mind it wasn’t worth posting and decided to show it to Alan Bickley who made a positive comment, so that the story behind this painting.
Why post it here, well for several reason , one plan your work and only make necessary changes, 2 do ask the opinion of people you trust , 3 don’t just give up as we always say put it aside for another day. Hope this helps you at some point . And thanks to all of you who gave me the confidence I need to see this as a reasonable painting eventually.
I then started to build up the painting
And at this stage I just added more colour.
Suddenly woke up to the fact it wasn’t going to work , simply because I had not planned what the sky would look like, made it up as I went along .
Panic sets in and you can’t see anything but the horrible mess that’s the sky .
Sketch a friend who said too much purple , right on plus I don’t normally work in such bright colours anyway .
Bin it and start again or go for a very dark sky , simple wet the whole sky are and dab off the most of the colour, so I did just that
Then I use a wet mop brush and gently wipe across the area with clean water and dried it off with a tissue. I then drew in the ig crane on the right as was intended, the darkened it with black paint and a rigger .
I was still of the mind it wasn’t worth posting and decided to show it to Alan Bickley who made a positive comment, so that the story behind this painting.
Why post it here, well for several reason , one plan your work and only make necessary changes, 2 do ask the opinion of people you trust , 3 don’t just give up as we always say put it aside for another day. Hope this helps you at some point . And thanks to all of you who gave me the confidence I need to see this as a reasonable painting eventually.
Posted
You couldn't have asked a better person for advice, and it's clearly paid off. Planning a watercolour is a lot more difficult than planning an oil or acrylic, because watercolour doesn't always do what you think it'll do - that's probably true of any paint, but especially watercolour. By slowing down, giving yourself time, and asking for the advice of someone you trust, you have indeed pulled it round.
Posted
Definitely worth showing and asking someone what they think about a painting that you have doubts about , by showing it to Alan who confirmed that it looked ok I decided to post it . Had he said it’s needed remedial work then it was the bin , I liked the layout and the general colours it was just the sky and that totally ruled my view , I was a lot happier with the toned down version but because of my initial reaction couldn’t see any with in the painting.
Posted
Lynda thank you for your comment, it’s worth posting to get your opinion ,knowing it was worthwhile and might help you has made my day . Do post Work in progress as it help other members to see his you do things , well all do it slightly different and how you might make changes as you go along to overcome mistakes or just to improve the look .
We never stop learning and this site is a great place to learn from each other, the person who thinks the know all unfortunately know little
Posted
Well it worked out well for you in the end and you learned from the experience. With a watercolour that has a sky I usually start by putting that in first possibly with only the horizon line as a sketch then if it doesn't work I haven't wasted much time on it. Since I painted with watercolour for over 20 years before using other medias, my problem now is that I address these other medias as if corrections are not possible. I usually have to remind myself that I can correct an oil painting that is in progress.