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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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I have put this under the watercolour header rather than work in progress as I’m using watercolour but the topic is relevant to any medium. I’ve been watercolour painting now for very long time, and still learning, don’t think we ever stop learning, as we are always wanting to improve and do thing better. There are several things that I’ve found difficult over the years and slowly I develop the skill and knowledge to overcome most of them, that doesn’t mean that I feel comfortable tackling certain things. I still feel uncomfortable when I paint woodlands due to all the different greens silly I know as I paint woodlands and landscape often. One of the things that I admire is artists get reflections on water , such a challenging process I find so today I decided to but the anxiety away and get on with a watercolour of trees reflecting in water . What a silly thing to do and do it on the forum as well the dreaded greens and reflections, must be loosing the plot . My basic sketch with some base colours. I’ve lost the photos of the initial stage this has a bit of detail on it . As I have said before I tend to get bored very quick and will fiddle with the work I’m doing, I off set this by having other work on the go , these are my time out from the challenging work.
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Had a very good afternoon and managed to get some more work done started to add some detailing on the right hand side , unusual as I mostly work left to right when adding detail. 

Denise Cat

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Looks like it's coming along nicely Paul.
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Thank you Denise , I’m pleased with the progress so far , in fact it’s looking better than I thought it would. I’ve done a little more just now but as I’m starting to worry a bit about the reflections I going to leave it today before I start fiddling around with it , fresh look tomorrow or next day will make a difference. Sometimes I think we are to close to what we are working on and need to just let it go for a short while.  Closed in the sky with light yellow green so that the darker leave in the foreground will stand out against the background light.
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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I have done a little bit more, wasn’t happy with the reflections so I wet the area  and removed them by dabbing of with a tissue. Instead of trying to do everything at the same time I will close up the foliage on the left side and the  concentrate on the reflection, I should have done that originally I think .
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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I’ve made a change to the bank , originally I had a stream coming in from the right side towards the top of the painting , it just didn’t look right to me as it appeared to come from a sloping angle. Will continue with it tomorrow afternoon and dork in the reflections, not with a lot of confidence I might add.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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One of the more cutting remarks I ever received was from a photographer of my acquaintance - it went something like "very clever, the way you avoided having to paint the reflections.....".  And of course, I had ducked them - he was quite right.  The picture sold, though, so I felt a bit better about it.   There are various ways of painting reflections in oil, acrylic, or watercolour: some like painting them on a dried surface, some like to wet the paper - with water, or oil, or whatever considering the paint you're using.  Just tell yourself you've done it before, you can do it again, and confidence is something most of us lack when approaching a technique we've rarely used before, but you'll know you have to go in there and just damn' well do it, not being so nervously careful that you use too small brushes and too cautious an approach. In short - you can do it!
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Thanks Robert, it’s one of those things that fret about it  then pick up the brushes and get on with it , then think what was all the fuss about. It will be be either a success or a total failure but it the doing and trying that keeps it interesting, the learning process is always good .
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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I’m at risk of fiddling with this one of I don’t stop now , I’ve changed the reflections in the water so much it’s going to look like a muddy puddle. I think it’s worked but will leave it alone , have a look in a couple of hours and probably post it in the gallery if I’m happy with it.

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by Paul (Dixie) Dean