My latest with this was a still life of some bottles and an apple. I was so tickled and having such fun as I painted. The background was drawn as filmy curtains and I was thinking how great they'd look as I went along.
The apple was the most fun part of the whole thing. I layered it carefully so that the colors added together would make a complex red, just like a real apple. (why do I keep doing this "real" thing?) Wet into wet with yellow, green and rose, they blended just right-
Here is a detail of the colors after they dried.
Add a touch of violet for shadow areas-
Then over the apple area with a warm red- that was so fun to watch I just danced a jig around my easel!
I wanted a wrinkled table cloth, between the sharp lines of that and the flowing, organic lines of the curtain, there would be a nice contrast. Well, it didn't work out that way! The curtain lines made the whole thing too busy, much too busy. The apple was no longer popping out, the glass didn't shine and undulate and I was so upset I forgot to take a picture of the whole mess! I grabbed raw umber (no, I have no idea why) and decided to darken the area. Oh NO, bigger disaster! From dancing a jig to lying on the floor in despair, do we suffer for our art??? LOL, yes..)
After I calmed down, you know, the miracle of "just walk away" I realized I could change the whole piece and maybe save it. I mixed the ultramarine blue I had already used with the red and green on my palette and began to darken the background. I had to add darkness into the bottle areas, too, and it turned out okay. You CAN change a disaster into a useable piece often times.
A painting teacher once told me that even if I felt I had ruined a piece, finish everything. EVERYthing. You will 1. Learn more from your mistakes and 2. You never know when you can pull it out of the ruined state into something interesting. I have found that advice to be very true!
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