When I first started to paint, I did not know enough to see that more work needed to be done, and would fall short of a polished painting. As I learned more, finishing would become more challenging. First, I would recognize problem areas, but would not be sure what to do about them. With time, when I saw a problem,
I became better at identifying where more work was necessary and what to do about it.
However, a continuing problem is that I get so used to looking at my painting that it becomes difficult to see it with a fresh eye and recognize where more work is appropriate.
My post Glorious Galway Ireland of 11/21/2013 depicts the various stages of change that I went through until I finally "finished" the painting.
The way I have been trying to access the state of my painting is to place them on the mantle in my den when I think they are approaching the finished state. In this way I can keep looking at them as I walk around the house, and hopefully see them with a fresh eye! It also helps that my wife will look a them and give me suggestions.
With my latest painting Twin Lights, I followed this plan, but I discovered another step. After looking at it for a while and doing a number of modifications, I finally photographed the painting and had a new realization.
In general, photographing a painting is tricky business. Generally the images have to be tweaked with iPhoto or photoshop to get them to more accurately depict the original work of art. My first tweaked photo of the Twin Lights painting is shown below.
As shown below, I did two glazes on the water. The first was a glaze of transparent dull green to reflect the large green hill in the background. On top of this green glaze i scumbled some streaks of a dull blue gray to reelect some sky color. This seemed to work pretty well as depicted below.
Well, it is back on the mantle but I think It is about done now. I am just amazed how it takes me time to really see my paintings in all of their details. I am pleased with my progress, but I hope i can get faster at it!!!