How To Ruin a Painting
I wanted to keep this first wash abstract, using pigments that separate–to create texture without actually painting texture; to show reality without the painting looking like a photograph.
The second step was to establish the center of interest, and shape and form. Fortunately the first two steps worked out, which doesn’t always happen!
At that point, one of my students said “leave it alone, you’re done.” I hadn’t even started the planned Step 3. So I stopped, put my brush down, and we engaged in a discussion of “when is a painting completed?”
the tree on the left a little larger. The area in the middle ground on the right looked like a vertical plane, not like “ground”, so I had to add some change of value to create a more horizontal plane.
Because it was a demo, and not a complete painting, I stopped with those simple changes. Ideally, I would have added more form and detail in the upper tree branches.
So far, so good.