Haying Abandoned

I hadn’t intended to introduce a UFO into this project, but my indelible black ink pen exploded. And just when I was beginning to think it might turn out okay...I suppose it does give the boy something to look at...

Oh well—off to the abandoned projects file with it…

Haying: Progress—Sort Of

Well, this is a woeful pace I’m working at—but it’s all I got. Todd’s been hovering over my shoulder saying, “Now, remember about overworking it—what have you learned from past experiences?” To which I reply, “ta not ta” (but I don’t really mean it).

It turns out my brown ‘waterproof’ ink is not so waterproof—(I think a waterproof ink should have a longer-than-twenty-year shelf life before it starts breaking down). Well, at least hay looks brownish at harvest time. At this point, it’s hard for me to take this piece seriously, so at least I’m not all in a bunch over it anymore. I’m just posting this so you won’t think I hacked it to bits or lined the proverbial hamster cage with it. I think I’ll just call it what it is—experimental—and play with some more color and then call it done. To be honest, I’m itching to start something more along the lines of my usual—just have to find the right subject…

…and I don’t know what happened over there on the right-hand horizon—okay, well, I do know what happened but I don’t feel like elaborating…
 
...and I sort of fixed the problem grass under the guys arm—not that anyone but me notices...

I’m Kinda Regretting This One…

…maybe it’s just that point I get to in most projects where I feel dissatisfied, but I’m not liking the way this is turning out. I don’t like that clump of trees on the horizon, it's a pointless interruption. And I messed up on the grass under the harvester’s extended arm; it should match the rest of the grass at that distance—I guess I just wasn’t thinking. With indelible in, there simply isn't any getting rid of it...



I don’t know…maybe if I add some color. To be honest, I feel like canning it…

I Botched!

Yes, it’s true, the nose has been scrubbed out. That’s because it didn’t look quite right to me, and by 'not quite right' I mean it looked 'short'—too much upper lip. So I measured it and I was a full 2mm off! Yikes—on a small painting (8"x 11"), that’s a lot.

Here’s where watercoloring gets tricky, and is unlike painting with oil or acrylic. You can’t just wipe out a mistake and start over (my husband will attest to this: he just finished a portrait of me [my head, on a John Singer Sargent] and I ended up looking like an orange on a toothpick! Okay, that’s an exaggeration—it wasn’t off by much, but we kept looking at it and felt as if something was ‘off.’ The solution? ‘Wipe’ it out and try again [which he did, and I’m all better, now])

Not so easy with watercolor. I can scrub or scrape depending on how much paint is down, and whether or not the color is ‘permanent.’ In this case, I scrubbed with a wet brush—it removes not only paint, but paper also, which is dicey. Then, I let it dry thoroughly, and as it’s doing so, scan it and post it for the world to see. Hopefully, I’ll be able to redeem myself; if not—well, that’s just the way it goes…and you get to watch…

...Stay tuned for the ‘nose rescue’ and the photo from which I’m working…