I May Have Ruined It

"I may have ruined it."  This thought goes through my mind every time I'm working on a drawing or painting.  It's inevitable.  I just push the negative thought out of my mind and I see if I can fix it. Or live with it.  As an artist I've always been interested in experimenting with style and technique.  I do tend to stick to the very basics that I've learned over the years but I'm always looking to try and bend or break those rules to create an interesting piece.  This new piece was a bit of a challenge.  I was extremely happy with how the initial watercolor painting turned out in terms of capturing the subject as well as my brush strokes and use of color.  To me, it is proof that the new techniques and study of color theory are helping me advance as an artist.  So my first notion was to call it finished.  However, the painting felt unfinished the more I looked at it. It was nagging at me. So,  I wanted to see if I could push the painting further and create something NEW with it.  I've probably done thousands of figure drawings and paintings over the years.  I have maybe 30 or 40 plaid drawings and paintings from the last 12 years or so.   I wanted to see if mixing in some of my color field/ plaid ideas could create a new and interesting composition.  So I just said to myself, "so what if I wreck it?" I tried something new and hopefully will learn from it.  Without hesitation I drew some light lines over the painting to create a general grid and started playing with acrylic paint, brushes, a pallet knife and some tape.  So I might have ruined it. To some out there I probably did and that's just fine with me.   I'm still happy enough with the work to share it and the experience with the world.

Here it is, with the few photos I took from start to finish-

Watercolor painting from a black and white photo I found online

 

And finished...