Developing this painting has been more lesson on do’s and don’t’s I think than of completing a finished work, though I also think I’m gonna have to call this one done and move on.

Looking at the image sequence from top to bottom, working from finish back to my start, I can see several “things” I’d’ve done differently.

Most obvious now is I shoulda left a larger cleaner – ie, less textured – area for both the figure and her pets. More like I did do with a recent acrylic work, Testing the Water –

And actually, the figure image itself fit (mostly) ok in the space I’d left less textured, but her 2 dogs didn’t, lol! And isn’t like pets in general, messy, pesky, and can’t do without? 😊

And I coulda make the figure and two pets smaller, but this time I was determined to have a size I felt more comfortable with —

Something I realized I wanted and needed when working with the watercolor paper version of the figure in “Testing the Water” –

Another thing I realized was, I need to be even less restrained by my original line art or photo –

And more focused on what I like creating, which is the figure itself; ie, I need a lot more practice on pets before they’ll be able to become integral parts of my paintings. Eventually though, yes, be nice to include them 💕

Right now, 16×20 is a very good size for me to work with, hopefully to expand the size of my figure even more so, continuing to search for and find my optimum figure size to enjoy working on; then (also eventually) size up my size canvas or paper to do the size figure I want, plus add in interesting landscape, even if abstracted, or even if heavily impressionistic. That’ll be nice 😊

Maybe even fit in a more fully abstracted impressionistic figure and surroundings, like “Summer is a Lady” below, on my current 16x20s –

I can’t deny I’m disappointed with my (hopefully) final rendition of “Fantasy Walk” – but absent doing a 2nd exact version, or reapplying light absorbent ground on areas I’m unhappy with & repainting those, neither idea tempting me – at all, I’m happy with what I created. Not thrilled blindingly in love, lol! But happy 😊 Sometimes that has to be enough, for now 💕

Keep searching for “that” image each time, even if in a secret sacred place only you knows exists. It’s a faint piece of something whole within us all we always seek ♥️

Adan

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• September 25, 2021 – Walking in Dappled Light Study 1, #Watercolor on Paper, CompletedSeptember 25, 2021
  Not much difference between the previous post’s study version and the completed version above. As you can tell, from the 2nd duo sets of contrasts below, all I did was soften the upper slanting line separating red and white on the lady’s back. But for me, it….
• September 24, 2021 – New Most Viewed Image For the Week @FineArtAmerica, Ridges of Spring Light, #watercolor, painted late 2019September 24, 2021
  I’ve recently been including Ridges of Spring Light in several of my blog posts about dappled light and masking fluid, not because it was meant to “be” dappled light, or that I used masking fluid creating it, though it does have three distinct areas of canvas (coated with absorbent ground to accept watercolors). No, Ridges of Spring Light contains a sense of dappleness, often created with masking fluid, and I used that image here to illustrate the idea that a variable sense of light sometimes just comes about, even in an abstract.
• September 23, 2021 – Walking in Dappled Light Study 1, #Watercolor on Paper, Masking Fluid RemovedSeptember 23, 2021
  There’s a lot I like about how this looks with the masking fluid gone (removed prev night and slept on the shock of seeing the changes, lol!) – which doesn’t mean though I’m not looking at what to try to improve how I feel about this work 😊 Initially, 1st impression, I was determined to restore & “correct” some of the changes —
• September 22, 2021 – Walking in Dappled Light Study 1, #Watercolor on Paper; 1st Paint Lay-in with Masking FluidSeptember 22, 2021
  At 9×12 on 140lb x watercolor paper, I was able to use my brushes fairly effectively where I wanted them, and applied some Turner masking fluid (with a thin palette knife) “fairly” easy. And yes, some foot proportions are off a bit, lol, and her back blouse almost looks like it’s the front, but all in not too bad toward my primary priority – quickly achieve some degree of dappling look. Once the masking fluid comes off though, it could be very different….
• September 21, 2021 – Initial Review of “Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art” by James NestorSeptember 21, 2021
  I’d been doing a day to day posting of a continuing study-sketch project with figures in a watercolor landscape and ran into a time roadblock – grandchild, groceries, fitness (walking, yoga, Essentrics), picking up line art to practice-paint at my printer, etc 😊 and wasn’t able to wiggle any more time to work on that project and write about it, so… I took a deep breath and picked up a book (virtually, via my Kindle Reader, lol!) The editorial reviews often mentioned this read like a novel & my intro and beginning pages already confirm that.
• September 20, 2021 – Dappled Light, “Figures in a Landscape Study” Still Not Done, But, Already a Learning Tool For Me!September 20, 2021
  “Learning Tool for Me” is part of my blog title today simply ’cause I’ve looking at this post as specifically geared to get me where I wanna go – keeping in mind my destination is a generalized abstraction of image / feeling / and intuitive aspiration (hopefully including figurative work) & it’s reached a point of development over my previous renditions that I now need to put my resolve into concrete, hopefully creative, useful thoughts for my future directions. Lot of contradictions. Like life. Like me 😊 Here goes (for now) —
• September 19, 2021 – Dappled Light, “Figures in a Landscape Study” ContinuedSeptember 19, 2021
  Just a quick post updating yesterday’s release showing what I’ve changed/added on to a watercolor on paper I’d 1st posted about on Sept 7th…A bigger factor in today’s image update is the addition of more “white”.

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Thanks again, everyone! 😊

Adan

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