Sunday, December 27, 2009

Painting Quickly vs. Painting Slowly

I've got two watercolors to share today. The first one is from a reference of my son when he was 3 or 4. It measures 8.5 x 11. I've labored over this one for a while. Next time I will do some more pre-planning, like a value study first instead of trying to figure things out as I go.


From drawing to finished painting, the second one took me all of 70 minutes this afternoon. It was from a Wetcanvas weekend paint session in the All Media Events forum. I like this one better. I always like these better. I don't feel any pressure when I tackle these portraits and there is a suggested 2 hour time limit which forces one to work quickly. These are always so much more satisfying to me than the paintings I spend hours on. Sowhy do I continue to labor over so many paintings???

2 comments:

Theresa Taylor Bayer said...

They're both lovely.

I wouldn't have known which one was labored over without your having said which one. They both look equally fresh. However, I think the one in the hat is the better composition of the two.

Sometimes composition is what we're laboring over (but not always).

Theresa Rhodus said...

Definitely the one with the cowboy hat. Oh, to only spend two hours on a picture! That's why I love your work so much.

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