PAINting

 Versus, 17" x 18", watercolor, 2012.

I'm so glad that this painting is finally off of my desk!  Deleting the 27 reference photos for this piece off my desktop just felt amaaazing.  Almost every aspect of this was a struggle for me.  The funny thing is, I've learned to do the section of a painting that I'm looking forward to the least (99% of the time it's the background) first.  In this case it was the metal of the model t, which was actually the only part of the painting that was easy for me.  Oh, the irony.

This was my first time using friskit/masking fluid.  I had never used it before on a real painting.  I did buy some one time. Then I waited approximately five years and tried to use it.  I was EXTREMELY disappointed and didn't try it again until now, after buying a new bottle.  Turns out the stuff works great.

 Dark blue would've been nice.

 Red would've been a little nicer.

 I was rooting for the yellow.

But alas, none of those colors looked right and my wiener of a boyfriend kept trying to convince me to make it grey blue the whole time, so finally I tested it out.  Of course it looked the best.

 

I've learned from experience that taping wax paper over every part of my painting except for the part I'm working on is a good idea.  I drag my hand all over the paper and usually end up doing something bad. Also, doing a test painting of a part that I know is going to be extremely difficult always pays off.

I tried to log my hours spent on this piece.  I've tried to do this before, but never successfully.  The "never successfully" has been maintained for this one, although I can tell you it took more than 36 hours.  Much more than 36 hours actually, but how much more I do not know.  I stopped keeping track before I even started the glass and sky.