Background

I posted this painting a few months ago, but I've just gone back and repainted the background because it was just stupidly too dark, to a ridiculous degree. And it makes such a difference instantly. While I'm not particularly fond of this painting, it does look so much better with a sensible tonal balance. I'll learn eventually...

Doing this brought to mind another obvious lesson that I often forget, that being to simply mix enough paint. Mix too much paint. Because if you run out half way through, you're gonna have trouble mixing it the same. It'll dry. It's going to look a mess, and you'll only end up using more paint than you would if you'd done it properly in the first place. I guess this is more important with watercolour painting really, where if you run out of a colour halfway through a wash, the piece is pretty much KO'd. It's just common sense, probably the first thing to tell someone who's about to start a bit of painting. And mixing decent quantities of paint is fun anyway. But I often don't do it.

Mental note for me: mix too much paint.