As I've looked at my last watercolor of the Green Heron and Twelve-spotted Skimmer a number of things have been bothering me. They are primarily concerned with formal matters; composition, distribution of lights and darks, etc. But then today I noticed that the eye was incorrectly placed. That seemed too much to allow to stay. So I incorporated that fix along with some more formal changes. Many of them involved the use of white gouache, or opaque watercolor.
I really refrain from its use. It takes away from the sense of brightness and light that to me is watercolor's most desirable characteristic. But this painting had already lost most sense of transparent brightness.So I didn't worry about using the gouache to get what I hoped would be a better overall painting.
In the end it's more reminiscent of some of the heavy handed oil paintings of some early 20th century painting, fumbling its way toward abstraction. It certainly is no longer a bright transparent watercolor. I hope that one day I'll be more successful in that manner. For now it seemed more important to get an overall composition that worked.
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