Fixing that "Unsalvageable" watercolor piece

They say watercolor is the most difficult media to work with, but isn't everything difficult before it becomes easy? You will find that most of these "they" are people who gave up on watercolor before they gave it an honest try! In my own experience with watercolor, the coolest thing is that they are mostly not too difficult to fix, that is, once you figure out what exactly is the problem with your artwork. 

Here are some common problems I face in my works and my approach to solve them:

• The composition or the design isn't exactly right: My favorite way to fix this problem is to re-make the study of the composition and practice that on separate spare pages till I get it right and then try to re-work that improved version into my original work which is basically painting over the problematic areas with a slightly more opaque color.

• I could have sketched/painted it better: This issue is fairly common with me and frustrating too. My best approach to it is to practice the drawing on spare pages to see if i can actually get any improvement and then to practice painting it on a spare bit of watercolor paper for reference. Then wet and sponge over my original work and re-paint on top of the now-dull paint using the references i created. This feels like having to start the work from the beginning but the truth is that if you try to fix the painting before you leave it mid-way to start a new one, you will learn more and more about watercolors and how to have better control over them.

• The shape isn't satisfactory: This is a recurring problem for most beginners. I use several different approaches for this one. few of them being:

  1. wedge a dark tone next to the problematic shape, correcting it.

  2. use stencil lift to correct the shape

  3. soften and blur the problematic edge using a damn sponge

• The painting looks too dead or doesn't have depth: This is perhaps the most difficult problem to tackle with watercolors and happens with too much opaque pigment mixed too much on the palette and then stirred up too much on the paper. This leaves little to no room for adding depths and makes the work look painstakingly dead. Solving this issue takes a little practice and experimentation. I often use a combination of these solutions:

  1. Usually a stencil-lifted highlight does the trick

  2. Adding more detail to a different area to draw attention away from the offending area is a wonderful trick if you want don't want to touch the problem area anymore.

  3. Carefully glazing a rather transparent layer of a complementing color will for sure make it better. This trick however can be a bit tricky to master.

Just remember to not give up on your art to quickly! The time you spend on the painting, whether you deem it good or bad, is time spent on honing your skill and learning more about watercolor and its behavior in different situations. What should I write about next? Leave a suggestion in the comments section below or leave a message on my home page! If you like the blog don't forget to subscribe.