How to Finish a Painting with Purpose

'We Stop for Poppies'                18x24                pastel              ©Karen Margulis
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Knowing when a painting is done can be a challenge.  Overworking can sneak up on us. Especially when we are enjoying the painting process and not really paying attention to what we are doing. A good rule of thumb is to stop before you think you are finished. But then what?

I stop when I find myself mindlessly making marks. It is time to step back and evaluate the painting. I used to make mental notes about what I thought I needed to do to finish the painting. But if I was interrupted I would forget the list of finishing touches. Or sometimes I would get so involved with finishing an area I would loose sight of the other items I wanted to address.

I don't rely on mental notes.....I make real notes on my mini dry erase board.

Below is today's painting when I stopped to evaluate it. I decided on some areas of concern and I wrote down my solutions on the dry erase board.

stopped for evaluation part 1

My WHAT board helps me decide what I need to do to finish the painting

stopped for evaluation 2

I tackled these items one at a time. I changed the shape of the distant trees. I darkened the foreground grasses. I added some seed pods and another purple vertical flower to make a more pleasing arrangement of flowers. I changed the mountain color to a blue purple instead of green to push it back further.

I was pleased with the flowers but still didn't like the trees. The right side was too solid. I used sky color to break up the tree shape and added one more red spot of color. Now I was finished!

Painting notes: 18x24 on Ersta sanded paper with an alcohol wash underpainting