The completed "Woodward's Garden" Oil Painting: Take 2!

So, I know I said that I completed my "Woodward's Garden" painting two weeks ago. I really thought I had.

Turns out I was wrong.

Here's what happened....

I waited for it to dry before it could be framed. Dean had ordered a great frame for the painting, and we varnished the painting, then put it into the frame last week. Then, I brought it home, and showed Dick for the first time.

Dick spent some time really looking at the painting, and he said he liked it. However, he thought that a particular angle was off, and it made the perspective look wrong to him. He was talking about the bottom of the counter, the dark part. He said that he angle needed to be stronger, and should go down lower on the right side.

Now, Dean and I had been working on this for weeks, and I really did think that we had double-checked and even triple-checked all the angles.

It turns out we hadn't. I pulled up the original photo, and checked the angle. It turned out that Dick was right.

This is what happens when you work on a painting sometimes. You work on it for so long, that you become too close to it, and you don't see everything that someone might see with a fresh eye.

Which put me in a predicament: We had just varnished the painting. I didn't know whether or not I could go back in and paint it more. If I couldn't, would that incorrect angle bother me, now that I knew it was there, or would I be able to get over it?

So, I stewed over it for a week...

Today, I saw Dean for my next lesson, and told him what had happened. He laughed at the story, saying, "Welcome the world of painting!" He told me that he and his partner, Jose, have this same conversation all the time about Dean's paintings.

To be clear, I told Dick that I wasn't mad at him, and that I would always want to hear his critique (and that he was right!). It was just a little hard hearing it (and realizing that he was right) after I had thought I was done. I had to get past a mental hurdle.

Anyhow, Dean told me that we could indeed paint over the varnish. (we had used a type that it's okay to paint over.) So, I came home, took the painting off the wall, brought it over to Dean's. Dean took it out of the frame, and we put it back onto the easel.

Here's the FINAL Final:


The final, final

For reference, here's the original photo:

You can see that the top of the black counter comes just underneath the woman's chin

Here's what the painting had looked like before:


...and here's the correction of where the angle needed to come down to on the painting


...and once more with the final, final for comparison

The final, final

You can see that he perspective looks better and more correct now.

In addition, I a few touches of reflection color around the counter and the woman. I also added a bit more detail on the melon slice and gave it a cast shadow. I also added a bit more color and detail to the painting in the background.

So, that's it! It's really "finished" this time! (I think!) ha!

Here's the final painting, all framed and hanging on our wall at home: