Thursday, February 21, 2013

TRASH CAN TOMATOES


Well, this one is torn and in the trash now.  It began as a nice painting and I worked on it a while and then it stumped me - I knew it was just about to go wrong so put it aside and it sat for months.  I picked it out of the pile the other day and began working it again - and, yep, it went wrong.  Quickly.  But I didn't give up.  I kept working it, even taking it and washing it all off in the bathtub and working more!  Sometimes you just have to know when to say Enough is Enough!  Part of the problem = it was a full size sheet (22" x 30") and I had to wrangle it around in my little art room, trying to paint without a table big enough to paint on.  Of course, that doesn't excuse the overworking and the black bg - I was willing to try anything at that point to save it but it was already DOA!  (Trust me, the photo makes it look so much better than it looked in real life.)

So - say goodbye, tear it up, throw it away.  And begin again.



This time, on a half sheet (15" x 22") which is more maneuverable for me.  However, these are not the pretty red tomatoes you see in the store.  These are heirloom tomatoes - the duller colored, often bi-colored tomatoes that cost more but taste oh-so-good. 


And I have to do some things right in this one =


1) don't make them all the same color and value,

2) don't put a solid bg behind them,

3) break up the color in places and leave some whites for goodness sake,

4)  spend more time looking at the photo reference and less time painting on color.


If I can do these things, I think it will work.
If not, well this one will be easier to tear up since it's smaller!

13 comments:

Diana said...

HI Rhonda, Don't feel bad. I threw 2 away this week!! a pig and a daffodil painting. eek. Sometimes that's just what we have to do,and usually the next one is so much better. These tomatoes are looking wonderful.. love the heirlooms,they taste like tomatoes are meant to taste! love,Diana

Studio at the Farm said...

Sorry about your tomatoes, Rhonda. We all do it, often on a full sheet. But hopefully we learn from the mistakes, too.

Pinto Peanut said...

This is wonderful post about tomatoes. Also nice drawing.

Teresa Palomar Lois said...

I hope this time it works better for you Rhonda, your perseverance has no limits girl! That said I liked the black background.

Have you eaten them yet? Confess!

RH Carpenter said...

Diana, I guess it's like that saying, "You have to kiss a lot of frogs..." even in painting!

Kathryn, I hope I learned some things with all the mistakes I made!

Thanks, Pinto Peanut, for stopping by and for taking the time to comment.

Teresa, thanks for being so upbeat. I did eat them when I took the photo - and they were delicious.

Jane said...

Well this happens to me all the time ...well at least often . Did you turn the paper and paint on the backside or did you just toss it out ? I know many don't paint on the 'wrong' side of the paper...I do...because often something good comes up on the 'wrong' side !

Laura said...

Oh yes I seem to be in one of those slumps with watercolour too at the minute. I like your tenacity to try again though.

Autumn Leaves said...

But valuable lessons learned, yes?

Vicki Greene said...

Sorry about the full sheet painting that you worked so hard on before letting it go but hopefully that working time helped you learn but that is when the learning seems hard. May this new one flow....it is off to a good start.

RH Carpenter said...

Jane, I never paint on the wrong side - I guess I'm hoping the bad vibe of the bad painting goes with it into the trash and I start over fresh on clean paper - plus, I hate to think I paint a masterpiece and on the back side is a really horrid thing! ha ha As if that will ever happen!

Thanks, Laura; not sure it's tenacity or just stubbornness - I can't let tomatoes beat me, can I? ha ha

Thanks, Vicki and Sherry - I do hope I learned a few lessons to bring to the new painting. Keep your fingers crossed.

Watercolors by Susan Roper said...

I loved the translucency you achieved in the trashed painting, so do try to get that again. I doubt it was as bad as you thought, but we all have those paintings that we just had to pull the plug on.

RH Carpenter said...

Susan, it really was horrid! Sometimes the photo looks better than the painting :) Sometimes you can't get the photo to look as good as the painting. Not sure why that happens.

Pam Johnson Brickell said...

The first may have gone into the trash, but boy those 'maters surely were shiny! They looked real!