Tweaking Paintings

On Friday I met with my critique group and got some great suggestions to improve the paintings I showed. As usual, I made some changes and ignored other suggestions, but all in all I think the paintings are improved. I will post images of before and after because I always enjoy seeing the adjustments other artist make in their work.

See if you can spot the changes.

By the way, this latest work I just sent off to the Watercolor Society of Oregon hoping to get in to the upcoming competition.

Caribbean Cornrows II

Before

 

After

 

Changes: I wiped clean the area of hair behind the hands and made it a white background and more tendrils of hair. Also, the cornrows have more black in them. Above the upper curved colored arch, I darkened some of the white spotted area. I put some detail into the hands of the braider and made the feet of both women more readable. Finally, I made the green shirt black. Better?

Carabbean Cornrows

Before

 

After

 

Changes: I gave up some white by putting a light wash on the enpty chair. The point of the top of the empty chair got rounded. The plain purples in the spaces around the chair arms were adjusted to fit into the painting better.

Questions Rising

Before

 

After

 

Changes: Only 2--The lower right hand set of rings gained a ring, and the edge of the lower left rocks got broken up with a more interesting shape.

And now fore the abstracts. I experimented with both Clear Sailing and Lily Pads by adding some light washes in the white areas. I recieved the same feedback from almost everyone that the left white made the paintings seem unfinished.

Clear Sailing

Before

 

After

 

Lily Pads

Before

 

After

 

How many of the changes could you spot before reading the answers? Keep your fingers crossed for me regarding the image I've sent off to the WSO Juror.