When I went back to my studio a few days later to finish my drawing, it struck me that I hadn’t draw the silver bowl large enough. Also, the two shells on the right were too big. It never stops amazing me that these mistakes are so easy to see after some time has passed, but almost impossible to detect while drawing! I was very reluctant to erase and redraw the bowl, since it had taken me a tremendous amount of time to draw all of the designs. I did not want to do it again! It was only about a half an inch too small, so I tried to talk myself into believing that it was close enough, and wouldn’t make any difference to the composition. Tempting as that was, I realized that the bowl did need to be bigger, especially in relation to the orange box. The bowl is the focal point, and needed to look more important. The larger size would help. Also, the two shells that I’d made too large were drawing too much attention. I wanted them to be a small exclamation point at the end of the long swoop starting at the upper left. They would have to be redrawn, too!
I’ve learned the hard way that you really must take the time to correct errors, even if it means a lot of additional work. If you don’t, the result will always be flawed, and it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to correct the painting later. But it did hurt to erase all of those hard-to-see and measure complex shapes!
I think I’ll put off redrawing the patterns on the bowl until after I’ve completed my black-and-white study. By then I should know if the basic shapes are correct.
Linda Mann Artist 