NO MANDARIN IS AN ISLAND

Let this be a lesson, young (NOT) lady. Here is a perfect example of the need to start with the end in mind. Last week I had a couple friends over for a fun painting day. Between playing hostess with the mostess, turning my dining room into a painting studio, getting the girls set up, making lunch, etc. I didn't pay attention to the fact that where I set up to paint this mandarin orange the leaves were positioned behind the fruit, which wasn't the best view. Then I quickly drew my mandarin and plate while standing, ran off to make lunch, ate and when I came back to paint I was sitting, which changed the vantage point. Forgot to take a photo of the mandarin on the plate before putting it in the frig for the night. As a result, I had a heck of a time. 

So I basically started over on day 2, but with what I already painted the day before. Turned the orange so the leaves looked more interesting and this time took a pic for reference. 

1) Take a reference photo

 Once I moved past reworking the leaves and plate and reshaping the mandarin I liked it better, but then realized it could have been painted much larger or at a more interesting angle. I had too much empty space and it bugged me…and bugged me…

2) Fill up more canvas or choose a dynamic angle

If a dozen people said it was fine, I still had to fix it for me. So I draped some striped fabric over the back of my vignette, painted it and voila! I can sleep now. And by the way, painting a glass dish, especially at that angle was way hard. I was a bad "instructor" (free, but still bad) for thinking the clear glass would be easy to paint. And for not spending more time experimenting with interesting angles beforehand. Overall, we had fun painting together, but I learned more than they did. Better planning upfront and having a procedure to follow may possibly help avoid reworking and correcting during the painting process. In my defense we did talk a lot about the color wheel. Imagine that.

3) Start with the end in mind

That poor little mandarin sat alone on that clear glass plate for way too long, so I named it No Mandarin is an Island.