Step 9
At this stage of the painting, I'm adding the final darks and details to finish things up. I finished the tree over the middle part of the bridge, some of the rooftops, and the rest of the water.
Then, I always like to take the painting off of my table and put it across the room (at least 15 - 20 feet away) so that I can get a true feel for the type of impact it will have. I've been so close to it for so many hours, that this is the only way I can objectively see if it's matching my original idea for the piece and if it's truly working as a painting. In this case, I noticed right away that the sky wasn't nearly as strong as I wanted it to be. This is a scary time because it's so easy to ruin something in watercolor that you can't ever fix, but I know this will be a better piece if I can darken the sky and smooth out some of the brushstrokes.
Don't ever be afraid to keep working on something that needs it just because you're worried about making a mistake! You will learn so much more about painting by making that mistake than you will by being timid.
