This was fun. I decided to do this painting over an old painting. (Waste not, want not). Rather than gesso over it, I just started painting. As the new one was a dark piece, I had to apply lots of paint quickly to cover the prior work. The old bumps and brush strokes were really showing through, so I used a palette knife for much of it. I liked how this was going, in certain areas. But not in others. So I started a new painting of the same thing on a new pristine canvas. But the first painting kept nagging at me. I liked it. So I worked on both at the same time. I finished the newer piece first, and the second one came quickly after that. I used less brush stokes, and kept it looking spontaneous. Which it was.

Having done 2 oils of the same subject, and looking like very different paintings, I thought “why not do it again in watercolour”? So I did, actually using gouache, with hits of pastel. I enjoyed working on all three pieces. I hope you can see that the differences in approach and medium make for very different end results.

 

#1.