It drives you crazy, but sometimes your artwork is the boss, and you come out ahead if you listen to it.  If you take a look at the picture at the bottom of this post, this is a perfect example of what I mean.

My wife and I took a vacation to Florida in May of this year, and I did some pencil and loose watercolor sketching while I was there.  When we got back she decided to redecorate our spare bedroom with a Florida motif.  She asked if I would paint her a picture to go in the room, and I decided on this scene which I sketched in Key Largo.  I had made several photographs of the scene and had quite a bit of reference material.

I made a very detailed full size (30X40) color pencil depiction of the future painting and was pleased with what I saw.  There were footprints in the sand.  Small pebbles and a few rocks were also in the sand, and there were fallen dead palm leaves around the base of some of the palms.  Yes, the painting was to be quite detailed and realistic.

So, you look at the painting, at the sand, and you say…wha?  There are no details.  The sand is as pristine as new fallen snow.  What happened?  I started to paint the details in but the painting would not accept them no matter how accurate and realistic they were.  So, I painted them out of the picture and left it the way it was.  The painting was the boss, and if it could have screamed, it would have.  It was finished, and now after its been on my wall for the past few months, I tend to agree with it.

I painted this picture with a very limited palette because I wanted harmony (which is another blog for another day).  I used only seven hues, the warm and cool hues of the basic colors (red, yellow, and blue) and Titanium white.