Trudy Webbytoes artist's tip of the week....

'

 Allow me to introduce you to Trudy Webbytoes, she taught me everything I know about art

 Trudy, take it away!.

"There are times, when you finish a painting and realize, something is JUST NOT RIGHT.
This painting has more problems than there are minnows in Croaky Toad Creek!

Although my models face is simply lovely....( though not nearly as lovely as the faces on my dear little ducklings ),

And her pose is quite coy,

 The distressed kitty , outside the window just looks WRONG,
the sky is wishy washy greyish blue  (ICK!).. (We ducks prefer the lovely buoyant blues of the water), and the window GLASS has entirely disappeared! In fact, it does not even look like glass atoll.

Desperate measures are called for.... 

First, I shall CUT AWAY the sky,

literally.

.

 The black lettering, which is the crux of the picture, extremely important on this piece, simply must go! 

I must have been having a bad day, when I did this lettering. OFF WITH IT'S HEAD!

  Now, how to remedy?? Hmmmm..  I shall take a quick dip in the creek and think on this a spell...

"Ah, that's better! Nothing refreshes one's mind better than a few crunchy crawdads and the splishy, splashy wetting of ones feathers.

Now lets just waddle on over to the easel  and get back to work.
 On a fresh new sheet of paper, I have painted a new sky using blues of the same shade as pretty kitty's eyes.

The painting is mounted on the new sky.
  Ahhh! Much better.

 "The problem with the kitty outside the window... he is too harsh looking when compared to the softness of the pretty kitty. In fact, there is TOO MUCH DETAIL in his face. He is BEHIND the glass and should be a bit softer, like a duckies down feathers. I am going to carefully lift some paint from his face, using water and  a bit of cattail fluff...  cotton balls 0r sponges can be used, if you have no cattails on hand.

 Now he is softly smudged, that is what I want, AND  he is BEHIND the glass. 

 " I have deepened the shadows around the window frame and "glazed "over the "glass" with a white pastel chalk.

" Now for that pesky lettering.. I think I will just "carve" it into the window frame.

  After all, that is what the beavers would do...

 "A few more shadows beneath pretty kitty. and WALLAH!

 "A little more work on the window frame and glass, and it will be fini. Far from perfect, but much better than before.

"I am not showing you the carved lettering on top, it is a secret for now..wink, wink!
So, to condense all of this into a small oyster shell: Sometimes, one must think outside the box when fixing mistakes, you never know what may work till you try it!"

"Ta Ta, till next time. Now, swish your brushes clean and go take a splash in the nearest pond!"

Thank you so much Trudy Webbytoes!  Valuable advice, as always!

 Trudy is submitting this painting for a magazine cover and prints will soon be available on The Mistress's website.