Beginner's Errors
or
How not to paint like an old master
Here is an early example of one of my attempts to paint like the old masters. Superficially it isn't a total disaster, but there are plenty of errors.
Here are a few mistakes I made, just so you don't make them too...
1) Wrong medium. I painted this in acrylics rather than oils. I find that acrylics dry too fast for effective detailed blending.
2) Wrong Palette. I just used whatever colours I had in the box, rather than restricting myself to an authentic palette
3) Skin tones. The hands and face were not painted around the same time and I never managed to match the tonality between them.
4) Windows. Angles and spacings are a mess.
5) I overdid the contrast and tonality. It looks a bit too much like a cartoon because I didn't mute down the more vibrant acidic colours.
6) I gave up on ever getting the face to look human (after about 10 attempts)
7) No definition on the curtain. It is just a big dark blob of paint.
There are plenty more mistakes with this picture, but it was still a great leap forward in my abilities.