Finally hung a lamp over the easel and now I can see how bad my edges are
For two years I painted under the ceiling light in the back room, which is one of those frosted dome fixtures that makes everything look like a faded photo. I kept thinking my greens were muddy. Turns out they were fine, I just couldn't see them.
So my husband clamped an old architect lamp to the shelf above the easel, the kind with the long spring arms, and I put a 5000K bulb in it. Night and day. Except now I can see every wobbly edge on the tree line I've been working on since Labor Day and honestly I'm a little insulted. The lamp is doing its job. I'm the problem.
Also the kids think the arm looks like a praying mantis and keep bending it around when they come in to say goodnight, so I'm re-aiming it every single night. Small price I guess.
Anyone else change one thing in the setup and suddenly get a much harsher look at their own work? I don't know whether to be grateful or go back to the dome light and my comfortable delusions.
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the 5000K bulb is a trap, it shows you everything and then you can't unsee it. same thing happened to me when i moved my wheel next to the window, suddenly every rim i threw was lopsided and i'd been happily making them for months. the muddy greens were probably fine all along, you were just painting in a cave.
honestly the wobbly tree line might be the good part though. i'd leave it.
Mm, I'm with you on the wobbly tree line. My grandmother used to say a straight seam never told anybody a story. I've had "mistakes" in my quilts I went back to fix and then put back the way they were, because the fixing took the life out of it.
The lamp's just showing you the truth, honey. What you do with it is your business.
Oh I love that, "a straight seam never told anybody a story." Your grandmother knew. And putting it back the way it was is the hard part, I'd have been tempted to keep tinkering until it went dead on me. I've done that to a sky before, kept "fixing" it until it turned to cement.
So the wobbly tree line stays. It's got a story whether I like it or not.
Ha, "painting in a cave" is exactly it. Two years of thinking I had a color problem when I had a lighting problem.
The wheel next to the window thing gets me, because at least a lopsided rim is still a rim. Mine just looks like the tree line had a rough night. But you're the second person to tell me to keep it, so I'm leaving it alone for now and seeing how I feel in a week.