ok so. window study #11. gouache on hot press, 9x12, the same damn window I've been painting since March. and the perspective is right, the light falloff is right, the sill shadow does the thing it's supposed to do. my partner looked at it and said "that's really good" in the voice people use for good, and I knew immediately.

there's no weather in it. that's the only way I can say it. the other ones are messier and the values are sloppy and you can't tell where the glass ends and the air begins, but you can feel that it's 4pm in February in my apartment. this one is just a diagram of a window with correct lighting.

I think I got scared and started painting what I know is true instead of what I see? like I stopped asking questions halfway through. or maybe I've painted it so many times I've stopped looking.

has anyone pulled a piece back from that, or do you just have to start a new one and lose the good parts too. genuinely asking because I've got a wash of burnt sienna I can't afford to waste and I'm about to go ruin it out of spite