I've had a hard time finalizing two paintings for a commission I received recently. The paintings need to work separately or together, and will most likely be hung a few inches apart. The list of required colors was long, with little room for me to add or subtract colors to make the composition work better.
I worked for a long time on one set of two paintings, but didn't like the way they came out. So I started two new canvases, and was much happier with the results. I let the paintings dictate what they needed instead of a formula of prescribed colors and percentages of each. Not that my client was that specific, but the instructions were way more constrained than I usually have when doing a commission.
I sent the photos to my client, and she liked them. But she still had a request for some changes. One color wasn't the exact shade she wanted, and the paintings were missing another color she thought should be there.
So I reworked the paintings to bring them in line with her requests. And that made her happy. And the paintings are now on their way to her home.
