I Think I Ruined My Painting…Now What? (2024)

Making mistakes in your paintings is inevitable. Every artist, regardless of skill level, has had the moment when they step back and realize something’s gone wrong in their painting. It’s not a great feeling, but while completely frustrating, mistakes and missteps are a part of learning and happen to everyone.

Even if you’re a working professional, you’ll still make mistakes in your paintings. Of course, the caliber of your mistakes will be much higher than a beginner’s mistakes, but you will still make mistakes.

There are a series of steps to take when you realize something has gone wrong in your painting. But by carefully following these steps, you can recover from making mistakes in your paintings and save your art from ending up in the trashcan.

The first step to fixing mistakes in your painting is to actually find the mistake. Students will often ask in our school, “Is this done? I know something’s wrong, but I don’t know what”.

The first question to ask yourself when you see mistakes in your painting is if you know what the issue is. If you feel like somethings wrong, but you can’t figure out what it is, you need to let the painting be done. If you can’t figure out what’s wrong, you won’t be able to fix it.

However, when we look at our work, we can usually pinpoint the issue. Whether it is in value, edge, color, or proportion, it usually sticks out to us.

Then the next question to ask yourself before attempting to fix a problem should be “Do I know how to fix the issue?”. If the answer is yes, then you can go in and try to fix the problem, which will improve the painting and move along closer to the end goal.

…artists often find themselves painting in circles trying to fix problems they don’t understand or know how to correct.

But if the answer is “No, I don’t know how to fix this problem”, then you must stop painting. You can’t fix something if you don’t know what it is you need to fix or if you don’t understand how to fix it! It seems simple, but artists often find themselves painting in circles trying to fix problems they don’t understand or know how to correct.

If you don’t understand where the problems are in your painting, then nothing needs correction at this point. Correcting issues that you don’t understand will create more problems and mistakes. Better to leave a mistake that you don’t understand or know how to fix, rather than creating additional problems.

But, if you can find the mistakes in your painting and know how to fix it, then you are ready to begin making corrections to your painting.

As you work, stepping back to look for mistakes in the painting is important for several reasons. As you work, if you step back and see an easy issue that you can fix, the fix is fairly easy when the paint is wet.

With a rag or small piece of paper towel, parts of the painting can be wiped away and restarted, or the wet paint manipulated, an edge sharpened or softened, or really any simple fix. As you go in to make a correction in wet paint, it is important to ask yourself if fixing the issue will help the painting or cause additional issues.

If correcting a minor problem seems like it will cause a chain reaction of issues you’ll then need to correct, it is better to leave it alone. Also, depending on where you are in the painting, it may be best to leave the issue.

…minor problems at the beginning of a painting are easier to correct than problems that you spot at the very end.

But what happens when a major issue arises? Major issues in paintings stem from not enough care at the beginning of the painting, and the artist simply needs to take greater care and focus on the beginning stages of their painting.

Looking back and forth between the reference and the painting, see if you can find the mistakes in your painting, and ask yourself if you understand how to make the fix. Then ask yourself if by fixing the major problem, will the rest of the painting suffer, and will you have to repaint other large areas. If the answer is yes, it might be best to leave the painting and start again.

When major issues arise and you see mistakes in your painting that you don’t know how to fix them, sometimes you need to let the painting be and start again. Overworking a painting never helps to achieve what you want. Making bold, informed decisions in your painting is what creates solid work, not guessing.

Each stroke past a certain point either helps or destroys your painting. This means you need to weigh each stroke with extra intensity after a certain point. You can muddle about forever making tiny, inconsequential moves.

Sometimes it is best to just stop or restart. And sometimes it is ok to leave some mistakes in your painting if you don’t know how to fix them. If you don’t know what the mistake is or how to fix it, chances are that with time you will learn how to. Each painting has the opportunity to teach you through its mistakes. Know when to let go of a painting and start again or move on.