Bill is going to show you one of the mistakes experienced artists make. But in this case it is exactly what he wants to do!
When Bill first places his brush stroke at the base of the stone, it is too white – too bright. That area is in the shadow of the stone. The water needs to be darker, or as Bill states, “bluer”. So he begins to stroke multiple times to darken the white by blending in the blue from the background.
“Overworking” an area is a common mistake of even experienced artists. They think their initial brush stroke is not exactly right and in an attempt to “fix” it they brush over the area too much and lose the effect they were trying to get.
In this case, overworking the initial brush stroke just a bit is exactly what’s needed to create the effect of water in the shadow area of the stone.
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