Critique from other artists - Ask another artist or two (who have not seen previously seen the painting) to critique it for you. Better yet start a critique group that meets regularly and then you are motivated to paint more because there is a Critique coming up. Kathy, Penny and I started River City 8 in 1992 and the group is still going strong. I will show them this painting at our meeting today.
Ferment - Patrick Dullanty used to let his paintings "ferment", he would stash them away in a closet and then pull them out 3 months later and look at them with a fresh eye.
Look at it in an alternate way - Look at them in a mirror or take a photo and look at the photo. When I look at the photo above that I took 10 minutes ago I can see that I need to put another layer of blue on the right shutter so it better matches the left one since they are suppose to be on the same building. I am also bothered by the fact that the teacher's red sash is so in your face, perhaps I need some red somewhere else in the painting, but where?
