So… my second year of watercolor is over. As an attempt to measure my progress, I decided a while ago that I would paint the Farm Road painting each year. Last year, the results were pretty remarkable. When I compared last year�s painting to the painting I made when I first started, I saw a whole bunch of progress. This year�s painting is a much more subtle change, maybe even a bit backward.

Here is the photo of the farm road:

Now, this isn�t a particularly fabulous photo, but it�s the picture I tried to paint every day for a month when I first started.

Here is the first rendition I ever painted:

At least I haven�t gone backwards so much that I�m that bad any more. I guess that�s a good thing.

And here�s the painting I made at the end of my first year:

Now, there are many things that I think I did correctly with this painting, and it is certainly much better than my first attempt in 2018. This version is much better as a composition, but in many ways I don�t think it�s �mine.� I basically tailored a Joseph Zbukvic tutorial, and applied his techniques to this subject. I did make some dramatic improvements in the composition, but the painting doesn�t feel like it�s my own. It also doesn�t feel like it�s correctly lit. You can see the sun in the sky, so you know it should be morning or evening, but the light in the painting feels like it�s noon.

It�s also hard to tell if the painting from 2018 is an improvement because my techniques improved, or if it�s an improvement because it�s a completely different composition.

This year, I decided to honor the original composition more Thani did last year, and placed an emphasis on the lighting. I wanted the lighting to be accurate to the time of day. That meant, less saturated colors, less value contrast, and fewer bright highlights.

I�m not all that happy with the results, but this feels like it�s my own because it isn�t just repurposing a tutorial of someone else�s techniques. Perhaps this isn�t as �good� as the painting from a year ago, but it�s more honest, and I think it�s a better reflection of the source material. Anyway, I�ll let you be the judge. Here�s the painting of the farm road from the end of Year Two: