Digital to the rescue: How I fixed my NYC subway painting

Even though I really enjoy painting with watercolors, sometimes it can be a bit annoying. If you use too much water or paint, it can mess up your painting. And unlike other types of paint, you can't just paint over your mistakes.

Recently, I was painting a picture of the New York subway. I got the idea from a photo I took of a sunset at the Ditmars-Boulevard subway station in Queens. I used layers to paint the sky first with orange and yellow, planning to add purple clouds later. But it didn't turn out how I wanted. I wanted to make the train to be the focal point but the painting looked too busy, and I messed up one of the clouds.

I liked everything else about the painting except the sky. So, I tried painting different skies with different colors and clouds.

Then, I used Photoshop to take out the original sky and put in my new ones.

Results of the poll on Instagram

I asked my friends on Instagram which one they liked best. And there was a clear winner. 

Finally, I finished the painting of the subway train and edited it to sell prints on my Etsy store.

Using digital tools like Photoshop or Procreate has really helped me work on the final composition of an illustration and of course, fix mistakes, like in the case of this subway painting.