Support the most import element of the painting

After the wild color of yesterday I am once again taken back to the wise question my friend L. asks: "What are you trying to do"? These are my words. L's make a lot more sense.

I'm copying her words here because they sure helped me and might help someone else...

"The painting is not too colorful if you want that much color. You really love colorful color, lots of saturation. If you want the color to serve your intent then I'm not sure what your intent is because the color is the most dominant element in the work. The black line drawing sits on top of color in a cartoon way. Cartoon way in the sense of black line making things look flat. Please tell me why you originally liked the black line drawing? "

So... answering L's question what I really liked about the painting and the reason I wanted to make them in the first place was to enjoy the quirky, sad, odd feeling the lines gave me. And I realize that the color does not support my intention and detracts from the line quality of the drawing. I need murky color that creates the feelings I want to create.

"My suggestion is to leave the painting as you have it and start again allowing the figure drawing to be dominant. Come back to the painting some other time, or not. I keep thinking of your little silk screen with the little, almost not there, girl in one corner--that is right on. I can really see her and see why you love her.

The drawing that you have is very nice and it conveys a lot of information all by itself, especially with the transfer method. Allow other areas to support it. Another suggestion is to just dig out your paints and go crazy painting color, forget about subject matter. Have a great time using yummy color. Something happens when you use paint and I THINK MAYBE it is because in your mind paint is different than printmaking. Somehow paint should be more colorful when, in fact, it is all the same pigment. "

Oh, genius teacher L. I hope you don't mind telling me this over and over... to pick out the most important element in the painting, and have the rest support that.... what an ongoing lesson for me to learn. I sure am grateful for your help all these years.

so, this one is a little closer, but still not there for me. I feel ready to start again using different subtle color! Can't wait. I love, love, love the puzzle of learning when I make art.