Lazy Painting

Lately I have been working on some paintings I am doing for a series.  The very large one of the barn and mountain was going along nicely until I got to the foreground.  Everything has 'ground' to a halt. HA!  I had put lots of thought and effort into most parts of the painting, but hadn't thought about the foreground, since, when I drew this out, it seemed like such a small portion of the painting and therefore insignificant.  WRONG!  It has been wiped and repainted 3 times and now the painting is in a back room so I can't see it.  

Black and white photo of large oil painting

The problem being I got lazy.  I planned everything else out pretty good.  (I do see some parts that need tweaking)  Since I put too little thought and planning into the foreground area it now stands out as a weak part of my painting.  It must be fixed before it goes anywhere! I will wipe again and work on it soon.

 Moving on to my next painting.  I felt I planned it out fairly well.  Considered different layouts, laid in all my darks and began painting.  Of course I attacked the foreground immediately and felt that it has a good start.  Current struggle is with the colours in the background ... aaah!  However, I now feel that I can go back to my large painting and tackle that foreground with more knowledge and hope that it will work out.

I say all this to say... you just can't be lazy in any part of your painting.  Proper planning and preparation (value sketches, colour studies, etc.) are what help your painting turn out.  I spent the last hour or two at Outdoor Painter website re-reading about values, composition and tonal drawings just to refresh my memory on why it is so important.   I have heard it several times now from many respected instructors, just need to keep following through.