How to fix mistakes painting with acrylics

Can you tell there is a big orange blob in the sky of this painting? Yes, I accidently put orange in the sky but fixed it. The great thing about painting with acrylics is they are very forgiving and changes can be made. It's in the area of the cloud haze (which I added back in).

'4 Generations', acrylics on canvas by Xanthe Wyse

How I fix mistakes 

1. I immediately use a dry cloth to dab or wipe off excess paint.
2. Let dry (can work on other sections of the painting in the meantime).
3. Paint over with a layer of white. Now the artist grade titanium white can be very thick out of the tube, so I use a layer of student grade white, which is thinner.
4. When painting with the white, I spread it out beyond the 'mistake', thinner and thinner, so there are no edges.
5. Let dry.
​6. Paint over with the colour I want. Adding titanium white to lighter colours helps give coverage.
7. Consider other disguise elements such as implied texture such as drybrushing etc. 
​

How to make lighter colours brighter

If I am painting a lighter colour, such as yellow, over a darker colour, I can use the exact same steps 2-7 as above, using a thin white masking layer over the dark colour and under the lighter layer (let each layer dry before applying another). Acrylic painting is all about layers. Keeping the layers fairly thin means it's easy to make changes.
​

Demonstrating fixing the mistake

I made the mistake doing while filming the video for  '4 Generations' (the vintage beach umbrella). Included in the edit how I fixed it. See from 4:30 onwards.

I made the mistake because I didn't put down the paintbrush when I went to blot some excess water from the canvas (usually I dab my paint brush after wetting it). I added a thin layer of white and cream cloud haze as I didn't like how my blue sky looked a bit dominant and patchy. There are actually no signs at all of the big orange blob in the sky.

Note that I had poor lighting and camera setup to start with and my inexpensive lighting and camera rig solution arrived part way through. It was still tricky working on a painting on an angle. I condensed a few hours of painting over several days into less than ten minutes as a tutorial video.

The colours of the original painting are way more vibrant than the video or photos. I am working with low cost equipment for filming etc.

I intend to share more free art tips on my blog and on my channel, Soar Purpose.