Mistake of a moment

This was an interesting one. While I was working on it and realized I made a mistake. A big mistake. A mistake not in the work itself (even though the photo I took doesn’t do it justice) — but the moment in the story that I chose to freeze.

Currently the paining is unfinished and might stay that way, but it was going to be called “Wrong Answer”

Right now, the painting shows the woman beside the button and the man sitting in the tank, but neither is actually doing anything decisive. The viewer understands that something is about to happen, yet the scene stops just before the event. That makes the composition feel more posed than dramatic. The red button, the scuba gear, the water, and the large red X all promise danger or consequence, but the painting doesn’t quite deliver the payoff. 👎🏻

To make it much stronger I should have choosen the moment of irreversible action. For example, the woman could be forcefully slamming her hand onto the red button while leaning into it, with the man realizing what she is doing. Even better would be the split second when the mechanism has already been triggered: the chair dropping or tipping beneath him, his body suddenly losing balance, his hands grabbing for the rails, water beginning to explode upward, while the woman’s hand is still planted on the button.

That would improve several things at once. The woman's action would clearly cause the man's predicament, creating an immediate visual relationship between the two figures. The strong downward movement of the falling chair and man's body would contrast with the woman's forward movement toward the button. The viewer’s eye would move naturally from her hand → button → mechanism → falling man → water, giving the painting a much clearer narrative path.

Most importantly, it would change the emotional experience. The current image says, “She might push the button.” A more active version says, “She has done it—and now he is falling.” That second moment contains consequence, surprise, tension, and a little absurdity all at once.

For this particular idea, I think the strongest version would actually show both actions simultaneously: her hand violently depressing the button at the exact instant his chair gives way beneath him. That would turn this from a portrait of a strange situation into a captured dramatic event.

First possible left unfinished…I might cover it up.

Live and learn.