Thought I'd update you on my progress for the Jellyfish redo. Here's a picture of it before the fateful sanding: What a mess! I tried to use the turquoise glaze to add texture once I saw that it wasn't working to integrate the jellyfish as part of the ocean. I used a swirling wet stiff brush to try to remove it in places. However, it only came off in patches, and was truly stuck on the tentacles of the one on the right. I tried painting some of the background colour in between them, but that's never really a great idea as it looks staged and fake. That was it, I was done! On went my trusty ole Black & Decker, and off came hours of work! I re primed with 3 layers of gesso, and this mess was gone, just like that. Here is a picture of Stage 2 and 3 of the remake: I've redone the background; more on the lighter side this time (I found the original kind of dark). I've also redrawn the jellyfish and started to block in the basic shapes with also some of the lighter areas. This stage has more details and depth to it. I've added most of the tentacles to the bigger jellyfish and have started on the smaller one. Even more details here with tentacles of a third jellyfish overlapping both main ones. The lighting was a bit off in this picture so it seems darker on the left but it's not really that dark. Once I'm done I'll take a nice official picture and add it to the portfolio section.
I have to say, I'm pretty happy with the way this Round 2 is going. I've learned from some mistakes I made and improved my technique. Sometimes it's just worth it to scrap the original and start over.
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So I'm trying something a bit scary to me. Not sure if any of you have ever had the feeling when you're creating something or working on a project that you just want to trash the whole thing and start over. I assure you that feeling comes to me quite often when I'm painting. I start out full of hope, thinking this will go the way I want it to, but I inevitably reach the point of "I hate this, I want to start over!" Normally I just push through, telling myself "It's acrylic, I can paint over any mistakes. I haven't added the details yet. Just keep working." Normally this works, and I'm glad that I didn't try to start over. Acrylic is a forgiving medium and you can paint over very well with it. However in the case of my jelly fish, I painted a glaze of turquoise over it, thinking that would push it back and make it look more integrated in the ocean. However, it just made a mess of things. I worked at it a lot, trying to make it better, but reached that fateful point.
This time I decided to go for it. I sanded down the painting *cringe*, applied 3 more layers of gesso, and started again! More to come as it goes.
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ALLEZ DANS LES COULISSES
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