Wednesday 21 July 2010

Steel Worker - Mark 2

Though being very pleased with the painting of the Steel Worker, my eye was continually being drawn to those horrible stark white lines in the bottom right hand corner. They were caused by my extremely poor application of candle wax, which I thought would be a good way to generate some highlights for the wet factory floor. I didn't think it through properly and hadn't appreciated just how bold white highlights would look against such a dark background.

Anyway, though trying to resist the temptation to 'fiddle', and despite my wife's protestations that I would ruin the picture, I eventually gave in and tackled the problem. It took several layers of muddy watercolour applied thickly and dried with a hairdrier between coats to finally cover the wax. Then I added a little texture by use of some greys and oranges mixed with a little white gouache. Though I'm not at all pleased with that corner of the painting, it is an improvement on what was there before.

3 comments:

  1. Looking at the painting again, I can see what you mean. The focus is all on the bright area of light now.

    It takes a lot of courage to alter such a good painting and make something even better.

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  2. Thanks Keith. I have to confess to having my heart in my mouth and at one stage was very worried that I'd ruined it completely. LOL

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  3. You know what I think, but I will say it again. This is a wonderful painting! Full of colour and depth, yet intensely light. I love it!

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