copyright ⓒ2009 Alexis Pierre-Louis, all rights reserved
A few days ago I was painting shadows under Rosario’s chin and two long drips of ink spilled from her chin off the edge of the painting. I immediately wiped the drips but they left stains, and I was sure the painting was ruined. I thought about my options. I could trash the painting; not a desired option since I was really happy with the blue background and everything else I’d worked on. Another option was to let the acrylic dry and serve as an underpainting. I could use oil paint to paint over the acrylic and work in a medium that I’m more familiar with. I thought I was out of options but as I stood in front of the painting, my determination rose, and I decided to mix up some more flesh colored paint and paint over the black drips.
The challenge would be whether I could mix up enough paint–not too much that it would be wasted and not so little that I’d have to mix more paint and risk getting the color wrong on the second batch. I mixed enough paint to redo her entire face, neck, and shoulders but the color was much lighter than I wanted. But at least I’m on the right track. I’ll let this layer of paint dry then make adjustments to her skin tone.
