A frustrating day. My Mars Black dries too fast, often in the course of one day. It's the fastest drying colour I have and it's making blending impossible. The slightest bit of light paint over a dry dark area stays there like an unsightly smudge for all time. I've sent for some clove oil to slow it down. The smoothness of the surface is a problem too. When it's very smooth it can be hard to put down enough paint to adequately blend, and when I do it smears and slides a little too much. That is all down to the sanding I had to do to remove the old surface and prepare this new one. That smoothness also eliminated some of the underdrawing lines which also negatively affected the picture. I really need a consistent surface and have some ideas on how to get one. I could also do with doing a contour study before painting too. I did one for The Migraine Tree years ago and it worked but it is an extra echelon of preparation.
So far this picture has about half a million things I want to correct or repaint and I really wish I had a proper amount of time to spend on it, but the competition deadline is only about eight weeks away now, so I must rush and cut corners. The quality is inevitably suffering. The lessons will have to be learned for the next great painting; probably The Apocalypse of Finance, which is what I would have been painting now if this competition and the silk competition hadn't turned up. I really wish that these competitions were announced 6 months in advance! It's 6 weeks into my painting season and I've hardly painted anything I was planning to.
