A busy day, as well as an angrily miserable one due to the dark weather, persistent rain and dark outlook. I was told yesterday that I was doing fine, as I had a legacy. For whom, exactly? I seem to be terminally obscure. From games, books, paintings, music; nothing is remotely popular or remotely valued. Well, all I can do is keep creating and trying to improve in my creations.
Started today by printing some photos from 2024 events. Then some work on a painting restoration job. I need to patch a torn canvas and repaint to cover the damage. It's a cheap cotton canvas, barely stretched and the wedges were not correctly used. I thought that a very thin cotton patch would be best, almost like silk. I found a white cotton handkerchief for this. I considered two main options for glue, either Paraloid B72 resin; an acrylic resin which is solvent based and archival, or PVA. Acrylic medium is possible, and stable, but it becomes waterproof and hard to remove. PVA remains soluble, and forms a hygroscopic relationship with the canvas. PVA can become mouldy.
I has a spare small canvas of the same material, so performed a test.
The B72 was my primary choice. It was difficult to apply as expected, with a mix of resin and acetone. The resin seeped through the canvas and left a thick hard gloss finish where visible. The patch was somewhat stiff when dry. The PVA discoloured the area with its water, but I expected that this effect would be minimal on a painted surface, and the result was a lot less messy. I chose PVA, using a 1:1 PVA:water mix, less water than in my test, then added a layer of Golden GAC400, an acrylic stiffening agent.
The result was good, though the tear in the painting remained concave, mirroring its shape from the front, as though the canvas was stretched and dented by an impact. This may be difficult to fix; removing any dent in semi-rigid fabric like this may be impossible, it's a bit like removing a dent in a sheet of tin foil. However, I plan on adding a thicker and stiffer patch over this, made from the test canvas.
After that work, I got to work on The Modern Game artwork. I like the Marius cover, so the main job is changing the name. As with Marius, I drew the name by hand. Here it is so far:
Then, work on the vocals for 'The Trees' and 'The Games Played As Children'. They are adequate, certainly better than the old ones, but I didn't feel in the mood and felt tired and restricted. I may re-record everything.
Throughout the day I've also worked on a new music pack for Flatspace, one for Another Violet Night.
It's now one day until the deadline for the Christmas Tails tracks. All of the tracks bar one were sent in weeks ago, and I'm still waiting for one. I have zero tolerance for people who miss deadlines. Deadlines are an excellent test of honesty and reliability. Not one minute's grace will be offered.
