Trouble at t' mill...

This blog of mine as sort of become a post facto diary of sorts for my journey in art, so here's the latest debarcle...

I've started experimenting with liquid acrylic paints, specifically Golden, and the results are quite good.  I used a similar method that I use for the watercolour base (light to dark), just with more layers...

I'm really pleased with my version of "Leia" (Carrie Fisher), and it gave me the confidence to go further, so I tried "Castle" (Nathan Fillion again).  Nathan is a really hard subject, but I thought my sketch was pretty good, so on with the painting, and...  oh dear....

Unlike "Leia", I tried to do clouds as I would have done with oil paints, but by using an acrylic blending medium - the results were horrible.  Not only were the clouds "patchy", but the illustration board reacted badly in one place, the surface "bobbling" until it went a very strange shade (almost like I'd damaged the surface).  I'll tried to tone the background down a lot to get over that problem, but that wasn't the end of it.

The mask I used to cover the subject failed in places, leaving bright green smuges on the paper.  The answer (I thought) was titanium white, but of course, the different absorbtion rates between the paper and the white paint left me with horrible blotches.  I tried guoache, but that just mixed with the acrylic paint!  It took a lot of work, but I finally covered the mistakes.  Then the painters tape ripped the board - bacause it wasn't gessoed...
Next step was colour pencil - and that really didn't work.  The blending just went straight to hell, although at least the pencil "took".  As I look at it now, it's not terrible, but it's nowhere near "OK"...

So, for future projects....

• Gesso the surface to make it "even" when the paint is applied and prevent "Bobbling"
• Go from light to dark, and assume you CANNOT lighten it.
• Don't mix guoache with acrylic!

So, I may try "Castle" again using the lesson's I've learned - watch this space!