Slow but steady
It doesn’t look like I did much - I actually worked very hard today! I worked on this little piece as long as I could until it needed to dry overnight. Builidng form on the white tank, I realized I was working too long and awkwardly at preserving the non-white shapes. Masking seemed like the right thing to do. Masking fluid is still on the protected shapes tonight - I’ll remove it tomorrow after I build a little more form.
Masking fluid is tricky for me. I feel like I lose the spontaneity and unity of the piece if I’m not careful. It seems like a good idea until I remove it — and the protected shapes have very hard edges and are underdeveloped compared to the rest of the piece. I usually prefer to cut around my edges and let the whole piece develop more naturally.
This subject is a little different. Because casein dries to the touch so quickly, it is difficult to get gradual transitions in color. I would like for this white tank to be blended nicely before I develop the shapes in the foreground along with their shadows but it is difficult to work quickly enough since there are other shapes to cut around.
I’ll keep at it tomorrow. At this point, who knows? This is such a simple composition that it could fall flat very easily. I love simple, slightly abstracted subjects like this —- I’m not giving up!
