Taking a chance
It’s hard to tell what this subject is at this point, and it really doesn’t matter. It’s actually part of a railroad car but I really don’t know what it is. Anyway, I started this piece and I like it right where it is. The sky, the structure, and the finish feels good to me. I’m pleased.
But I really want some texture so I take a deep breath and proceed to mess it up. I KNOW I’m going to mess it up before I make it better again. It took a lot of self discipline and a whole Diet Mountain Dew to convince myself to do it….but I did and it looked like this.
Yeah, my stomach was hurting at this point. It’s hard to know what’s going to happen before I start scraping away the excess wax. I’ve prepared the area where I want the texture to be as well as I can foresee - and painted with warm colors of wax what I THINK will be the effect I want. But as you can see, it isn’t something I have total control over, which is the beauty of this medium - or any medium, I should say. I scraped and smeared with my fingers….and walked away a few times in an effort to keep an objective eye. 
A few hours later, I had this. At this point I have texture and I’ve started building some shadow on the cylinder. And I have a horizontal bar laid in that I’ll expand on tomorrow. I still love how this piece looked in the first shot but I’m trusting that it will get to an equally good place down the line. I remember hearing in a lecture years ago that an artist often has to cover up a beautiful color or line in the progress through a painting - and that if you know it is there, underneath, that is satisfying too. I’ve always kept that in mind. If each step along the way has something of value then the end result would seem to be built on a solid foundation. Makes sense to me.
I plan to work on this piece tomorrow. I’m really hoping for a few peaceful hours in the studio.
