Sky - Second Try

After last evening's post, I took a single-edged razor to my sky and scraped it nearly clean to the gesso. Left was a very thin coat that resisted sanding. In fact, sanding created a whole new mess! Now there were tiny bits of egg tempera stuck all over the surface. A wipe down with denatured alcohol left an incredibly smooth surface. I couldn't have been more pleased.

Next was to reapply the base coats. I built my mixes and took great care and time in applying layer after layer to build up a nice opaque base. I once encountered a bit of pick up and from then on checked for dryness by playing light off the surface. I found that I could mix my base mixes to pull out in between colors, a trick I will expand on with my next sky. I think I might have to use only two mixes, one very blue and one very white. Start from each end and then work towards the middle while crossing mixes. Blue can only get so light with white mixed in and white needs to be kept in reserve to build darker whites ever so carefully.

Another little trick I picked up was in regards to brush control. My previous sky was plagued with little ridges and valleys from the brush bristles. Dragging the brush ever so slowly prevented those drag lines. Amazing!

Ah, my disappointment, very nearly disgust, with my first sky has led to a feeling of some accomplishment. The next step is to begin developing transitions using transparent mixes, just a a bit at a time.