Friday, November 16, 2007

Disaster!

You won't believe me when I tell you what I did... its something that was so stupid, that it can't be true.

Well, the pretty portrait of my daughter Lizzy... is no more. I sprayed it with two coats of my usual Lascaux fixative and then used my new Lascaux brush on varnish on it... and it picked up the colored pencil and redistributed it with every brushstroke. It made me sick to my stomach to see it wrecked like that.... so I had to redo it. :-(
The one on the left is the wrecked one. It is darker because the pencil from the dark areas are now spread around, plus you can see the brush strokes where the pigments huddled together.

So yes the one on the right is the beginning of the redo. I was heartbroken and hoped I could replicate it. I find redoing a picture I was happy with very very hard to do. Instead of doing things in order I jump to what I know I did before and forget some important steps.

Well here is the finished do-over. Remember when a do-over was a good thing... something you begged to be able to do??? I hope this one doesn't disappoint.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh, Nicole, I wish I could give you a hug. I can only imagine how you felt when you saw the brush picking up the color. But your redo is beautiful and I'm sure Lizzie likes it. It's really hard for me to redo a picture, too. I know what you mean about jumping ahead.

Casey Klahn said...

It looks great. Your lucky daughter will have that image forever.

su said...

It's sooooo hard to do over! I'm so glad you did, tho. This one was worth it. Thanks for being such a pioneer and risking your work for colored pencil's unknown territory!!!
Su

hbedrosian said...

I'm so sorry you had to re-do such a beautiful piece - your second one is just as beautiful, though! I've made a few frustrating mistakes with solvents and varnishes myself, but I haven't had the patience to re-do them. This one was well worth re-doing, and I'm glad you did!

Elizabeth A Patterson said...

It must have been like a nightmare! I got sick to my stomach just reading about it. But your redo is beautiful! I actually like it a bit better than the first... something about the eyes.

So, since you inspire me so often, maybe I should redo my recent, similar act of destruction. I made a black chalkboard with masonite and chalkboard paint, then I drew a border with pastels of tomatoes, garlic, onion, parsley and basil. It was like a restaurant menu board, and I was going to give it to my brother for his birthday. Then I masked off the part to be written on with chalk, sprayed it with fixative... and it pretty much disappeared. Aaargghh!

Anonymous said...

AARGH! I couldn't believe it when I saw the post. I, too felt sick for you. However, the re-do is beautiful. Thank you for the warning, too. You are as generous as you are talented ;^)

Unknown said...

Thanks everyone! I'm just glad its over. ALthough I can't shake the feeling that it lost some magic in the redo. :(

Oh no Liz! That is so frustrating!