Friday, March 13, 2009

Redoing a Bad Painting


For a while now, every time I walked past this painting that is so beautifully matted and framed and painted on gold gessoed paper - so much time and effort into it! - I saw the hands. They are badly drawn and badly painted. They bothered me. They called out to me to do them again - fix them. So that's what I have planned. Now, can I do a better pair of hands now? We'll see...
In preparation, I put a thin layer of gold gesso on Arches 140# coldpress watercolor paper and let it dry. You can buy gold gesso (and other colors, too) at http://www.danielsmith.com/ and a small container lasts a long long time - unless you intend to do a hundred gold gessoed papers at a time.




Next, I need to get a larger version of the photo I used for this geisha and focus on the hands. I may just do the hands holding the umbrella for this one, and then redo the hands on the geisha painting after I work on this.

If you've worked on any gessoed surface, you know you can lift easily from it back to the original color - in this case, gold. We'll see how it goes.

I'm also starting another painting on the second piece of "bubble paper" from Sandy's class. The painting will be done horizontally, not vertically this time...


Catch ya later!
Oh, and I hope you are having an accident-free Friday the 13th.

6 comments:

Peggi Habets Studio said...

Ohh, can't wait to see this one when it's finished. I've never heard of gold gesso. Thanks for the info.

Ann Buckner said...

Good luck with the fix Rhonda. I really like this geisha painting.

Vicki Greene said...

I will be watching this one. I have some red gesso, just need to be brave and give it a try. I like your bubbles and wondering what you are seeing there.

RH Carpenter said...

Peggi, it's just like the white acrylic gesso, only a lovely warm gold color - just think of all the things you could do with it!
Thanks, Ann :)
Red gesso, Vicki! WOW, now that would be striking.
A good thing to paint on the gold gesso are holiday/Christmas ornaments - they look great on it. Or geishas :)

Anita Davies said...

Gold gesso...Oh how wonderful!!!
I have burnt umber and black but I have never seen gold. Looking fwd to seeing your painting progress.

RH Carpenter said...

It's really lovely, Anita. Next time you purchase some, think gold!