Always Test Your Materials First

Today, I learned the hard way that you should always always always test things out before you execute them on a large scale, even if they seem harmless. I have done things that have backfired on me before, but most of those were by nature experimental and I hadn't really expected them to work or invested a lot of time in them. Today was different. Fortunately it wasn't a total loss and I didn't waste that much time since I was working small.

At any rate, I was working on one of my small 4" x 6" paintings en plein air in St. Charles. I decided to use a black pen to outline everything for a change from the gold and silver I have been using. Unfortunately, I didn't think to test it before varnishing it this evening and the varnish smeared the pen all over the place (this hasn't happened with the gold or silver, so the black ink must be completely different despite the fact that all three pens were packaged together in the same set).

I was able to salvage the piece and rather like the end effect, since it now looks more like a worn, old photograph. But unfortunately I wasted over an hour tediously drawing out the linework and patterns before varnishing the piece, and all of that effort was lost since I could have just randomly scribbled some black on the painting and then smeared it around. Nonetheless I was very lucky that I was working small and didn't waste even more time. So it just goes to show that you should always test these sorts of things first before you destroy something that you have spent a lot of time and effort on.