Bad Sharpie!

Mint Street WIP

(acrylic on board)

I spent yesterday afternoon in the Shipley Art Gallery, sitting at a table in front of the big Tintoretto, smiling benignly at the people who'd come in to look at Gateshead Art Society's Xmas Exhibition. As part of my duties, I'd been asked to do a bit of painting, just to demonstrate what it is we do at our meetings (as if the paintings on display weren't enough), and so I did.

I'd hurriedly thrown some paints, brushes and a prepared board into a bag, together with a printout of a potential subject, but what I neglected to add was a pencil. So when it came to squaring up the board I had to fall back on the only alternative - the black Sharpie in my coat pocket. And what a disaster that turned out to be.

I'm sure you can see from the photograph above that the construction lines are still plainly visible and that's after several layers of paint. Acrylic is so transparent! Even the layer of white acrylic gesso I added when I got home failed to cover the lines.

I have one other solution in mind, but if that doesn't work, I'll simply have to scrap several hours work and paint over the board and begin again.