I finished the sketch for this drawing in only a few days, but life happened when it came time to apply color. I don’t want to go into details, but let’s just say I’m currently enduring a streak of really bad luck that even touched this drawing.
When I was completely finished with the inking and painting and I was admiring the work, I realized that the ropes of the swing chair were blending too much into the background. I thought maybe it would be better if the ropes were red. But I’m still not confident with my line work so I decided to try the acrylic pens. I won’t name the brand but if you read some of my previous posts you will know which ones.
I lined the ruler up with the first rope and made the stroke down and immediately started screaming as the red paint bled underneath it. This was definitely my fault. I completely accept the blame, but in that moment I decided never again to use acrylic markers with my work because no matter what I do I always seem to screw up my drawings. It’s a skill issue, I know, but I am seeing improvements with my paintbrush skills, which is encouraging. I rather focus on that than constantly worrying about screwing things up with acrylic pens.
So I threw them away. All of them. Even the black pens. I just don’t want the temptation of trying them again and things going wrong. Thankfully the mighty paintbrush came to my rescue and I was able to cover up to 90% of the damage, but it was disappointing to have a finished drawing nearly ruined in an instant because of a last minute change.
But anyway it’s over. Another drawing is finished and I’ve already started on a new one with fresh hopes of success. On a related note, I’ve decided to reduce the number of mini drawings I planned to do from 100 to 50. Because I’m moving at such a slow place, I realized it may take me years to finish them.