Get into trouble then dig myself out

Things don't always work out smoothly.

It's happened often enough that I'm not sure what's supposed to happen next in a painting, so I deliberately do something with calculated recklessness and then have to repair the mess. Most times when I do this something of value emerges at the end of it that I would not have found otherwise. It's part of the creative process, I've found out. Take risks.

But in this case it wasn't like that. I thought I knew what I was doing when I added a whole lot of burnt sienna to the bottom. At first it felt good. So I went out on errands and came back with fresh eyes. And it didn't look good no more.

One of the advantages of working in the digital age is the ability to easily keep a photographic record of work. Comparing what I had on canvas to the way it was before I preferred before. Seems I'd bollocksed it up a bit.

Fortunately oils are slow drying so there's always a chance to remove unwanted paint. It's very seldom a true undo as the layers beneath are often scraped away in the process, but this adds an element that takes things elsewhere. Sometimes I've scrubbed off paint that wasn't working only to find the core of what was eluding me in the residue left on the canvas.

So I got out the undo kit and began the rebuild. Along the way the animals got resketched over the background noise, and now some interesting stuff was starting to happen. The fresh brushtrokes I'd had to sacrifice at the start could now stay there. And once again the unexpected was happening. The left of the two lower figures repeats the unintentional Egyptian overtones with it's vaguely wolf-like head, while it's reddish companion is no longer horse-like but now generic beast. The ones behind are getting a look I like, a sense of movement in the marks with no attempt at realism.

The texture that emerged after the scrub was a bit harsh so I brushed a thin layer of white across it. It's likely to be mostly dry tomorrow and I can work some colour back into it. Who can say what surprises may await me there?

Overall though I'm happy with the look. There was an absence of depth before the burnt sienna was added, and with what remains of it now and the freshly sketched animals it's beginning to feel better balanced.

But now the blank space behind the head is beginning to niggle...