Naked Art Work progress of artist Kevin Clark

This morning, before I did too much detail work, I tried to clean up the paint bleed from yesterday’s frustrating airbrush work on the stockings. Go figure, the background paint was coming up more than the bleed paint, so a fix was not looking good. Trying to paint over it to cover would be difficult since the bleed color is darker than the background (even more so with some of it lifted now).
I took a step back and looked at the whole piece at this point. I wasn’t happy with the lack of contrast between the background and the skin now. Also, the white areas didn’t stand out much (especially the white feather duster). Outlining would help, but still wouldn’t give it much punch. So, I went back to the computer, opened the reference image in photoshop, and began reworking the background color to see what might work better. By deepening and darkening the same colors (magenta and vermilion) I was able to give it a much better contrast and visual interest.
Now, the fearful attempt on the actual painting. I needed to cover the image with masking, so there’s any number of potential problems that can happen. First, would it even stick to the oil pastels, especially once the airbrush is blowing across it? And if it did hold, would it pull up anything once I remove it? I couldn’t stand to keep the painting as it was, so either I chance it, or toss it. So, I go for it, carefully applying and cutting the masking over the entire piece. It seems to stick, so I mix the acrylic paint for the airbrush and begin. With a sigh of relief, it holds without a single edge flipping loose. I covered the majority of the background with a mix of magenta and black (reddish purple is how it ends up), and then mix vermilion with crimson and black for the bottom (the crimson keeps the mix from becoming a mud color). I round the edge of the piece with a light spray of black, as well as hitting the shadow beneath her feet. I finish it off as before, with a mix of pearl and red ’sparkles’ (showing much more against a darker color).
I peeled the masking off as soon as I could, and another sigh of relief to see nothing was damaged by it. It’s still drying a bit, so no picture tonight, but tomorrow first thing I’ll get that up, and hopefully finish it all by evening.